Where Liberty University Gets Its Money

Via the Washington Post:

Liberty University is not just your average school down the road. The once small Christian college founded in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell now has the largest student body of any private nonprofit university in the country. With over 70,000 students, the university has become a destination for political candidates seeking the GOP’s more conservative favor. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) kicked off his campaign during a convocation at Liberty. In May, former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) followed in the footsteps of John McCain and Mitt Romney by giving Liberty’s commencement address. The irony: The exponential growth of Liberty University has been fueled by billions in federal student aid made possible by President Obama and congressional Democrats. In the late 1990s, Liberty students received less than $20 million in aid. Students now receive over $800 million dollars a year in federal aid. As with any federal financial aid, the grants and loans are awarded to students, not the university. Liberty does not receive any other federal funds, but its growth has come by attracting Christian students who qualify for aid.

About 75% of Liberty University's students are "distance learners" who take online courses. (Tipped by JMG reader BKMN)

Jeb Bush At Liberty University: The Bible Provides America's Moral Vocabulary

“It is not only untrue, but also a little ungrateful, to dismiss the Christian faith as some obstacle to enlightened thought, some ancient, irrelevant creed wearing out its welcome in the modern world. Whether or not we acknowledge the source, Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament still provide the moral vocabulary we all use in America – and may it always be so. As usual, the present administration is supporting the use of coercive federal power. What should be easy calls, in favor of religious freedom, have instead become an aggressive stance against it. Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith. Federal authorities are demanding obedience, in complete disregard of religious conscience – and in a free society, the answer is no." - Jeb Bush, delivering a commencement address yesterday at Liberty University.

Jerry Falwell's Liberty University Got $445M In Public Money Last Year

Alex Pareene reports at Salon:

Liberty University, the evangelical private Christian school founded by dead apartheid-supporting bigot Jerry Falwell, received $445 million in federal financial aid last year. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the way, received $420 million from the federal government. That massive sum was thanks to the growth of Liberty's online program, which enrolled 52,000 students last year. The school is the No. 1 recipient of Pell grant money in the state of Virginia.

Liberty was deeply in dept and on the verge of bankruptcy as recently as 2006. But shortly after Jerry Falwell was found face down in a pool of his own gravy, the school learned that he'd left them $34M via his life insurance policy.

Liberty University's Rap Anthem

If he hadn't already been found face-down in a pool of his own gravy, I'm betting Jerry Falwell would take a dim view of all the dick-grabbing. Right Wing Watch provides a partial transcript:

Follow Christ 'cause he knows best,

And this school is so blessed,

Only college in the whole country with a Snowflex,

Perfect is the aim and you should expect no less,

If college is a watch, Liberty's a Rolex.

Flashback: David Mixner And Bill Clinton On DADT & DOMA

(Via - JMG reader Noah)

Liberty University Prof Busted In Sex Crime

At Dead Jerry Falwell University last week:

A judge has granted $25,000 bond to a Liberty University professor accused of a sex crime with a student. Joshua Young Moon is charged with object sexual penetration by force. Moon appeared at the Lynchburg courthouse on Monday. In less than a week, Moon has gone from popular professor to inmate. Prosecutors say it happened when a 21-year-old student came to Moon's office last Tuesday to do classwork. The prosecutor says the victim was in pain, so she got on the floor and let Moon give her a massage. That's when she says she fell asleep, and woke up to find him touching her inappropriately.

Moon was ordained at Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church and is the pastor of a church in Durham, NC. Liberty University has already fired him, lending credence to the student's charge.

Windfalwell

Liberty University has used their portion of the proceeds of Jerry Falwell's life insurance, $29 million, to retire their debt. Another $5M went to the congregation of his Thomas Road Church. What a country, when an elderly, morbidly obese man can be insured for $34M. If only the money had gone back to all the little old ladies whose pockets Falwell picked of their Social Security.

Bombs For Phelps

A Liberty University student was arrested at Jerry Falwell's funeral yesterday after police were tipped off by his family that he had brought bombs that he intended to throw at the Westboro contingent that was protesting at the event. The bombs were described as a soda-can sized "sort of napalm". Man, the gentle loving people of the Lord are ready to kill each other over who can hate more. (Photo via - Towleroad.)

Bill Maher On Falwell

Bill Maher delivers the definitive (and hilarious) eulogy.

Coulter: On Falwell And Gays

Get out your barf bags. From today's column in Front Page:

Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners.

[snip]

Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell. Actually, there was one small item I think Falwell got wrong regarding his statement after 9-11 that "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians – who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle – the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

First of all, I disagreed with that statement because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and "the Reverend" Barry Lynn. Second, Falwell later stressed that he blamed the terrorists most of all, but I think that clarification was unnecessary. The necessary clarification was to note that God was at least protecting America enough not to allow the terrorists to strike when a Democrat was in the White House.

I note that in Falwell's list of Americans he blamed for ejecting God from public life, only the gays got a qualifier. Falwell referred to gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle. No Christian minister is going to preach that homosexuality is godly behavior, but Falwell didn't add any limiting qualifications to his condemnation of feminists, the ACLU or People for the American Way. There have always been gay people – even in the prelapsarian '50s that Jerry Falwell and I would like to return to, when God protected America from everything but ourselves. What Falwell was referring to are the gay activists – the ones who spit the Eucharist on the floor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, blamed Reagan for AIDS and keep trying to teach small schoolchildren about "fisting."

Yeah, funny thing about that "qualifier" Ann, but I don't recall any sort of love from Falwell for any sort of gay person, activist or not. He often regurgitated exhausted religious canards against sin, but not sinners, but this is the same fuckwad who said at Anita Bryant's 1979 "Save Our Children" rally, "So-called gay people would kill you just as soon as look at you." So much for "loving sinners", Ann, you Nazi.
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Hitchens On Falwell

Noted atheist and author Christopher Hitchens eviscerated Jerry Falwell's legacy on CNN last night, calling Falwell an "ugly little charlatan" and a "little toad." It's a great clip and Hitchens totally nails my own opinions, but I'm disappointed with Anderson Cooper's rather dismissive comment at the end of the interview.

This Just In

Media Request: FOX radio and KVI's The Commentators, with John Carlson and Ken Schram, would like to speak with you about Jerry Falwell. Perhaps its too early but this is going to be the defining moments, the early days after his death when people start determining his impact on America for better or worst. We would like to talk with you this morning at 10:05 AM PST (west coast) for 20-30 minutes.

Please give me a call,

Carson
The Commentator's Producer
AM 570 KVI

JMG: Hmm, I don't feel like going on what appears to be a conservative attack Fox radio show. (Is there any other kind?) Anybody know about these guys? Seattle?

UPDATE: Thanks to all for your valued input. I took a pass.

HomoQuotable - Matt Foreman

"The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation." - Matt Foreman, Executive Director, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

Hell-Cam!

Thanks to the folks at Ninth Circle Technologies for grabbing this Hell-cam shot as Jerry Falwell rocketed down the Styx Superslide to his eternal reward. Satan was waiting at the bottom for his old friend.

Jerry Falwell Dead Dead Dead

Jerry Falwell has died after being found unconscious in his office this morning. I will shed no tears. In fact, Tinky Winky and I may just have a big hug.

"AIDS is God's punishment to gays." - Jerry Falwell.

"Instant death is my punishment to Jerry Falwell" - God.

UPDATE: I can't resist adding some classics from Falwell...

- "If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
- "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
- "Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them."
- "There is no separation of church and state. Modern US Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the Founders had in mind in the First Amendment to the Constitution."
- "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers."
- "Textbooks are Soviet propaganda."
- "The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability."
- "(9/11 is the result of) throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."

UPDATE II: Best commentary on the web so far: "Larry Flynt is doing wheelies!"

UPDATE III: San Francisco is staging an "anti-memorial" at 5pm today, at the corner of Castro & 18th Street.

UPDATE IV: JMG made WingNutDaily. Sweet. Prepare for a troll avalanche from Jeebus' loving people.
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