Bernie Sanders has been scheduled to speak next month at Liberty University. For those not familiar with it, Liberty University was founded in 1971 by the late Jerry Falwell and is a fundamentalist Christian evangelical institution. Take a look at its Mission Statement.
It is a place where creationism and a young Earth is taught in biology classes. They say that they teach both (i.e., the “controversy”) but of course it should not be a surprise as to which theory is declared to be the winner, especially since Answers in Genesis provides some of the readings and the faculty they hire are required to have beliefs compatible with young Earth creationism.
I think it is great the Sanders is speaking there. I myself find it much more fun to speak to audiences that are totally opposed to my way of thinking because I am a firm believer that there will be a few who can be reached and swayed away from doctrinaire thinking.
It will be interesting to see what kind of reception that a democratic socialist like Sanders, with his views on income inequality and climate change, will get from the conservative campus. Given that the university administration has had run-ins in the past with student organizations that identified with the Democratic party, the fact that he is even allowed on campus is encouraging.
(You can go to Sanders’s website to join the campaign and contribute and here to see where he stands on the issues. Despite the media trying to paint him as some kind of extremist candidate, a majority of Americans actually support him on most of the issues he stands for.)
I wonder if attendance is going to be mandatory (or, rather, making students liable for a fine if they skip it), as it was for Ted Cruz’s presidential announcement.
Maybe they’ll have a lot of coached booing.
Bernie continues to impress. I’ll look forward to seeing video of this talk.
Indeed. However, if I may be cynical about this instance, Mr Sanders team is perhaps reckoning on several things (in no particular order):
(1) Talking to a presumably hostile audience (this early in the campaign) puts him in a good light (regardless of the reception (and can you imagine Ms Clinton doing such a thing?));
(2) What you said (omitted from my above quote), that there could be a few in audience who might be “converted”;
(3) The boos (“coached” or not) will further strengthen Mr Sanders standing with those who do, or might, vote for him (i.e., a “your enemy is also my enemy” type thinking); and / or
(4) Speaker’s fees are revenue (follow the money!).
Liberty University has a Biology department? Do they pretend to do research, or are they still attempting to reconstruct Adam’s work: Names Of The Kinds (apparently lost in some kind of flood)?
Anyway, gotta mop up my screen again and see if I can save the keyboard. Some of your posts should come with an explosive spit-take content warning, Mano.
I am sure the audience will find his unquestioned devotion to Israeli and American wars to be a fine point of mutual agreement.