By Keller Franks
Christian Action League
January 13, 2022
Christian Rep. Madison Cawthorn from North Carolina recently made some strong statements professing his faith in Christ and his lack of faith in higher education. Cawthorn made the remarks at AmericaFest 2021.
Organized by Turning Point USA and held in Phoenix on December 21. Cawthorn told his audience that he was a “devout Christian.” He unashamedly acknowledged, “I’ve got a great relationship with my Lord and Savior. And so, of course, I love being able to help people. I love taking care of people. I think we should send missionaries out in the world. We should bring people to Christ.”
He continued, “I think the most important thing for us to do is save souls for Jesus Christ. But that’s our job as Christians, and I believe we are a Christian nation…When people say we’re not a Christian nation and we’re founded by racists, by evil men, that’s wrong.”
Cawthorn also said that he had been homeschooled and was proud of being a college dropout. “If you are not becoming an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer, I highly encourage you to drop out. It’s a scam,” he said.
“Cawthorn’s remarks are certainly shocking for some – especially those on the political Left and part of academia today. But the evidence is showing that there is much truth to the Representative’s remarks,” said Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League.
Creech said it’s becoming common knowledge that the radical Left, generally speaking, is in complete control of higher education. College professors, he said, who are conservative or challenge the progressive status quo are marginalized and canceled.
“I never knew anyone so effective in pushing back against the dark doctrines of demons on college campuses like the late conservative and Christian criminology professor Mike Adams at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington,” said Creech. “His use of satire was genius. But the University’s administration, celebrities, and other radical progressives wrongly accused him of ‘hate speech’ and launched a campaign to have him fired. They failed to fire him, but he did resign after relentless pressure. In fact, he resigned his whole life in suicide, and I think they are culpable in his death.”
“If you are politically conservative, Christian, and unsympathetic with the misguided philosophies and agenda of the Left, you are silenced, ‘tar and feathered,’ figuratively speaking, “and run out on a rail,” said Creech. “And because public higher education is no longer a place of ideas, but now largely centers for Leftist indoctrination, I agree with Cawthorn that it has become a ‘scam’ and not what higher learning is supposed to be about.”
In an article titled, 8 College Professors Canceled by the Left, Douglas Blair, with The Daily Signal, names eight college professors who lost their livelihoods because of their conservative stances.
In an op-ed piece published by The New York Post in November of 2021, Joe Lonsdale explains that freedom of thought and expression are in such crisis on university campuses that he, former university administrators, professors, authors, and entrepreneurs are starting a new college, the University of Austin. Lonsdale writes:
“In the 20th century, American universities attracted exceptional thinkers in every field and produced an unprecedented wealth of knowledge. Our universities drove scientific progress, pursued truth, and cultivated an intellectually courageous and competent elite. They helped make the United States the most innovative, prosperous, and powerful nation in history.
“But today, our universities are failing to live up to that legacy…
“In the liberal University, open inquiry and debate about the world were prized as values in their own right. Our society recognized this by endowing universities with public money, trust, and power. In modern universities, these values have been lost, as has the legitimacy they impart. Robust debate on important topics is increasingly rare, and uniformity of viewpoint is increasingly demanded. Universities have been captured by new ideologies of intolerance that order subservience and quash those who think differently.”
The late Dr. Paul Kienel, who founded the Association of Christian Schools International more than 40 years ago, once listed eight significant humanistic assumptions inherent in today’s public education.
- Man is supreme. If this is true, there is no higher power.
- Man evolved from lower forms of life. Consequently, there was no act of divine creation.
- Man is an animal. Therefore, he cannot have a soul.
- Man is inherently good. He does not need a Savior.
- Common practice sets the standard. This, of course, is the assumption that whatever the majority does must be the thing to do. If this is true, there are no moral absolutes.
- Criminals are merely antisocial. The implication here is that lawbreakers have a problem, but they are not really sinners.
- The term maladjustment explains all adverse human behavior. In other words, there is no such thing as guilt.
- Finally, secular education assumes that bad environment is to blame for evil. If this is true, man himself is not responsible.
“I believe it’s clear that public education, whether we are talking about high school or college, has become fundamentally hostile to the Christian faith. It’s not simply neutral,” said Rev. Creech. “What’s more, evidence is revealing there’s no promise anymore of a college education providing one with a prosperous career. I genuinely believe there are ways around a college education, and one can still do very well today. If possible, Christians need a Christian education, either homeschooling or a Christian school. What does it profit if one gains the whole world, but loses his faith?”
Cawthorn has raised valid points about today’s higher education.