Jerry Falwell Jr, You Should Be Ashamed Of Yourself.

9 min readJul 13, 2017

By Brian Diaz

Founder and Former President of the Liberty University College Democrats

You may or may not know me as the Founder of We The Blue, a online political media content company with brands that cater to all no-matter where you are on the political spectrum… But you may not know that I was the President and Founder of something that the Christian Right hated during the 2008 Presidential Elections, the Liberty University College Democrats.

Liberty University is the worlds largest Christian university founded by Reverend Jerry Falwell, who passed away in 2007. A year later, I was a Freshman attending school there, and leading the College Democrats as Barack Obama, an African American, won the Presidency. Liberty University is known as the highest bastion of the Christian Right. Jerry Falwell Sr. was a very interesting man in his own right, having said things like, “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”, “Textbooks are Soviet propaganda.”, “It is God’s planet — and he’s taking care of it. And I don’t believe that anything we do will raise or lower the temperature one point.”, and those are just some of many more interesting and horrible quotes that he has said in his lifetime.

During his life, Jerry Falwell Sr. has aligned himself with the Republican Party and has made a name for himself within a movement that sparked around the 80’s named the “Christian Right”. The Christian Right are mostly considered one or two different policy issue voters, one being anti-abortion, the other being anti-marriage equality. Most of these voters arent very well articulated when they explain their political opinions or beliefs, unless you are speaking about those two topics. The two policy issues were both issues that were resolved and decided on constitutional grounds through the United States Supreme Court.

During my time at Liberty University, I founded and was President of the Liberty University College Democrats, founded and chaired the Virginia Young Democrats Faith Caucus, and held meetings with topics that could bridge the gap between the Christian Right population at the school and the Democratic Party. I was surprised to see the overwhelming support as we gained citywide, statewide, and national attention while averaging more attendance in our College Democrats meetings than the College Republicans on campus. We held bipartisan meetings about the inhumane child labor situations in Uganda, we campaigned hard to win Virginia for the first black President who was also a Christian, and represented College Democrats of faith across the board when I was nominated and chosen to be the National Chairman of the College Democrats of America, the official college arm of the Democratic National Committee. I thought that I was bringing the school praise because of my teams successes and national praise and focus; but later that year, we recieved an email that would change the way I personally saw Liberty University and Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Let’s take a look at that email together:

From: Hine, Mark (VP Student Affairs)
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 1:37 PM
Subject: LU College Democrats

I must inform you that the College democrats’ club is no longer going to be recognized as a Liberty University club. We are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by Liberty University. I expressed these concerns when we met, earlier in the spring semester.

The Liberty Way states, “It is the duty of every student to respect Liberty’s Statement of Doctrine and Purpose. They may not engage in any activity on or off campus that would compromise the testimony or reputation of the University or cause disruption to Liberty’s Christian learning environment.”

The Liberty University School of Law had been working on a policy to govern their clubs and organizations for quite some time. They have now completed that policy and we have adopted it for Liberty University as well. Now that it has been adopted and will apply to all clubs and organizations, it is clear that this club does not comply.

Below is a copy of the policy which governs clubs and organizations at Liberty University. This policy is posted on the website.

STUDENT CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS POLICIES
Student clubs or organizations must request and receive permission from the Liberty University administration before they may meet on campus, advertise, distribute or post materials, or use any University facilities for their activities or events. All such clubs or organizations and their activities or events must be consistent with the University’s mission, and must be and remain in compliance with the Liberty Way, the Honor Code, and any policies or procedures promulgated by the University. The University reserves the right to refuse the use of its facilities for any reason to any student club, organization, activity or event.
Consistent with the Honor Code, all students, student clubs and organizations, faculty and staff of Liberty University, have a responsibility to uphold the moral and ethical standards of this institution and personally confront those who do not.
No student club or organization shall be approved, recognized or permitted to meet on campus, advertise, distribute or post materials, or use University facilities if the statements, positions, doctrines, policies, constitutions, bylaws, platforms, activities or events of such club or organization, its parent, affiliate, chapter or similarly named group (even if the similarly named group is not the actual parent, affiliate or chapter) are inconsistent or in conflict with the distinctly Christian mission of the University, the Liberty Way, the Honor Code, or the policies and procedures promulgated by the University.

Even though this club may not support the more radical planks of the democratic party, the democratic party is still the parent organization of the club on campus. The Democratic Party Platform is contrary to the mission of LU and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the “LGBT” agenda, Hate Crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc). The candidates this club supports uphold the Platform and implement it. The candidates supported are directly contrary to the mission of LU. By using LU or Liberty University and Democrat in the name, the two are associated and the goals of both run in opposite directions.

We are removing the club from the Liberty website and you will need to cease using Liberty University’s name, including any logo, seal or mark of Liberty University. They are not to be used in any of your publications, electronic or internet, including but not limited to, any website, Facebook, Twitter or any other such publication.

If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mark Hine
VP for Student Affairs
Liberty University

I’ve only met with Mark Hine a couple of times before he sent me this email, and I’m sure he only sent me this email because of the complaints that the administration had of our club and the complaints of the people donating to the school and the parents of the students. I remeber there being problems with the getting the constitution of our club approved, because of the word “Democrats” being associated with the club. I remember Mark telling me and my executive team there, that we had to make sure to add a clause in that constitution that stated that we were pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. I remember after coming back from the Virginia Young Democrats state convention and creating the VAYD Faith Caucus, that we were sharing images on our former Facebook group and former website that had images of other religions with the words “Coexist” on them, and Mark specifically stating that “we cannot support other religions and coexisting is insinuating that we must accept and not condemn other religions”.

What Mark didn’t understand, is by denying us, a student run political college democratic club, the option to share our opinions, ideas, and thoughts, he was directly obstructing our right to live a life of “Liberty”. We could live under all the so called Liberty that we wanted, as long as it followed their so-called Liberty Way, and as a Christian who is a proud registered Democrat, I fully condemn their deplorable decision in attempt to silence, control, and change us by not giving us a chance to show them and the rest of the world, that there is a silent majority of Christian Democrats.

I’m not a lawyer. I’m not sure if this is even remotely possible, but in my opinion, if you’re a private university that takes federal funding, you must abide by some sort of regulations, and you must allow equal opportunities to students who are a part of a College Republicans or College Democrats club on campus. Let's not even get into the topic of how you treat your LGBT students there, either. I’ll save that for another long article.

Jerry Falwell Jr., I know that you may not read this (although, I hope you do), I know that we disagree politically and fundamentally on our opinions of our current President (Donald Trump)… But let’s be honest, you support a President who’s said these things…

“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it,I did try and f — — her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily… I moved on her like a b — — , but I couldn’t get there…” “When you’re a star, you can do anything… Grab her by the P — — .”
“It must be a pretty picture. You dropping to your knee.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what [they] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”

I may not be perfect, I will never go on throughout life without sinning, but at least I have the knowledge to understand that President Donald Trump does not represent Christianity, nor does he show his Christian faith in these words.

President Obama was a Christian, and he showed it through his actions. Comparing this horrible example of a person of “Christian Faith”, is frightening and is an embarrassment.

I understand that you want to represent your christian values, I understand that you want to lead people to Christ, but is showing your approval of a man who has said the things that he has said, and has done the things he has done, really a good move on your part?

In the video at the top of this article, you said:

“I’ve never seen any liberal attack a Muslim church for not having gay weddings, and for not honoring the rights of women and transgenders…”

Well, I’m a liberal. I’m a Christian Liberal, to makes things clear.

I condemn any people out there of the Muslim faith for not conducting any “Gay weddings” and for not “hononoring the rights of women and transgenders”.

Jerry Falwell Jr., I challenge you to step out of your bubble.

Jerry, I challenge you to make changes at your school that would be inclusive of people of different ideas, political beliefs, sexual preferences, genders, etc.

Jerry, I challenge you to encourage bipartisanship within yourself and the school that you lead.

Jerry, I challenge you to stop representing the Christian faith as something that is politically partisan, and to be honest with yourself and challenge your political beliefs to understand that there is a silent majority of Christians who are also registered Democrats.

The more we divide ourselves, the more that we mute others of different opinions, ideas, and political affiliation, the more that we keep ourselves in a bubble, brings forth an aura that pushes people away.

I speak to you as a person of faith, I speak to you as someone who's life that you hurt by your direct and indirect words and actions.

Please welcome different views and allow yourself to be challenged.

Resist.✌️

Brian Diaz is a Christian and a registered Democrat who founded the Liberty University College Democrats and We The Blue.

Jerry Falwell Jr, You Should Be Ashamed Of Yourself.

Written by We The Blue