The campus-seven thousand idyllic acres in Lynchburg, Virginia-is the cradle of a white evangelical dynasty that has shaped a half century of American politics. In truth, of course, Liberty is not just of the world but an engine of its power and ambition.
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY NOTABLE ALUMNI MOVIE
On weekend evenings, it’s common to see a couple watching a movie from opposite sides of a dorm-room window, on a laptop positioned such that they can both see the screen: Netflix and chill, Liberty-style. New students pledge to follow the Liberty Way: no having sex outside of marriage, no listening to music with lewd lyrics, no drinking. At Liberty, this detachment can start to feel literal. The delineation draws from Jesus’ warnings to his followers that they would never be fully at home until they reached the heavenly realm. Liberty students talk about “the world” a lot, as something that exists elsewhere, apart from them-a sinful realm that demands engagement but should not be trusted or imitated. Schultz grew up in a military family and moved around often as a child she became “born again” at the age of six. “We need to be careful not to be like the world,” a twenty-one-year-old engineering student named Elizabeth Schultz told me. In the opposite direction, an enormous “L.U.” monogram is emblazoned on a green slope a few hills away gleams the white patch of the school’s year-round ski park. Looking west, beyond the school grounds, you get the feeling that there is nothing but hilltops melting slowly into the heavens. Packs of youth roam tidy walkways, tossing balls and toting Bibles. There is something dreamlike about Liberty University’s campus, with its neat rectangles of lawn and academic buildings so new that they could be a stage set.
0 kommentar(er)
