Warner University: Radically Unradical

As I have watched what has happened on multiple university campuses in the last couple of weeks—students and professors celebrating violence against the Israeli people—my recent reading of a new book titled America’s Cultural Revolution has seemed timely. In this book, author Christopher Rufo details how the radicalism and upside-down moral compasses that characterize much of higher education today are not merely the random results of unavoidable cultural changes; rather, they are the fruition of an intentional effort that began decades ago. Rufo’s own commentary in the book is minimal: instead of using a lot of ink to editorialize, he relies on a wealth of research about Marxist scholars to tell its own story and describe in those Marxist scholars’ own words how, decades ago, they set out to destroy American society so they could rebuild it from a Marxist framework—and how they intentionally infiltrated higher education to do so.

For example, dedicated Marxist Herbert Marcuse, who taught at a number of American universities, was committed to the cause of academia and the intelligentsia becoming agents of Marxist indoctrination, and back in the 1980s, a Marcuse disciple named Paulo Freire worked with a close colleague to initiate a scheme for “one hundred radical intellectuals” who shared the Marxist vision to become tenured within colleges and universities (Rufo 162). These scholars understood that what was taught in the universities would eventually become mainstream in the culture, for the most socially influential people in society typically work in fields that require a college education. One hundred initial radical professors might seem like a small number, but, as recent pro-violence celebrations on college campuses demonstrate, the seed of 100 professors germinated well: Freire’s most influential work, which is titled Pedagogy of the Oppressed and utilizes ideas from Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Castro, is now “the third-most-cited work in the social sciences” (Rufo 162).

Given that Freire explicitly condones violence in the name of Marxist revolution and that his work has been cited over 500,000 times in academia (Rufo 163), the fact that university students across the U.S. have been celebrating violence should come as no surprise.

In the past few days, I have been pleased to see that, finally, even some media outlets that are normally sympathetic to academia’s progressive agenda have been critical of what is happening on university campuses. As I watch the news and read the editorials, however, I see a missed opportunity. Because evangelical colleges and universities are typically smaller and less well known than the major universities whose sports teams play on television, far too few Americans are aware that the world of higher education offers alternatives to the radicalized institutions that have come to characterize academia in general. To be sure, one must be cautious even with many so-called Christian institutions—but there are a few colleges and universities that are standing for truth and decency, and the contrast between these places and those driven by academia’s typical radicalism has never been clearer than it has been in the last few weeks. Warner University in particular is proudly standing against dangerous ideologies, and the world needs to know the following:

• Warner University teaches students to condemn violence, not celebrate it.
• Warner University teaches students to build up and make things better, not tear down and destroy.
• Warner University teaches students that personal responsibility, opposed to habitual blame and victimhood, is requisite for success.
• Warner University teaches students that humble service is healthier and more winsome than angry protest.
• Warner University has weekly, gospel-driven chapel services, not classes in which students are engineered to become Marxist activists.
• Warner University hosts spiritual-revival week, not pride month or sex day.
• Warner University teaches students that there is a difference between love and tolerance, and that true love sometimes involves communicating hard truths in people’s best interests rather than placating them in their bad habits and destructive thinking.
• Warner University champions the traditional family instead of celebrating its cultural marginalization.
• Warner University honors women by acknowledging the biological reality of the female instead of pretending she is a social construct and insulting her by forcing her to compete in collegiate sports against men who call themselves women.
• Warner University teaches students that all human life, from conception to the last breath, is valuable because it has been created and sustained by a sovereign God who treasures it, not because a political or cultural ideology finds mere utility in it at any given moment in time.
• Warner University teaches students that personal sin, not imperfect “systems,” is the great plague of humanity.
• Warner University teaches students that the answer to the problem of sin (and imperfect systems) is Jesus Christ, not political revolution marked by violence.
• Warner University has an official, board-endorsed statement about the importance of reading Scripture through a grammatical-historical lens, trusting that words have meaning and seeking to understand what the biblical text communicated to its original audience; the statement firmly opposes “critical” reading approaches that are grounded in Marxism and postmodernism and thus project ideological and political agendas onto the pages of Scripture.
• Warner University asks all new employees to submit a Christian testimony and a statement of faith, not a statement on diversity.
• Warner University offers spiritual-life programming called “Courageous Conversations” to promote open dialogue about challenging social issues; it does not silence, demonize, or harm those who ask legitimate, probing questions in pursuit of truth.
• Warner University believes that promoting unity through our commonalities as God’s creations is healthier for our community than obsessing about our differences.
• Warner University, when it does address individual differences, focuses on the theological and spiritual realities of (1) Christian brothers and sisters with differences having unity in Christ, (2) of all persons on the planet being created equally in God’s image and therefore with dignity, (3) of Christian brothers and sisters with differences all belonging to the same family because they have been adopted as sons and daughters of the living God, and (4) of God’s perfect craftsmanship and supreme creative capacity as demonstrated by the breadth of attributes in the humanity He has created—rather than on man-made ideological differences that promote division and discord or the politically driven and ideologically defined concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Warner University teaches students that the ultimate source for moral truth is given by an unchanging, all-knowing, sovereign, and perfectly benevolent God and that His truth is found in His time-tested, unchanging written Word—not in the ever-changing dictates of political ideologies or the untrustworthy, power-hungry ideologues who promote them.

The Marxist scholars who infiltrated our nation’s colleges and universities were right about one thing: they knew that what was taught in academia would trickle down into the culture and become mainstream, for the most socially influential citizens typically work in fields that require college degrees. And that’s why our nation needs about 5,000 more Warner Universities—more graduates influencing culture with the love, light, and truth of Jesus Christ instead of the anger and hatred of radical progressivism.

And so, while I appreciate some media outlets’ accurate criticism of how large swaths of academia have lost their way, I wish they would take advantage of the cultural moment and call attention to the few bright spots that still exist on the higher education landscape. Warner University, especially, is different.

If you or someone you know might be interested in enrolling at Warner University, contact admissions@warner.edu.

If you would like to donate to a university that is standing proudly against the mainstream culture’s destructive progressivism and is instead teaching students to influence the culture with the light of Jesus Christ, visit https://warner.edu/alumni-friends/give-now/ and click “Donate Today.”