Helms School of Government at Liberty University

http://www.falwell.com/?a=p&content=1077559813

 

Mental imagery...

I can just imagine hundreds of automatons marching along, completely brainwashed into the strange world-view that is Liberty University in league with the even weirder notions of Senator Helms, leading our fine Christian country from disaster to disaster in the 21st century.

This is indeed wonderful news.... NOT!

 

Helms 1950: "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races."

Helms 1963: "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."

Helms 1988: "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."

Helms 1990 running against the African-American Gantt: The "white hands" ad, in which a white man's hands crumple a rejected job application while a voice over intones, "You needed that job, but they had to give it to a minority."

 

School song: "Verwoerd Christian Soldiers".

Ag shame.

 

No doubt, Helms made some asinine statements in his day.

I'm very curious to see what Democrat Senator Robert Byrd had to say about such things back then.

I'm curious because this Democrat Senator, a member of the "party of tolerance", is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

 

Sure, but judging by his friends (Kerry, Kennedy, the other racist Jesse) Byrd must've represented the multiculti element within the Klan. Maybe Byrd and Farrakhan could play a violin duo...

 

Liberty University appears to be capitalizing on a trend. Conservative Christian colleges are doing very well.

http://www.falwell.com/?a=p&content=1077559813

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030908-121538-4058r.htm

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030911-114412-3994r.htm

Perhaps, Bob Jones University's move towards TRACS accreditation is driven by the need to remain competitive. High quality competitor schools, like Patrick Henry College and New St. Andrews College have established themselves pretty quickly.

 

I guess when we are in a "war against Islam", these conservative Christian colleges a la Falwell that are "doing quite well" are our answer to Koran-inspired education common to Islamic countries.

Problem is, neither is likely to lead to peace or to the truth, or to tolerance....

 

John,

Did you omit part of the quotation? Does the full quote go like this:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33361

 

Carl,

Why do you, and others, find it necessary to involve Islam when being critical of certain Christians and Christian institutions? I would think that you would be able to articulate your criticism without invoking Islam or any other faith.

 

Helms is a jackass...no doubt about it. But I find nothing wrong with conservative Christian education. I think it's something this country has been lacking for a very long time. Please don't mistake racial intolerence and Christian conservatism as being one in the same. They are not. Yes, there are conservatives that are also racists. Yes, there are also liberals that are racists.

Pug

 

My pernt exactly by disgusting exemplars. Thanks, Pug.

 

But there's also a point to be made about the similarities between the fundamentalisms of different faiths. The formal structure of fundamentalism remains similar from culture to culture, while the specific beliefs that fill it are almost interchangeable.

Fundamentalists seek both to purify their faith of its modernist accretions and to purify their larger society of its Godless secularism. They take a literalist and a legalist view of their scriptures and believe that divine revelation should guide public policy. They pay little attention to the philosophical foundations of religious faith but place a great emphasis on faith, commitment and prayer. They often take a separatist stance to the world around them and see themselves as some kind of righteous remnant. They are often rigorists in their personal behavior, rejecting flamboyant clothing, drinking, dancing and the like.

I think that one sees that pattern clearly in Islam, where it reflects anti-Western cultural nationalism and a desire to grasp strongly to things that are not tainted by foreign ideas. And we see it to a lesser extent in the United States where it seems to be a right-wing form of counter-culture, analogous to the leftist counterculture so beloved by the baby-boomer media and mainstream universities.

It's interesting how both American political parties try to use their respective countercultures without in turn being used by them. The Democrats shamelessly pander to their left, while the Republicans pander to the religious right. Both parties know that these groups tend to bloc-vote and provide lots of donations and activist volunteers. They are the difference between winning and losing in some states.

Frankly, I have no more desire to be led by Falwell's "young Christian conservatives" than I do to be led by the left's race-class-gender militants.

I fear for the nation's future if either extreme actually gets power. I place whatever trust I can muster in the increasingly fragile pragmatic center.

 

Not so. The late Ayatollah Khomeini spent many years studying philosophy at Qom.

 

I agree that the Helms school of government is a little off. They could have done better. The link seems to talk as if Helms is still alive (did he not die after retirement).

Nonetheless, emotionally charged intellectual bubble gum statements about Christian conservative thought and Liberty U's world view are at least as screwy. I am a conservative Christian (although *liberal* on some issues and a member of a union). Carl, you demonstrate little understanding of the conservative Christian world view.

Also, I think to compare Christian Fundamentalism with Islamic Fundamentalism is frankly bizarre. I guess I must have missed Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson ordering suicide bombings against the ACLU and Now members and their children. Possibly you could point me to that news story.

North

 

<<But there's also a point to be made about the similarities between the fundamentalisms of different faiths. The formal structure of fundamentalism remains similar from culture to culture, while the specific beliefs that fill it are almost interchangeable.

Fundamentalists seek both to purify their faith of its modernist accretions and to purify their larger society of its Godless secularism. They take a literalist and a legalist view of their scriptures and believe that divine revelation should guide public policy. They pay little attention to the philosophical foundations of religious faith but place a great emphasis on faith, commitment and prayer. They often take a separatist stance to the world around them and see themselves as some kind of righteous remnant. They are often rigorists in their personal behavior, rejecting flamboyant clothing, drinking, dancing and the like.>>



You are WAY off base here. As a conservative Christian, I can say that the similarity ends with both groups, Muslims and Christians, believing that they are called to be different from "the world" around them. Both view "the world" as a corrupt environment. The difference is, and it is a HUGE difference, Christians believe that they are to evangelize peacefully, SUBMIT TO GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY, SHOW TOLERANCE TO OTHERS OF DIFFERING VIEWS, and make themselves known to "the world" by their actions (peaceful, charitable, selfless). Muslims believe in a God ordained hatred of Israel. This hatred extends to any country that assists Israel. They believe they have been commanded by God to utterly destroy the nation of Israel and any country that aligns themselves with them. As a whole, Muslims do not believe in religious tolerence, equality of the genders, or in submitting to governmental authorities (unless of course the government is Islamic rule, and even then there are blood baths between denominations.) These belief structures are not interchangeable as you suggest.

Pug

 

Helms

I believe that you have confused Jesse Helms (R-NC) with Strom Thurmond (R-SC).

Jesse Helms is alive according to his Center:

Jesse Helms Center

Strom Thurmond died shortly after he retired.

 

Re: Helms

You are right

As soon as you mentioned Strom Thurmond's name the light bulb went on. Thurmond is dead. I think Helms retired asfter announcing that he has some sort of degenerative disease.

Well, I suppose the Helms school of government is much less distasteful than the Thurmond School of government.

What about the Reagan School of Government or Colin Powell School of Government. Even though William Buckley is more a journalist type as a brilliant Conservative maybe they could have named the school after him (evenif he is Catholic). Heck what about Condaleeza Rice, very intelligent, experienced in Government, handled her self extremely well in front of the commission (out maneauvered their poltiking) and at the risk of sound sexist she is a heck of a lot better looking than Jesse Helms.

North

 

"I think you should get a Nobel Peace Prize for everything you've done to keep down the niggers." -- Caller from Tilk, Alabama

"Thank you. . . . I think." -- Jesse Helms, Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina

-- Excerpt from the Sept. 13, 1995 broadcast of CNN's Larry King Live Show ("Helms Reply to Slur Criticized," Sept. 14, 1995, The Houston Chronicle)

 

"Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."
- Robert Byrd, Democrat Senator from West Virginia and former member of the Ku Klux Klan.