- Energised by last year's election victory which mobilised
their vote, Christian conservatives have been confidently pushing a moral
agenda which puts education at the heart of a battle to change US culture.
-
- Sitting in a noisy but strangely tidy student canteen,
Naomi Laine outlined her political vision.
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- "My intention is to impact the culture [of America],"
she said.
-
- "The people are the most important component of
a society, and so that's where the battle for the minds needs to be waged."
-
- Naomi sounds like a well-seasoned politician. But she
is in fact a first year student at Patrick Henry College, America's first
university established primarily for evangelical Christian home-schooled
children.
-
- Patrick Henry College is located in the small commuter
town of Purcellville, Virginia.
-
- It is only a short drive from Washington DC but just
far enough away not to be influenced by the big city culture of the capital.
-
- Founded in 2000 and with ambitious plans for expansion,
the college sits on a 106-acre plot of land, dominated by the colonial
grandeur of Founders Hall, the main building on the campus.
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- Biblical values
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- All the students at Patrick Henry are highly motivated,
intelligent, and perform at a level to rival those in America's best known
Ivy League universities.
-
- They are also all deeply religious and committed to transforming
America.
-
- In fact all students have to sign a statement before
they arrive, confirming, among other things, that they have a literal belief
in the teachings of the Bible.
-
- "We want our kids to be world changers," said
Michael Farris, founder and president of Patrick Henry College.
-
- Mr Farris, a constitutional lawyer and political activist,
established the college with a very clear aim: "To prepare Christian
men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless
Biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding."
-
- "If we are going to have our values reflected in
our culture, we've got to train our kids in those values and train them
for leadership," Mr Farris said. "And so this is a very concerted
effort to train top leaders."
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- Political training
-
- Mr Farris is one of the leading figures in the Christian
revival taking place in America today.
-
- More than 90% of the population say they believe in God,
while 70% are Christian.
-
-
- Christians do have something to say in politics Michael
Farris Mr Farris is training a new generation who will place Christian
beliefs at the heart of their social and political activities.
-
- "Christians do have something to say in politics,"
said Mr Farris. "We have as much right as anybody else to speak our
mind and assert our values."
-
- The values Mr Farris wants to instil in his students
are those of the conservative Right.
-
- Freedom is the key concept, and for Mr Farris freedom
means the right to hold private property, and self-government.
-
- He sees a limited role for the federal government, with
decision-making being taken only by elected officials.
-
- He is not a fan of the UN or the Supreme Court because
they are unelected.
-
- He is also vehemently opposed to abortion and same-sex
marriage.
-
- Conservative conspiracy?
-
- With President George W Bush in the White House and a
Republican dominated Congress, the time seems right for Mr Farris and Patrick
Henry College.
-
- His students already have a level of access to Washington
politics that few universities in the US can match.
-
- Also, some 22 conservative members of Congress have employed
interns from Patrick Henry over the past few years.
-
- Critics see the college's very close connections to Mr
Bush's White House as evidence of a conservative conspiracy to take over
the institutions of power.
-
- But Mark Rozell, professor of public policy at Washington
DC's George Mason University, sees it differently:
-
- "What Michael Farris is doing with Patrick Henry
College is a perfectly legitimate part of the political landscape,"
he said.
-
- "If other people feel threatened by it, they've
got to get out there and mobilise their folks to be well-trained, serving
internships, getting to Washington and so forth."
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- Democrat response
-
- It is a message that is beginning to be heard.
-
- Since November's election, leading Democrats such as
Hilary Clinton are looking at how they can also engage in the language
of God.
-
- Jim Wallis, one of America's leading evangelical preachers,
said it was time to end the Republican stranglehold on faith-based politics:
-
- "Somehow Jesus has become pro-rich, pro-war and
only pro-America," he said.
-
- "How did this ever happen? Our faith has been stolen
and it's time to take it back.
-
- "There's a growing progressive evangelical movement
in the US which cares about poverty and the environment and we're talking
about what it means to apply faith to our politics."
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/4311709.stm
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