Duke University – Kingsjester's Blog

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. – Romans 1:22

Duke University’s student government has denied the Christian organization Young Life official status as a student group on campus, citing its policy on sexuality.

The decision by the Duke Student Government Senate on Wednesday comes amid ongoing clashes nationwide between religious student groups and colleges and universities that have added more robust nondiscrimination policies.

Young Life, like many evangelical groups, regards same-sex relations as sinful. Its policy forbids non-celibate LGBTQ staff and volunteers from holding positions in the organization.

The student newspaper the Duke Chronicle reported Thursday that the student government senate unanimously turned down official recognition for the Young Life chapter, because it appeared to violate a guideline that every Duke student group include a nondiscrimination statement in its constitution.

Young Life, which is based in Colorado Springs, is a 78-year-old organization with a mission to introduce adolescents to Christianity and help them grow in their faith. It has chapters in middle schools, high schools, and colleges in all 50 states and more than 90 countries around the world.

But the student government objected to a clause in Young Life’s sexuality policy. After the student government was told the organization would not change its sexuality policy, it rejected the group.

The Young Life policy states: “We do not in any way wish to exclude persons who engage in sexual misconduct or who practice a homosexual lifestyle from being recipients of ministry of God’s grace and mercy as expressed in Jesus Christ. We do, however, believe that such persons are not to serve as staff or volunteers in the mission and work of Young Life.”

Over the past two decades, many colleges and universities have attempted to exclude religious groups because of their positions on sexuality, among them InterVarsity and Business Leaders in Christ.

Greg Jao, senior assistant to the president at InterVarsity, said about 70 colleges and universities have attempted to exclude InterVarsity chapters over the years—in some cases because it bars non-celibate LGBTQ employees, in others because its faith statement more generally violates school nondiscrimination policies.

In most cases, the issues are resolved, but others have ended up in court. InterVarsity is now suing the University of Iowa and Wayne State University.

“Most of the time universities back down because it’s a violation of students’ First Amendment rights,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm that defends religious freedom cases.

Duke, however, may be in a different category as a private institution. Private universities don’t have the same obligations under the First Amendment’s free exercise clause that a government entity does.

Young Life did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.

Did you know that Duke University, whose original name was Trinity College, began as a Christian College with funding coming from the Methodist Episcopal Church?

According to a webpage titled “Duke: A Brief Narrative History”, found on https://library.duke.edu“, the university has been “guided since 1859 by the motto Eruditio et Religio, or “Knowledge and Religion”.

Ironic, huh.

It remains both amazing and stupefying to me the extent to which American Christianity is still being constantly attacked on all fronts: militarily, culturally, in our educational system, and even within organized religion itself.

From illegal immigration to abortion to homosexual “rights”, Americans who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ on these issues have been under fire by Progressive “Christians” like the Liberals who run Duke University, who insist that they know more about what is in the Bible and what Christ says, or would say, about these topics, then those of us who actually read God’s Word.

Jesus was often found in the company of sinners…but not because He accepted their sins. He was with them because he loved them and loathed their sin. He was there to redeem them through His Loving Grace, so that they might repent and find salvation through Him.

When you enter into a Facebook “discussion” with these “new Pharisees”, and you counter their arguments on these topics with Scripture, Liberals are initially slow to respond.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, – 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

Most Liberals will start “Googling” these topics, looking for any Scriptures that will substantiate their position.

There’s been many a time they have come back at me with Old Testament Scripture. It is then that I explain to them about the sacrifice that Christ made for us sinners, freeing Christians from Jewish Law and taking the punishment for our sins, creating a New Covenant by covering Christians through the shedding of His blood.

At that point in the “discussion”, there is a long pause, as they are trying to figure out a comeback.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.- 1 Corinthians 2:14

This misconception, which I have been trying to explain, involves Liberals’ belief that American Christians will not fight back against them and the things they want to say and do in our society.

If there’s one thing during all of the years of anti-Christian bias, which we experienced during the Obama administration, and now, almost 3 years after Christian Americans helped elect American Businessman and Entrepreneur Donald J. Trump as the 45th President, that the Liberals should have learned, is the fact that Christian American Conservatives will fight back.

It is funny though…that when we begin fighting back, the Liberals have a tendency to label us as uncaring, mean, divisive, and intolerant

Which is extremely ironic because as shown through their words and actions, those who consider themselves to be the “Smartest Christians in the Room”, these Modern-Day Liberal Pharisees, are actually the meanest, most divisive, and least tolerant of us all.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

More good news is the fact that Christianity continues to thrive in America, despite the best efforts of Modern American Liberals.

For, as the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated so eloquently,

God has been very good to us

America was built upon a Solid Rock.

To ignore our nation’s Faith-Based Founding and Heritage is to live in purposeful ignorance.

As President Ronald Reagan said,

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

And, as Hebrews 13:8 tells us,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Regardless of the Political Machinations and the worship of Modern American Liberals at the Altar of Political Correctness, God will have the final word, as to our country’s future.

He always does.

God Bless America.

Until He Comes,

The attention of the world, America included, continues to be focused on the followers of Mohammed

It seems like Europe’s Liberal Governments have finally figured out that the radical adherents to Islam, actually are immersed in a jihad, and actually intend to kill all the “infidels” they can.

Unfortunately, the veil has not yet lifted from the eyes of American liberals.

And, it won’t, while the current Administration remains in the White House.

America’s Liberals are both in love with and deathly afraid of Radical Muslims, living their lives, consumed by a bizarre mixture of naive infatuation and cowardice.

For example…

CNSNews.com reports that

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson said that when the Duck Dynasty show began on A&E in 2012, the video editors, based in Los Angeles, would often take out the words “in Jesus’ name” from the family prayer scene because they thought the name “Jesus” might “offend some of the Muslims or something.”

Robertson said he advised the show’s producers, in West Monroe, La., that they and the entire world kept time, the “year of Our Lord,” A.D., Anno Domini, based upon Jesus Christ and that it would not hurt to “throw His name in there from time to time,” and he noted that this example represented, the “spiritual warfare” that is always occurring.

Robertson made his comments during an interview with reporters for Sports Spectrum TV. He first related that video editors of Duck Dynasty initially added bleeps to the audio to suggest there was profanity when there was, in fact, no cursing by the cast members. Robertson got the editors to stop making those insertions.

He then recounted, “The other thing was when we prayed, we said, ‘In Jesus’ name. Amen.’ Now, I don’t have any verse that says you must always use or pray in the name of Jesus but it’s a very good idea, I think. So they were just having me saying, ‘Thank you Lord for the food, thank you for loving us. Amen.’”

“So I said, why would you cut out ‘In Jesus’ name’?” recalled Robertson. “They said, ‘Well, those editors are probably doing that and they just think, you know, they don’t want to maybe offend some of the Muslims or something.’”

“I said, let’s see now, what year is it?” he said. “They said, what? I said, what year is it? They said, well, it’s 2012. I said 2012 AD. Anno Domini, the year of Our Lord. I said, you Hollywood cats are counting time by Jesus just like I am. “

“I would think out of all the people that walked planet Earth, if we’ve all decided in America here to count time by just one of them, Jesus of Galilee, then I don’t think it hurts to throw His name in there from time to time,” recounted Robertson, who is an elder at the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, La.

“Your calendar’s based on it,” said Robertson. “They said, we never thought of it like that. I said, duh, give me a break. So I notice now, every once in awhile they leave it [name of Jesus] in there. “

“But you have to remember, it’s spiritual warfare,” said Robertson. “You have people with — what do they say — no moral compass. It ain’t there. So, I tell people, be patient. Just be patient. We’re working on it. We just have to do it. They’re the ones that, they own the network and they’re filming the show. We signed a contract with them, okay, and it’s a work house.”

“But people have to understand, the people of God have to understand that you have to be patient,” said Robertson. “You don’t turn that ship quickly. It’s a big ship. A lot of depravity, a lot of heathen, a lot of the evil one. He is entrenched in the United States. So you’re not going to turn it like shoo! You know what I’m saying?”

Spiritual warfare, indeed. And, all done in the name of “religious accommodation”.

The Washington Times reports that

Duke University has decided to reverse its plan to sound the Muslim call-to-prayer from a chapel bell tower on campus after receiving a wave of backlash from Christians who called the plan unfair.

“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations, a local CBS affiliate reported. “However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect.”

The university had intended to allow the Duke Muslim Students Association to chant the call to prayer — called the adhan — on Friday from the Duke Chapel bell tower.

Christy Lohr Sapp, the chapel’s associate dean for religious life, explained that the call “connects the university to national trends in religious accommodation,” CNN reported.

The plan was swiftly rejected by religious groups.

Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook: “As Christianity is being excluded from the public square and followers of Islam are raping, butchering and beheading Christians, Jews and anyone who doesn’t submit to their Sharia Islamic law, Duke is promoting this in the name of religious pluralism. I call on the donors and alumni to withhold their support from Duke until this policy is reversed.”

Mr. Graham’s message was shared nearly 60,000 times.

“When did Christians end up being the bad guys! Political correctness is going to destroy this country,” Nancy Kain Walls responded. “God help us.”

“I have a feeling that separation of church and state in this country only applies if its Christianity,” wrote Cindee Parker. “Any other religion is free to do whatever they wish.”

“It is a CHAPEL not a mosque,” wrote Merrie Spencer Rancourt. “Duke was founded as a Methodist university. If Muslims want to have a call to prayer, then they should purchase the land and build a tower, just like Methodists built the Chapel.”

As Rev. Graham stated so eloquently, Islam and Christianity present two very different Deities, who may share some similarities, but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is not only to be clueless of the faith of 75% of the citizens of this nation, but, to be ignorant of an integral part of our American Heritage, the legacy of Christian Faith, which our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

Liberalism, as a political ideology, is only embraced by 23% of Americans, per gallup.com.

Christianity, on the other hand, as I just stated, is the Faith of 75% of Americans, again, per gallup.com.

You Libs are betting on the wrong horse.

I’ve read The Book.

I know Who wins.

Until He Comes,

Kingsjester's Blog

Tag: Duke University

The War on Christianity: Duke University Denies “Young Life” Official Status as a Student Group on Campus

American Liberals and Radical Islam: A Naive Infatuation…Born of Cowardice?