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
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