Liberty University Shuts Down Campus Democratic Party Club

Washington Post ^ | May 22 | Anita Kumar

[Hawk720]

Liberty University will no longer recognize its campus Democratic Party club because its parent organization stands against the conservative Christian school's moral principles.

The club, which has about 30 members, will no longer be able to use Liberty's name, hold on-campus meetings or be eligible for student activities money.

"I think it does the university a great disservice to stifle one side of the discussion simply because we are Democrats,'' said Maria Childress, the club's adviser and an administrative assistant at the school.

Brian Diaz, president of Liberty's Democratic club said he was informed of the school's decision in a May 15 e-mail.

"The candidates supported are directly contrary to the mission of Liberty University," the e-mail said.

Liberty has had a College Republicans club for several years. The Democratic club formed in October and worked aggressively to elect President Obama.

"They . . . let the Liberty University College Republicans stay on campus but they don't let us,'' said Diaz, 18, who will be a sophomore next year. "Sounds like censorship to me."

[awake-n-angry]

“(i.e. Berkley)”
__________________

I missed it. When were the COlege Republicans dissolved at Berkley or was it another campus group?

[PJBankard]

I was too, when I got to the article there were already 15 postings. I thought that it would of have been mentioned almost instantly. Considering that the issues between the two events are related.

[marron]

Odd. I click on the link, and those words are not in the article. I wonder if the article has been edited in the last few minutes.

[Beeman]

What is wrong? Liberty is a private school. Nothing requires a private school to have the democratic party on its campus. It’s called freedom of choice.

[MBB1984]

Liberty is a religious organization first and foremost before being a college of conservative principles. It is a college for indoctrination of the faith.

I can understand a religious school not tolerating a club whose philosophy is completely incompatible with its religious philosophy and affiliation. If it were merely a private college with conservative principles and beliefs, I would agree that the school should promote academic freedom.

[Beeman]

They probably thought no one would join; or, they wanted to find out who would join so that they could know who the infiltrators were. Once they found them out, they are removing them. I think it was a slick move. Furthermore, for any who are interested, I graduated from Liberty and loved it.

[Hawk720]

Seriously, though, if a PRIVATE Muslim school wanted to ban Jews or Republicans, that would be their right under freedom of association.
____________________________________________________

True, as long as that Muslim school wasn’t taking public funds.

Liberty gets plenty of funds from the feds and from the state. That puts limits on them, whether they like it or not. Those limits are likely not going to extend to which clubs they endorse or allow, but it’s not as if a private, Christian college has the right to do whatever they please, simply because they are private and Christian.

If they want to go the Grove City or Hillsdale route and turn down public funds, then they can do what they want.

[Beeman]

Wrong. Your logic means that a church would have to invite opposing views as well. The private school can invite who it wants to its campus. THE END.

[DoughtyOne]

I wouldn’t be surprised. I will have to admit to thinking they’ve done a good thing here. They have a moral code and they are remaining true to it. Right or wrong, they are doing what they morally think to be right. While that can get in trouble at times if you are wrong, I don’t see that to be the case here at all.

Good for them.

I did not always agree with Falwell, but I did think the guy was trying to do what he thought to be right. I respected that. I still do.

We need more level headed people who will stand up for what they think to be right, not fewer.

Isn’t that the most important thing you would want your kid to learn at the university level?

If the Democrat kids are morally compelled to leave the university, then they too will have learned a very important lesson. Reassess your core values, and remain true to them.

[awake-n-angry]

“Plus - what is there to fear? Debate? The knowledge that opposition exists?”
______________

Brilliantly stated. This is a big mistake and a lot more of what we would expect from the other side.

[MrB]

There’s another “young” university out there that I’ll promote that doesn’t take any “public” funds, and it was established for homeschoolers -
Patrick Henry University

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

This is wrong, but it’s a private university so they can probably get away with this. Still, it is not conducive to free speech I would think.

They probably can get away with it, but they’d be better off doing what BYU-Idaho did recently: ban both Campus Republicans and Campus Democrats to avoid the whole thing.

Terry McAuliffe is already involved, and this will likely blow up into some big thing.

And I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of liberal private colleges banning their Campus Republicans in retaliation.

I put it to you that you are conducting this discussion in a moderated forum in which Democrats' POV is systematically ridiculed, and in which Democrats are prevented from using their normal methods of argumentation.

Frankly, the Democrats' system is that of the Sophists, and that of the "conservatives" is that of the philosophers:

sophist

1542, earlier sophister (c.1380), from L. sophista, sophistes, from Gk. sophistes, from sophizesthai "to become wise or learned," from sophos "wise, clever," of unknown origin. Gk. sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt. Ancient sophists were famous for their clever, specious arguments.

philosopher

O.E. philosophe, from L. philosophus, from Gk. philosophos "philosopher," lit. "lover of wisdom," from philos "loving" + sophos "wise, a sage."

"Pythagoras was the first who called himself philosophos, instead of sophos, 'wise man,' since this latter term was suggestive of immodesty." [Klein]

Modern form with -r appears c.1325, from an Anglo-Fr. or O.Fr. variant of philosophe, with an agent-noun ending. . . .

Democrats systematically prevent rational discussion. They can do this in any context which is not overtly hostile to them, such as FR is. Look what happens when an Ann Coulter tries to speak at a college . . .

The "liberal" colleges can suppress Republican expression on campus as readily as Liberty U. can suppress Democratic clubs on its campus. The only reason they wouldn't do so is that it would make explicit what they would rather do behind the scenes.

That said, the only schools that can really pull off what Liberty U. is assaying to do are schools that ban students from applying for any federal aid. Hillsdale college, and Grove City College are the two that come to mind . . .

[Stark_GOP]

You missed that whole thing with the Marine recruiting station at Berkley being vandalized? A lot of liberal colleges and high schools have banned military recruiters from their campuses.

[marron]

thanks...

[nathanbedford]

We are not talking about a witches' coven here, we are talking about the majority political party in the United States and America's oldest political party. As much as many of its doctrines might be hateful to us, and no doubt to the administration of Liberty college, it is a bit far-fetched to equate the party with malevolent forces or even "sordid nonsense" as it is placed in an academic setting.

Even abortion is not a disqualifier to be a member of the Democrat party. They officially say that you can be opposed to abortion and still be a Democrat. Some Democrats might be so hateful as to warrant a university from disassociating itself with those individuals. But the same thing might be said of some Republicans. It is one thing to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their actions and quite another to label an entire political party taboo. My point is that it is intellectually respectable to be a Democrat but it is not intellectually respectable to practice political correctness, even when directed against Democrats.

For a university to countenance the mere existence of the country's largest political party on its campus is hardly to imply endorsement. Rather, it is a realistic acknowledgment of reality.

If students at the university level cannot survive exposure to the Democrat party it will take more than a diploma to see them safely through life.

I want to be intellectually honest and admit that I might not entertain the same views about a university that declines to accept the Communist Party.

[nathanbedford]

We are not talking about a witches' coven here, we are talking about the majority political party in the United States and America's oldest political party. As much as many of its doctrines might be hateful to us, and no doubt to the administration of Liberty college, it is a bit far-fetched to equate the party with malevolent forces or even "sordid nonsense" as it is placed in an academic setting.

Even abortion is not a disqualifier to be a member of the Democrat party. They officially say that you can be opposed to abortion and still be a Democrat. Some Democrats might be so hateful as to warrant a university from disassociating itself with those individuals. But the same thing might be said of some Republicans. It is one thing to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their actions and quite another to label an entire political party taboo. My point is that it is intellectually respectable to be a Democrat but it is not intellectually respectable to practice political correctness, even when directed against Democrats.

For a university to countenance the mere existence of the country's largest political party on its campus is hardly to imply endorsement. Rather, it is a realistic acknowledgment of reality.

If students at the university level cannot survive exposure to the Democrat party it will take more than a diploma to see them safely through life.

I want to be intellectually honest and admit that I might not entertain the same views about a university that declines to accept the Communist Party.

[longtermmemmory]

So the democrats want this university to sponsor an organization which seeks to close this university?