Liberty University's Democrat students club received notice last week that it would no longer be able to associate the University's name with any of its activities. According to a Lynchburg VA paper, the club's leadership was told "we are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by" the school. “The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of Liberty University and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the “LGBT” agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc.),” Liberty's Vice President of Student Affairs, Mark Hine, apparently told the group via email. (If this email quote is correct, your Gaggler is mystified. Is he accusing Democrats of promoting hate crimes? What's wrong with having a gender identity? And aren't we over this whole democrats = socialists thing yet? Go read some early Frankfurt School philosophy and then tell me how U.S. Democrats are socialists. Also, I don't think all those Christians in the Democratic party, like say, the President, think the Democrat party platform is contrary to the Christian doctrine.)

Today, University President Jerry Falwell Jnr dialed back on some aspects of the ban. He said the group would be allowed to hold meetings on campus, but the club and its activities won't be formally recognized. “There is absolutely no animosity at all toward any of these kids," Falwell said. “They are good, Christian kids who sit with me at ball games. I just hope they find a pro-life family organization to affiliate with so they can be endorsed by Liberty again." DNC Chair and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has weighed in on the issue, along with gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. "I urge the leadership of Liberty University to reverse this attack on the liberty of its students and allow the College Democrats to have the same rights on campus as their counterparts, the College Republicans," Kaine wrote in a statement today. It is of course hard to imagine Liberty's Democrat club being overrun with members, but still, to illegitimize their activities seems like the sort of intellectual and political repression that institutes of higher learning in democratic nations are supposed to guard against.