March 28^th

Ted Cruz, as most everyone now knows, announced his candidacy for President at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. As most everyone also knows this educational institution required the attendance of its entire student body at Cruz’s coming out party; as a result some eleven thousand students showed up. If a student chose not to attend this event the reprimand cost would be a ten dollar fine. The administration claims that they want to expose their students to a variety of viewpoints and they do that through convocations. But then why did they disband the student’s Democratic Club in 2009?

According to PolitiFact there are many other ways to incur reprimands.  Participation in an unauthorized demonstration can produce twelve reprimands. (I wonder if there are any authorized demonstrations.) “Participation in a séance, witchcraft or other demonic activity carries a five-hundred dollar fine and possible expulsion.”  One can’t help but wonder if any cases of witchcraft have been reported.

This isn’t simply a case of fundamentalist paranoia worthy to be laughed at. Perpetuating the notion that witchcraft exists encourages unrestricted violence by some immigrant populations in this country and many others abroad who believe they are at the mercy of witches; the result is that they murder the suspected witch. In Kinshasa Nigeria there are more than 25 thousand abandoned children, abandoned because they cried for no discernable reason. Their parents were convinced by religious fanatics that their child was possessed of the devil and so had to be rejected. That an American institute of higher education would have a regulation implying the existence of witchcraft is beyond belief! Yet Cruz chooses this venue to announce his candidacy for President!

How do we describe the student body? Requirements for graduation include a generous dose of religion courses. Of the 120 credits required to graduate nineteen credits must be in religious studies. This is very close to the credits required for a minor in most colleges and is far more credits than the college requires in science. All-in-all I think Liberty University is a very appropriate place for Cruz to make his pitch to be the Republican standard bearer. They are a good fit for each other!