Trump, Liberty, and Getting Even

Earlier this week, businessman, reality TV star, and former presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at Liberty University’s convocation. As far as I can tell, convocation is like chapel, except that non-Christians are allowed to occasionally ascend the pulpit. In his speech, Trump said that if you want to be successful in business, you need to learn to punish people for crossing you. You have to be comfortable sending a message to those who wrong you by “getting even,” so others learn not to mess with you.

This was not the only troublesome line in his speech. He encouraged people to get prenuptial agreements in case of divorce, then joked that “you people never get divorces” (the “you people” apparently referring to Christians and/or Liberty students), and he spoke disparagingly of the President. But Trump is on his third wife, does not claim to be a Christian (as far as I know), so certainly can’t be expected to have a handle on the finer points of Christian business ethics, the seriousness of marriage, or the what it means to honor our leaders.

Thus, one could argue that it was unwise for Liberty to expose their student body to a non-Christian’s business ethics… Or one could argue that it was helpful to the University’s mission by giving their students a front row seat to a non-Christian businessman showing how radically different worldly ethics are from the Bible’s. I’d buy either argument, and since Liberty isn’t a church, I ultimately don’t really care one way or the other who speaks at their convocations.    Continue at Jesse Johnson