Posted on 08/19/2006 7:37:01 AM PDT by WVNan
FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL
Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and
The Liberty Alliance http://www.moralmajority.com
From: Jerry Falwell
Date: August 18, 2006
UCLA, Cornell and Liberty
In 1971, I started Liberty University (then Lynchburg Baptist College) because of a dream I believe God planted in my heart. In our first year, we had 154 students and four faculty members, including me. Many people said my dream was an impossible one. But I continued to believe that God had directed me to initiate an institution of higher learning where academic excellence, athletic competition at the highest level and Judeo-Christian values could co-exist.
And today, it does indeed exist.
As I write, we are preparing to open classes for just our thirty-sixth year on our campus, known as Liberty Mountain. More than $5 billion has been raised privately and invested in the creation and operation of Liberty. We now have a 5,000-acre campus with state-of-the-art facilities. This year, we will welcome about 10,000 resident students to campus, while another 15,000 students worldwide are studying through our external programs. We have recruited a faculty of 650 brilliant Christian men and women who see their profession as a calling, not just a job. And, in our first 35 years, we have produced more than 122,000 alumni who are today impacting their communities worldwide.
I don’t report this in order to boast. In fact, I continue to be in awe that God chose me to manage such a high calling.
But, if my readers will excuse me, I do wish to brag just a bit more about Liberty because of some very significant news.
On news stands this week, U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” highlights three universities: UCLA, Cornell and Liberty. It is truly an honor for Liberty to be featured in this manner, especially when one considers that Cornell (which started in 1865) and UCLA (which started in 1919) have been around for so long.
The USN&WR article, titled “They Pray as they Go,” is very complimentary. It underscores Liberty’s rules (no co-ed dorms, no drinking or smoking, etc.) and features interviews with some of our students and faculty, including Dr. Ergun Caner who calls an education at Liberty “Green Beret training for Christians.”
The article also focuses on things that make Liberty unique: dorm prayer groups, a Christian environment (even in the classroom) and our university debate team (which is number-one in the nation in all three national debate tournament polls, which no other school has ever achieved).
Some may be amazed that, in just thirty-five years, Liberty has risen to such a prominent position in the world of higher education. But I’m not surprised. Yes, we’ve had our fair share of challenges and dilemmas, primarily financial ones. But God, in His sovereignty, has placed people in our midst who have endowed Liberty.
People like Art and Angela Williams, Drs. Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Hobby Lobby CEO David Green and others have played significant roles in helping to build this university and secure its future.
Another great feature of Liberty is its diversity. With no quotas or affirmative action in place, we will welcome this fall students reflecting many cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities. In fact, our student body includes young people from 83 nations. Our students are connected by one common goal: to impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a result, Liberty continues to rapidly grow. This summer, we built five new apartment-style dorms which house 420 students. We will quickly begin more new dorms this fall and are mapping out designs to open more classroom space.
As you can see, like a proud papa, I like to crow about Liberty. In fact, those interested in learning more about Liberty can visit the school’s website (www.liberty.edu) or give us a call (800-424-9596). For Christian young people in America, Liberty is a great place to learn, grow and discover a vision for your future.
Readers who would like to see the article in full should purchase the 2007 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,” now on news stands.
ping
I think I messed up on the title of thread. It should state that LU was highlighted among three top universities by USNWR. I knew I would mess up something.
I like the "Green Beret training for Christians." Mark my word, the libs will compare it to the Madrassas of the Taliban.
See #3. I've asked the Ad Min to change it. Repentance and flogging are in order of course.
I grew up in Lynchburg, and LU really is an impressive success story. I haven't always agreed with Rev. Falwell about things, and he's not always the most popular man in town, but he's shown excellent stewardship in taking LU from nothing to what it is today in just 35 years. The facilities are first-rate and the school attracts a lot of talent, both religious and secular. And, it's been a hub for a huge amount of development in that end of Lynchburg.
}:-)4
3rd best ? That'll be the day...
The UCLA coeds are tough to beat. A drive through the campus is most scenic.
This is good news.In the top three.I'm not religous,but i think the country desperately needs more schools where kids(and adults)can get a college education w/out the pc'ness(leftist indoctrination)of the looney left.
Wonderful! I've spent a total of a couple of weeks there for various conferences, and it can get pretty hot and buggy during the summer. The dorms, while adequate, weren't anything to write home about. Which tells me that the quality of the education is what makes this university notable (and not the dorms and weather).
Many established colleges have closed during that time. Lots are on the verge of collapse at the moment. To start from nothing and have 10,000 students is quite a success.
Falwell has never been a favorite of mine, but I am glad to see conservative schools succeed.
Many established colleges have closed during that time. Lots are on the verge of collapse at the moment. To start from nothing and have 10,000 students is quite a success.
Falwell has never been a favorite of mine, but I am glad to see conservative schools succeed.
He corrected it below. Didn't Paul say something about being slow to judge?
And my apologies, as well. Plank in the eye, and all that.
Great job done by the Rev Falwell. He has been vilified from the start by the do-nothing media liberals. I would mention that Harvard, the nations oldest institution of higher learning established in 1635, was also started by a Christian minister. So what is new?
Third best at what? Besides, ucla sucks.
I don't think it's religion so much as a matter of spirituality.
I have a set of McGuffy's Eclectic Readers first published in 1879.
Most of the lessons pertain to values like perseverance and charity.
In the Fourth Reader (page 126), there is a chapter called The Creator.
It ends:
This great Being is God. He made all things, but He is more excellent than all that He has made. He is the Creator, they are his creatures. They may be beautiful, but He is Beauty. They may be strong, but He is Strength. They may be perfect, but He is Perfection.
This tenant wasn't only taught to children because it was Christian, or because it was the 'right' thing to do, but because it is LAW. 'That which you create, you have the right to control' is an old legal adage. The People are inherently superior to the government because WE created IT. We were supposed to control ourselves because restraint is a virtue. It's also why 'People' is capitalized in the preamble to the Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence.
We hold these rules to be self-evident. Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights
Sound familiar?
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As long as government can get away with morphing 'establishment of religion' into 'separation of church and State' and refuses to acknowledge God and our Christian heritage, the only power it DOES have to acknowledge is whatever it decides it wants.
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Please don't think any of this means you have to be Christian. It just means the law can punish you for violating Commandments 6 to 10. Like the Founders, I believe a persons religion is a matter of personal choice.
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
George Washington, Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, December 2, 1783
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But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1782
Hi. We lived in Lynchburg in the 80s. I loved it and still have friends there. I agree with you about Falwell. He was our neighbor, but like you, I didn't always agree with his methods. I did enjoy his Christmas spectaculars though. I'm happy about Liberty also. We need more "real" Christian Colleges. I went to Lynchburg College, which is a Christian College, but it was very liberal.
Okay, okay, wet noodles and all that. It's fixed now.
As you have probably seen, I goofed on the title. It's fixed now. The college was highlighted along with the other two.
Thanks for the ping - I'm always surprised I don't see other "Jerry's Kids" posting here...
The dorm comment cracked me up - although it has been nearly 20 years since I was there, they were big enough for four of us - In fact that dorm room was probably bigger than my apt in San Francisco :)
(and hey, if my bday is coming up, that means yours just passed iirc - happy belated bday!)
If you was at LU anytime between 86-89, we were in Lynchburg at the same time. I was at LC in that time frame.
If you was? If you were? I can never get that one right.
I was there in 88 and 89, from Southern California - it took quite a while to be able to understand all the accents there :)
Thx for the B-Day wish, it is coming up next week (8/30).
And Happy Birthday to you also!!!
"The college was "highlighted" along with the other two."Noted,but give em a few more years.I predict more "conservative" schools will be established in the future.I'll bet the demand is there.If i had a kid,i wouldn't pay $20k/yr to send him/her to Cornell,Yale,etc,etc.
I think you would be amazed to see how big LU has become since 1989. And the new dorms they built are great - not like dorms at all but more like small suites with bedrooms. They have relocated LCA (K-12) on campus, Thomas Road Baptist Church (where the old GE building was), have an ice skating rink, law school, a wonderful wellness center and more. They are in negotiations to sell off 100 acres to build an upper end outdoor mall on the Campbell County side of town.
I don't attend Falwell's church (I am Presbyterian, Rivermont) but can't deny that he has contributed quite a bit to the growth of Lynchburg. And the school really has come quite a long way since its inception. It's nice to have a place you can send your kids to where the atmosphere strives to be different than the average university (it's not perfect, but it is different).
We have lived in Lynchburg since 88 and love it here. It is a nice place to raise a family. BTW I lived for a time in Shepherdstown, WV which is a beautiful town. My husband was from Martinsburg.
Do you still live in Lynchburg? I lived there 1968-1970. In fact, only a couple of blocks from Liberty Baptist Church. I'm shocked to learn how much that institution has grown. Interestingly, when I left Lynchburg I moved to Tulsa, Oklahome, home to Oral Roberts University, which was then growing with breath taking speed.
What a great post, and reminder of how things were when I was a boy. Thanks.
You are very welcome, Sir.
I live in Richmond now, my mother still lives in Richland Hills, out Timberlake Road. If you haven't been back recently you won't recognize the town. The place has really really grown.
}:-)4
I wish that there were many places where young people could get a solid education without the influence of the looney left. I think those places should be available even to people who don't want all of the rules that come from the Christian association of colleges such as this one. I think it's great that LU is available to those who want that experience, but I think there should be other ways to get a non-leftist education.
Bill
When I was young I thought Jerry Falwell was an extremist nut case. I now believe he was prophetic, and was on the right track. God bless him for his efforts. (And I am a Catholic.)
Maybe there already are such schools. Have you looked into this?
What does your mom think of the Pedcor Housing Development proposed for the land between Schewels and Richland Hills?
I'll have to ask her. I didn't know there was a housing development going right there. That's not good for her neighborhood if so; she lives only a block and a half or so off Timberlake and a development will make the insane traffic on Timberlake even worse.
Actually I grew up in Amherst. When I moved back to Lynchburg in '90 after a stint outside DC I lived in Walden Pond apartments off Lakeside (and worked at a computer reseller along US 221 near Graves Mill Road), then moved down here to Richmond, South Carolina, and back to Richmond. I'm still amazed at all the growth along the Wards Road/Candler's Mountain Road corridor and around the LU area--and even more amazed that after talking about it for twenty-five years, they've FINALLY bypassed Madison Heights on US 29 North!
But with all due respect to Rev. Falwell and what he's done, it's not "Liberty Mountain." It's Candler's Mountain, and always will be. :)
You were there in 88-89. I graduated from LC in 89 and my son graduated from Heritage HS the same year. Our graduations were a week apart. That fall I entered Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. In 1990 I was tired of commuting and hubby and son moved to campus where we lived in the student apts. After I received my M.Div in 93, we moved to W.Va.
Yes, it seems that the success of conservative colleges may encourage more colleges to change the status quo.
Congratulations to your daughter for choosing Liberty U. Yes,I know how much LC has grown since we left. I get all the mailings from them. I've been back to Lynchburg a couple of times and I know that it is growing. We lived on Leavelwoods Drive. I did not know about the skating rink, law school and wellness center at TRBC. And I remember Rivermont Presb. Ch. My membership and Oversight Committee was at Laurel Grove Presb. near Bedford.
I really loved living in Lynchburg. It was a nice town to raise children in. My son Played the Quads in the Big Orange Heritage HS Band. I guess Lynchburg was the closest thing he ever had to a "hometown". He still has friends there, as do I.
Congratulations on choosing LU for your daughter. I pray that she will benefit from her experience there. You, her parents, will be able to breathe a bit easier knowing that she is being watched over more closely and is receiving the "Green Beret training for Christians."
My older son lived in Forest for several years before moving to Boone, N.C. My friends, Darrell Larant and his wife Gail live in Forest. You may recognize him as a columnist for the local newspaper.
I remember Walden Pond Apts. off Lakeside. I'm forgetting a lot of the names and you guys are jarring some memories. My daughter was the manager of the restaurant on the corner near the women's college and I'm trying to recall the name of both the reataurant and the college. Old age ain't fun.
About two years ago, an Associate Pastor from my church return to Liberty (his alam mater) to become Director of Leadership and Educational Ministries. Then a few months ago my Senior Pastor returned (also his alma mater) to become a professor. Also, current dean of students, Ergun Caner (author of Islam Unveiled) is also from the same town near Columbus. God Bless them all.
Try $35-40 thousand a year or even more. It's gotten pretty ridiculous.
There's a book out now that lists the 10 colleges that are the most conservative. I think Baylor was one of them. There's still hope.
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