Shouldn't be a mystery why Liberty University nixed club

The headline in our newspaper Friday morning — the very top headline, no less — told the world: “LU pulls plug on Democratic club.”

In terms of shock value, this was the equivalent of “VMI freshmen forced to do pushups” or “Taliban leaders oppose plans for new disco.” The mystery here is not that Liberty University decided to disassociate itself from the college’s Democratic club, but that the club was ever allowed to exist in the first place.

“We are in no way attempting to stifle free speech,” said LU vice president of student affairs Mark Hine in an e-mail to Democratic Party club president Brian Diaz.

Excuse me? Saying that belonging to a club representing one of the two major political parties in the country could trigger reprimands and eventual expulsion is hardly promoting free speech.

On the other hand, it’s not that incoming LU students don’t know what the deal is. Just as new Virginia Military Institute cadets know they’re going to be harassed by upperclassmen and Hampden-Sydney freshmen don’t show up expecting coed dorms, so it’s doubtful that anyone enrolls at Liberty to find like-minded disciples of Ted Kennedy.

This makes the school’s Democratic Club decision hard to resist, from its point of view. Make the school’s major donors (the vast majority of whom, I would imagine, are Republicans) smile, disappoint a small handful of out-of-step students. Not a tough choice, although school chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. called the Democratic club members “good, Christian kids who sit with me at ballgames” and insisted there was “no animosity” toward them.

Liberty is growing because it is a conservative Christian school and the country is full of conservative Christian students. Thanks in large part to the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s high profile, it has identified and conquered its niche — somewhat liberal among dogmatically Christian schools (I can’t see Bob Jones University staging its version of the Winterfest Christian rock concert), yet well to the right of public institutions.

Don’t expect it to jeopardize that base, any more than Rush Limbaugh would benefit from offering liberal Democrats 10 minutes of his air time. A liberalized Liberty would just confuse people.

Do I agree with everything the Falwell brothers feed to their flock, especially when the message turns political? No. Does it bother me that they have those opinions? Not really.

The thing is, this is also a private institution. Liberty can carve its initials into Liberty Mountain because it happens to own the mountain. It can tell students they have to attend church services, or else. It can dictate how they dress. To paraphrase that catchy phrase from the current President of the United States: “Yes, they can!”

Of course, as its official Web site declares, Liberty is also happy to accept federal student aid. Maybe that would be a courageous follow-up step — refuse to allow any student to take a dime from a federal government run by Democrats.