Chancellor and President of Liberty University, Jerry Fallwell, Jr., has published a guest essay responding to critics of the school's decision to stop officially recognizing the Student Democrats club on campus (See earlier post). The good news for these students – in addition to affirming the group's right to exist and to meet on campus – is that he denies that Liberty has ever said a Christian can't be a Democrat. The bad news is Christians are apparently allowed only to be the type of Democrat that doesn't support Democratic principles or candidates.
Falwell may allow the group to reconfigure their mission statement and potentially regain recognition, but only if they apologize first.
Meanwhile, Americans United has requested the IRS look into the incident with regard to the University's tax-exempt status.
“Liberty University is a tax-exempt institution and isn’t allowed to support one party over another,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “If the school insists on pushing policies that favor Republicans over Democrats, it should have to surrender its tax exemption.”
You can read the letter (pdf) here.
Finally, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Mathew Staver of Liberty's Law School apparently wants in on this action. So, he's threatening to file his own complaint with the IRS, charging that AU is mis-using its tax exempt status in the way in which they file complaints for the misuse of tax-exempt status.
