“My time as President of Liberty University College Democrats has been a great and enjoyable experience.
I learned how to work together with my counterparts, the College Republicans, I also learned the asset that is patience, and I learned a little bit about something called trust.
Throughout my term as President I have spent numerous days and hours working to make a difference on the Liberty University campus.
I established a Faith caucus within the Virginia Young Democrats, a caucus of which I now chair. I worked closely with a number of campaigns, candidates, and issue based groups to bring parts of the democratic platform to the students at Liberty University.
Our club received the “Up and Coming club of the Year” award while I was President, as well.
Although I have put in a tremendous amount of work this past year, I believe that based on the dismissal of Maria Childress as our club sponsor, as well as an email from the administration to me stating that, “You are distorting the truth, and you know it. You have no credibility with me” forces me to resign as club President and look for other educational opportunities by the means of transferring to a new institution.
I do not wish to speak badly about the Liberty; I only wish to be apart of an institution that fosters diversity within its student body. I am deeply saddened by this decision but I feel that with the present administration the Liberty University College Democrats cannot be effective.
I hope that I can transfer to an institution this coming fall that will continue to help me develop my education, bipartisanship, and leadership skills. I will be applying to a number of schools including Virginia Commonwealth University, Randolph College, and a number of other universities across the Commonwealth.
I wish all the best to the Liberty University College Democrats, and I hope that this situation will not hinder anyone but will encourage political involvement, and standing up to what youth believe in.”
We’re proud of you, Brian D. You chose integrity.
We wish the best for Maria and hope your fellows understand the compromises made in this tribulation.
[…] The man in charge of Liberty University’s Democratic club says he’s resigning his position and transferring to another school. […]
Well done, Brian. Following Richard Dawkins’ advice, I see…
I encourage everyone else at Liberty with a democratic or progressive bent to make haste to do likewise. Go somewhere where you can get a real education. The university has made it clear they don’t want you. Take the hint, and never look back.
Good job, my friend. Remember, in your travels, that God doesn’t want people with fresh ideas… people who think outside the box. If He did, he would reveal himself in unequivocal ways rather than leaving His revelations in the hands of people who misinterpret the word with their own political agenda.
Best wishes wherever you go. You are truly on the path to enlightenment.
Brian, thank you for thinking for yourself. Just remember to always do that. Anyone who insists you stop doing that is not your friend.
[…] This is big news, a first in the history of that institution! The student who led the LU College Democrats, the student club that was shut down by the administration because apparently, anything other than Republican Wingnuttia is the antithesis of the conservative Christian ideals they hope to promote, has written a letter describing the important lessons he learned at Liberty. […]
Good luck and GOOD JOB!
How can you distort the truth as you know it? You can only distort the “truth” as he knows it.
A University is a place where various and conflicting ideas are openly exchanged–and students develop and change their beliefs. Did you really expect to get that from a pretend university? You now have an opportunity to reexamine and hopefully change your beliefs based on your experience.
Well done, Brian. You identified the best decision for yourself, and it was taken without any rancor, just with clear thinking and determination.
However, you now have a chance of going to a real university and all those kids at Liberty deserve that chance also.
Brian, your choice to pursue an education in an environment that encourages diversity shows maturity and good sense, and will serve you well in your life. You may also find that the educational standards at your new school will give you an opportunity to stretch and learn in new ways that Liberty’s courses don’t even begin to approach. Best of luck with your exciting new future.
So you get screwed over by liars and thugs, but don’t want to “speak badly about” them, and you want to continue working on your “bipartisanship”?
I hope you have a light-bulb moment where you connect the dots and realize that that supineness is how the Democrats got to be a chew toy in the first place. Congrats on growing the first vertebra of your spine; now work on the rest of it.
Hopefully Brian’s bravery will inspire even more students at Liberty “University” to see the light and realize they have been scammed. Good job, indeed, Brian! Congratulations!
I guess Liberty is not a liberal arts university but a dogmatic arts school. I hope your credits transfer! Good luck Brian.
The saddest thing is that you ever expected anything different from Liberty.
It is not an institution of higher learning and free thought. It is an institution of indoctrination.
There’s no ‘liberty’ at LBU, as it mirrors the ‘liberty’ available to fundamentalist Christians.
You have miserably failed in the SUBMISSION to AUTHORITY phase of your youthful indoctrination.
Congratulations.
Now you can move on to the ‘all this religious crap is a bunch of hooey’ phase of your maturation.
Enjoy.
Congratulations on your hard work, Brian, and your maturity in knowing when you’ve taken a small path as far as it’ll go. Venture out onto the highway now and feel the wind in your face as you start to really travel in life.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And wisdom to know the difference.
Well done, a very good choice. As an intelligent young man with integrity you deserve to have a real education.
Well, since a nice Christian has made his way over to Pharyngula and started god-blessing everybody in sight, I’m popping back in to echo an answering comment I made over there:
Lots of us “poor lambs” DON’T come back to the fold. Atheism isn’t some temporary substitute for faith. It’s an opening of eyes that shows you what life can be like without the blinkers of religiosity.
After you find that you can be every bit as compassionate, every bit as moral, every bit as family-loving and patriotic or whatever values you and your people hold dear, and you THEN discover that you can also use and trust your own mind and intellect, that there’s a huge community of like-minded people to love and be loved by, and to respect and be respected by — speaking of which, I’d rather spend five minutes with PZ Myers, or Richard Dawkins, or really any of the bright, sensible people who comment on here, than two uncomfortable hours with the Pope — well, sh*t, why would you ever WANT to go back to the darkness and fear, the strait-laced closed-mindedness and even occasional meanness of a religious community?
The only atheists you ever met who went back to being devout Christians were either liars (telling the story later to impress an audience of faithheads), or those faux-atheists who got into it initially only to p*ss off their parents, and who never thought about it in any depth.
And besides all that, this kid is hardly leaving behind his faith (right this moment, anyway). He’s apparently only seeking a less mean-spirited place to practice it.
[…] A Statement from Brian Diaz over his resignation with LU Dem Club Check out the comments after the article. __________________ Beware of promises of life where death is prerequisite. […]
[…] Article here. […]
[…] is the original: A Statement from Brian Diaz over his resignation with LU Dem Club … This entry is filed under Luck and Job, luck. You can follow any responses to this entry through […]
[…] Club … Good luck and GOOD JOB ! Rob C June 20th, 2009 at 10:08 am #. View post: A Statement from Brian Diaz over his resignation with LU Dem Club … This entry is filed under Luck and Job, luck. You can follow any responses to this entry through […]
The point of institution that cater to a specific religion as part of their “method” is to isolate people from other ideas, so that they don’t question whether or not the narrow views of that religion are right, or even if the religion itself makes sense. The point of places like LU is to take this one step farther and undermine reality, in favor of one “very narrow” version of one very specific religion, while implying that everyone else “must” be wrong.
Hint – Democrats are no longer Democrats by any margin, they have been drifting more and more towards pandering to religion and siding with semi-Republican ideas for years, and even the current president has been frustrating the hell out of some of us by supporting, continuing and/or trying to find “middle ground” with the very sort of people that are responsible for creating LU and throwing out the Democratic party there, for not being radically fascist enough. One needs to take a very hard look at how the sort that think LU is a valid institution act towards “most” of what is legal in the US, then take a good hard look at the Middle East, and ask themselves, if it was a Muslim school, instead of a Christian one, how many of the people trying to be “bipartisan” with its sort of believers would do so if it “was” Muslim? Probably not a lot. Mostly, its liberals that argue for being “nice” to the Muslim world, the sort that run LU and send their kids there, would rather either bomb it, or… domesticate it somehow (usually by doing the one single thing likely to piss them off more, which is Christianize everything).
So, you managed to see the “obvious” money changers among the priests. Congratulations. Now all you need to do is notice that nearly everything the rest are pushing is a con game, and that people that rob you blind, to use the money to build temples, are “not” better than Pharisee, they are worse, since they are more interested in how to save themselves, than saving anyone else. The later is an after thought, and only happens via methods that they think will save them in the process, most of which do nothing to actually help anyone, but just exist to “please god”. Odd then, that god always seems to be “pleased” by their definition, not by acts that actually make the world better, but solely by acts that make the world more like what each individual priest thinks would make the world better, even if the other 200 million of them (or how ever many there are) disagree.
You cannot grant someone site by leading them into a dark cave, then telling them, “now everyone sees the same thing”. But, this is precisely what certain groups propose as a solution to all the worlds problems. There was even a cartoon out a while back to the same effect. A candle in the dark, and three priests, in the shadows, arguing fearfully over what it is, until one finally says, “Just hit it with your Bible!”
Good decision, my friend. You will not receive an education at “Liberty” University. I also come from a freethinking website, and some religious nut over there is telling us that, because his Bible says something, he must be righteous. He cannot comprehend the idea that non-Christians are upstanding individuals.
I feel sorry for him.
Good luck. Your position has been a tough one — being a committed religious Democratic activist, negotiating support that’s often come from avenues that don’t appropriately represent your views. All the best for you.
Kudos to you comrade.
I’m sure it was a hellish and overwhelming experience. I’m glad you’re staying true to yourself and are seeking a more open and welcoming path.
I wish you well on the journey.
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Liberty University…. What a strange name for an institution that has little to do with freedom or higher learning.
I think you are beginning to realize that Liberty isn’t a university devoted to religion. It uses religion to promote a particular political viewpoint. If Liberty is claiming that their university and Democrats can’t be together then it is clear that religion is NOT what Liberty is about.
Your courage and dedication to the truth are inspiring. Good luck, and bright blessings!
Well done, Brian. I wish you the best in a search for a better, more inclusive school.
Poor boy is about to find out what a science class is really like since none of the garbage they teach at Holier than Thou U will transfer to any decent college he will have to reatke them all.
I believe Dawkins said it best.
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Evidently, Liberty University needs to be reminded what LIBERTY actually means.
From http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/liberty
lib·er·ty (lbr-t) KEY
NOUN:
pl. lib·er·ties
The condition of being free from restriction or control.
The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one’s own choosing.
The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor. See Synonyms at freedom.
Freedom from unjust or undue governmental control.
A right or immunity to engage in certain actions without control or interference: the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights.
Liberty University is oppressing and censuring dissenters, which is the antithesis of LIBERTY. How ironic!
Liberty University’s stunted rationalization to abolish the College Democrats is unjust and it ONLY paints the administration of Liberty University as cowards, who must stifle other points of view so as to protect their feeble beliefs.
I would tell them to be ashamed of themselves, but I would suspect they are too deluded to digest that what they did was indeed shameful.
–S.
[…] on account that they felt the Democratic Party didn’t reflect their school’s values. Well now Brian Diaz, the former president of the organization talks about being forced to resign: Although I have put in a tremendous amount of work this past year, I believe that based on the […]
Sine LU is supposed to be a university which teaches Biblically based morals, what would a person who does not agree with these positions be doing at the school anyway?
The facts are that the Democratic party are very anti-Bible right now (as a whole – not smaller parts of the party). Christians are supposed to “come out from among them and be ye separate” according to the Bible. How is endorsing someone who OK’s the murder of unborn children fit into making a good testimony for the sake of Christ and His teachings? Can someone who believes the Bible to be real, and knowing they will be face to face with Christ one day, honestly say that Christ will say a “Well done though good and faithful servant” to someone who is supporting someone who endorses killing the inborn?
I am outside the situation – and from the outside – it sure seems something fishy is the motivation behind these student democrats. It is not about diversity – the school, as a private institution, has the right to say what can and cannot be done on their OWN campus. If you are against this – then you are against pepople and organizations being able to have freedom of choice in their own standards and opinions (hint – this was called socilaism/communism by Carl Marx himself).
Lbrewer, are you by any chance a Liberty U student? The reference to “Carl” Marx and the labored parroting of conservative talking points — plus the inability to spell “socialism” — sort of points to SOME sort of alternative educational experience.
As to what someone would be doing at Liberty who doesn’t agree wholeheartedly with banning people based on their political identification, well, let’s just hope the incident opens even more eyes as to how unAmerican this institution really is.
As another person “outside the situation,” I wonder why anybody would want to go to LU under ANY circumstances. And I hope more students will make equally courageous individual choices in the near future.
Whether you agree with the campus Democrats or not, do take note of how they’re being treated. And ask yourself this:
“On the day I choose not to agree with LU on something, will I find myself kicked out on the street, insulted and humiliated, in just the same way?”
My congratulations, Mr. Diaz. You made a smart and responsible choice.
LBrewer’s bizarre interpretation of Liberty U–“We have the freedom to tell our students how to think–is an excellent illustration of why thinking people, of ANY faith or none at all, have no place there.
Remember: Jesus was a liberal.
[…] Brian Diaz, did learn something I guess; cut your losses and move on. He wrote an open letter June 19th indicating his decision to leave Liberty U. No word on how the other […]
[…] The president of the Liberty University Democrats club is leaving the college behind… Liberty University, a fundamentalist christian liberal arts college, has had a history of controversy. The most recent being the banning of the democrat club from campus. I hope other students will be inspired and find other avenues of education and centers of higher education that respect a diversity of opinions and viewpoints. […]
Not only was Jesus a liberal, he was absolutely the most liberal prophet *ever* to preach in Israel. In fact, he was *so* liberal that the Old Testament church considered him demon possessed and a blasphemer. LU is filled with the same “scribes & pharisees, hypocrites” that clamored to have Jesus executed, and would do so yet again if given the chance.
#2, if you are against abortion *DON’T HAVE ONE*! See how simple that is? If the Democrats are so “fallen” an unChristian, then follow Jesus’ advice an “let the dead bury their dead” and save your *own* soul since you not only believe that you *have* a soul but that it somehow needs to be saved by a magical incantation. Hocus-pocus-abracadabra-I’m saved by faith!! Hurray!
If a woman wants to have an abortion, it is HER business- not yours! Your religion specifically states that each will be called to Judgment for their OWN sins. You cannot control the populace. Give it up already. The last time religious conservatives ran things it was called the DARK AGES.
These right-wingers are a danger to Liberty and a danger to the Freedoms that this country has been trying to institute since Her founding.