The Bible college that leads to the White House

[leQ]

Independent UK

The campus is immaculate, everyone is clean-cut and cheerful. But just what are they teaching at Patrick Henry College? And why do so many students end up working for George Bush?

{snip}

Students must also obey a rule stating that if they wish to hold hands with a member of the opposite sex, they must do so while walking: standing while holding hands is not permitted. And at Patrick Henry, students must sign an honour pledge that bans them from drinking alcohol unless under parental supervision.

Yet these things alone do not make the college special. There are, after all, a number of Christian establishments across the United States that enforce such a strict fundamentalist code for their students.

No, what makes Patrick Henry unique is the increasingly close - critics say alarmingly close - links this recently established, right-wing Christian college has with the Bush administration and the Republican establishment as a whole. This spring, of the almost 100 interns working in the White House, seven are from Patrick Henry. Another intern works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, while another works for President George Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove. Yet another works for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Over the past four years, 22 conservative members of Congress have employed one or more Patrick Henry interns. Janet Ashcroft, the wife of Bush's Bible-thumping Attorney General, is one of the college's trustees.

{snip}

Internships or apprenticeships, which all students are required to do in their final year, form a major part of their courses. Many spend time working for Republican members of the House or Senate, or in the White House. Only one student has interned for a Democrat. "Most students' values don't link up with the Democrats," Bonicelli says.

"Values" are something the students here seem to think about an awful lot - values and focus. Indeed, it must be rare to find a group of students so apparently focused as those at Patrick Henry. (Perhaps they are mindful that the admissions document they sign warns that "Satan exists as a personal, malevolent being who acts as tempter and accuser".)

{snip}

Why had he wanted to study at Patrick Henry? "A lot of what they teach in public schools is not based in reality. I am a believer in creation," he says. Did that belief lead to a conflict with his pursuit of science? "None whatsoever. I have discussed this and spoken to many scientists and I found that there is no contradiction."

A little further on we stopped to speak to Leeann Walker from San Diego, a 20-year-old due to be among the college's first students to graduate next month. Unlike most of the students, Walker had not been homeschooled, but she had nothing but praise for her friends who had. "I have found them to be some of the most responsible, most hardworking people I have ever met," she says.

Walker says she feels the college has prepared her for the real world, and that she is looking to work for one of the many conservative think tanks in Washington. "The mindset of most students is of denial of reality. They want to stay in their own, self-centred world for as long as possible."

more @ Independent UK

the writer compared the college to the film pleasantville. i was having visions of the stepford wives. *shiver*

[arcane1]

1. "Most students' values don't link up with the Democrats

hate and war and killing and looting are their core "values", I guess...

scary people, man, scary...

[dedhed]

2. Jumbo shrimp, anyone?

Why had he wanted to study at Patrick Henry? "A lot of what they teach in public schools is not based in reality. I am a believer in creation," he says.

:wtf:

That's hilarious in a frightening sort of way...

[SheepyMcSheepster]

3. wow, that is a classic line

nt.

[saigon68]

4. CHECK THIS SCARRY SCARRY SHIT OUT

http://www.phc.edu/news/docs/200403300.asp

Students studying in the newest program at Patrick Henry College do not usually wear trench coats and dark glasses. You will not see them cruising around campus in bullet-proof, rocket-equipped sports cars. And they do not drink martinis, shaken, stirred, or otherwise. But students enrolled in PHC's new strategic intelligence studies track are learning all about what it takes to join the nation's first line of defense—the men and women of the American intelligence community.


The stated goal of SIP is to prepare graduates for meaningful careers in the intelligence community (Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, etc.), domestic counter-terrorism and law enforcement (Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigations, etc.), and diplomacy (Foreign Service, State Department, etc.). These graduates will eventually work their way into positions to positively influence and shape this increasingly important part of our culture. Since the widespread proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the tragedy of 9/11, the need for more and better information about our would-be enemies is greater than ever. "There are evil people in this world who would like nothing better than to see Americans killed and the American way of life destroyed," added Eliot Jardines, Assistant Director of SIP at Patrick Henry. "The preservation of our liberty requires constant vigilance. Who is going to do it? Who better than these young men and women of integrity and honor?"

[SeveneightyWhoa]

17. Scary.

The people "protecting" Americans, working for the DHS, FBI, CIA, State Department, etc, will have gotten their education at a Christian-fundamentalist institution. Yikes.

[hatrack]

5. They'd look great on a Bush "science" panel, don't you think?

I mean, what could possibly be better than a whole bunch of people who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old reviewing and deciding on energy policy, climate destabilization or forests and land policies?

[saigon68]

6. That would be interesting

Very interesting

[Moderator]

7. Moving to GD

This school has been covered before in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=406790

[LeftofU]

8. Ashcroft"s wife is on the board of trustees..

http://www.phc.edu/about/trustees/default.asp

[BrotherBuzz]

10. Jinx!

I'm a slower reader then you!

Here's something else I found on their site. Can you find what is conveniently missing?

Equality. We hold this truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. All human beings are created in God's image, and all are precious and equal in His sight. Bigotry is a sin against God and man; therefore, it is appropriate that government forbid discrimination in commerce, education, and employment based upon ethnicity, national origin, or skin color.

www.phc.edu/about/FundamentalStatements.asp

[sadiesworld]

11. Unbelievable.

[DulceDecorum]

12. Employment should be based upon

ethnicity, national origin, or skin color?

Are they Noahides?

[haele]

16. Nope, they're future cannon fodder and scapegoats...

"good little citizens" who will happily take the fall for the old men (and women) who tell them when and how high to jump.

Haele

[Christ was Socialist]

15. religion and Sexual prefrence n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Ding, Ding, Ding!

Ummm, Christ was a socialist? I thought he was a Fellow Traveler, but it appears we are both wrong because I read further down on that same page and found it to be untrue.

www.phc.edu/about/FundamentalStatements.asp

Private Property. As God's image-bearers with dominion, and stewardship responsibilities, over the remainder of creation, men and women have the inalienable right to own and manage their own property, subject to government regulation only in the unusual situation where the rights of others are endangered. Government systems such as communism and socialism, which give the government primary control over property, are a violation of God's creation order.

on edit: Welcome to DU from a Fellow Traveler

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. You can add to the list of discrimination they seem to accept

sex discrimination - note the paragraph about employment etc. says 'men are created equal', but later they are willing to allow 'men and women have the right to own property'. So they don't mean 'men' to be an inclusive term for all adults.

Most people interpret "render unto Caesar" etc. as meaning that government is allowed to own property. "God's creation order" - what a load of junk. I've rarely seen a more obvious example of people who 'create' God in their own image.

[October]

22. women

[BrotherBuzz]

9. Surprise! Janet Ashcroft is on the board of directors

Scary place!
www.phc.edu/about/trustees/default.asp

[Moderator]

13. leQ

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[ComerPerro]

14. Values? Republicans have no "values"

They only have self-interest.

I am sorry, but greed is not a "value" or a virtue.

[mitchum]

18. Where in the hell did these people come from?

From @1940 on , American domestic/social policy was largely driven by liberal humanist philosophy (under both Dems and reps) These people started crawling out of the woodwork during the Reagan years. Where did they come from? Were they all seething at John Birch meetings and Billy James Hargis crusades? It is time for them to be marginalized again.

[tom_paine]

19. Good to know that Patrick Henry U. is the Amerikan Heidelberg University

http://www.history-of-the-holocaust.org/LIBARC/LIBRARY/Themes/Policy/Carmon.html

I'm sure the Monster Training is going at least as well as Comrade Napoleon's training of the Attack Dogs in the book "1984". If you haven;t read it, do so, it is the Bushevik Mein Kampf, along with www.newamericancentury.org

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Animal Farm, not 1984, surely? n/t