Alan M. Dershowitz - Liberty University Convocation

today is like a homecoming our speaker is someone who yeah be seated someone that I've watched all my life because I was I was a UVA law student when Alan Dershowitz and my father would would often have friendly debates on I guess back then it was CNN I don't know which was one there weren't as many news networks back then as there are now but his uh he was the lawyer in the OJ Simpson case which began in January of 1995 he he was part of the dream team of with F lee Bailey Johnnie Cochran Robert Kardashian Robert Shapiro he clerked for a Supreme Court justice Arthur Goldberg he went back to academia after that he was at Harvard Law School and at 28 years old he's published more than a thousand articles in magazines newspapers journals blogs New York Times Washington Post Wall Street Journal he's got the lead editorial in today's Wall Street Journal he he held the professorship the Felix Frankfurter felt professorship there Harvard from 1993 until his retirement in 2013 he is he was known for his focus on civil liberties as an attorney but over the course of his career he's garnered an array of accolades including an appointment as I said to the Felix Frankfurter fellowship of law at Harvard University and a 1979 Guggenheim Fellowship he won 13 of 15 murder and attempted murder cases that he handled he represented several high-profile clients over the course of his career he Ayers turned bank robbers his way before your time but Patty Hearst businessman Klaus von bülow film makers Woody Allen and Roman Polanski he represented televangelist Jim Baker hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley boxer Mike Tyson WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and socialite Gigi Gordon Jordan he's a prolific author he's written 30 fiction and nonfiction works with the worldwide audience including the New York Times number one bestseller chutzpah and five other national bestsellers some of his other books include reversal of fortune reasonable doubts the best defense the advocates devil supreme and justice how the High Court hijacked the election in 2000 the case for Israel taking a stand my life in the law rights from wrongs the case for peace the case against impeaching Trump and the case against BDS why singling out Israel for boycott is anti-semitic he's a regular media contributor he can't turn on turn on it hardly any news channel without seeing Alan Dershowitz at some point he's written taught and lectured about history philosophy psychology literature he's been called the nation's most most most prominent civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights the best-known criminal lawyer in the world the top lawyer of last resort he was named he was awarded the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award by the Russian Jewish community he the thing I've admired about Alan I could go on and on with this with his resume here because it's just another whole page but it's just incredible what he's accomplished in one lifetime and he but what I've always admired about him is he never let his political views influence his he was always in his opinion about the law and about the Constitution he was always fair stayed true to what the original and was and and he he was one of the very few people that did that and he he's just been somebody I've admired from a distance for a long time and so I wanted you to hear from him it's not many university students to get to hear from someone of his stature and so welcome please to Liberty University have a scissor reel to a video to show quickly but but please welcome after the video to Liberty University Alan Dershowitz [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for the one the only calendar service is in the house such an honor to have him here so much to talk about such a storied career but can we just go to the beginning and talk about your just your childhood and how some of the ways that just the Lord brought you up into this world actually ended up causing you to choose law as your profession and also I'd love to hear a little bit about your earlier connections with this university as far as with our founder as well well first of all thank you so much for inviting me wow this is an amazing amazing event an amazing place I wish all Americans could see this and hear the songs that joined you together it's just absolutely remarkable I am blown away this is my second visit I had a wonderful if sometimes contentious relationship with the Reverend Jerry Falwell the founder of this great University we used to tease each other a lot on television and when I wrote my own book on the Bible called the genesis of Justice he volunteered to write up an endorsement for the book but his endorsement said that my book was blasphemy at its best that's what that was the Reverend Jerry Falwell and so I was blessed as to win and how I was brought up I was brought up in a modern Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn right after the Holocaust many of my relatives were murdered in the Holocaust some of my friends in elementary school had numbers on their arms they had survived Auschwitz and Birkenau and when you were brought up in that environment and background you couldn't help but be a civil libertarian someone who loved Liberty and someone who supported due process I was also 10 years old when the dream of my people came to fruition and Israel was re-established as the nation-state of the Jewish people I say reestablish because it had existed as you all know during the time Jesus and for many years before that so I was brought up at an incredibly wonderful wonderful time also I was brought up at a time when America was expanding the economy was expanding I remember when I saw Jackie Robinson come to bat for the first time in Evans field the first african-american and I said to myself if an african-american man can play second base for the Brooklyn Dodgers a Jewish kid from Brooklyn can accomplish anything and we grew up in that kind of environment I was not a good student in elementary school or high school I went to Jewish parochial school and I didn't get along that well with the rabbi's one day the principal a rabbi an Orthodox rabbi called me in and said Dershowitz we got to figure out what we're gonna do with you you've got a good mouth but you don't have such a good brain he said you should pick a job where you use your mouth but not your head he said I have two suggestions remember he was an Orthodox rabbi he said I have two suggestions one you could be a conservative rabbi or two you could be a lawyer now I wasn't smart enough to be a rabbi so I became a lawyer I was always a lawyer from the time I was born I argued with everybody I never accepted anything just because somebody told me that and so I became a lawyer and of course growing up where I grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust I became a defense lawyer I wanted to defend people I marched in the south against segregation I opposed the death penalty I opposed McCarthyism all through my youth I tried to stand up for a Liberty and I think what I have become is a product of my a religious upbringing I studied the Bible I was a deeply religious and committed a Jew I learned the Talmud but also because of the time that I grew up following the Holocaust the establishment of the State of Israel and thank God I was lucky I was lucky I was born at a good time and I've tried to pay back what I've done I do half of my cases free pro bono I represent people who can't afford me I have to admit when I can represent somebody who can't afford me I charge them and I charge them good and I give a substantial portion of that to help people who can't afford me so thank you again for inviting me here I'm really looking forward to some probing questions from both of you here on the stage with me I remember from my days in law school and after watching you on TV and you were you're considered a liberal but you always said I may not agree with you but I'll die for your right to say it and you were telling me in the back room that a lot of some of your colleagues still feel that way but there's a new radicalism on the left that doesn't seem to agree with that and that's why the President signed the free speech on campus executive order yesterday I was at I was at the while Asians for your role and having him do that that's really a very important step forward for all of Americans right thank you we you know we I was there at the White House for the signing and and he made it clear that if colleges and universities keep disinviting conservative speakers keep ridiculing conservative students in the classroom that they lose federal research dollars and it's a lot of mites billion billions of dollars but but I I went on PBS newshour live last night right afterwards and I was arguing against a fella who said there's no liberal bias liberals get disinvited just as much at colleges as conservatives but I couldn't get him to give me one example and so I remembered a speech by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg while I was sitting there on this on the set and I've heard a few years back where he chastised the Ivy League because he said 96% of the faculty staff had donated to the Obama administration he said how can you have free expression of ideas academic freedom when 96% of the faculty are of one persuasion and so that was the that was the key point I tried to make but but well what do you think but but the thing that bothers me the most about the new radicalism of course the lack of free speech on campus is a terrible thing about that's what college is supposed to be about but what bothers me more is there seems to be an anti-semitic thread to this new radicalism and I couldn't believe they were attacking Chelsea Clinton for speaking out against anti-semitism and accusing her of being a being a folk Islamist Islamophobia yeah I actually tweeted about that and I found out last night that you had written an article right at the same time that I tweeted about it tell us what your thoughts are on that well I think what's going on in university campuses today is much of like what went on when I was a college student when I was a college student I lived through McCarthyism where people were attacked for their beliefs I hated communism I grew up in a house where Stalin was almost as bad as Hitler but I defended the right of teachers and individuals to express views different from my own and for many many years between McCarthyism and what's now called progressivism it's a terrible term it's really regressive not progressive there has there wasn't a sense that you could speak your mind at university campuses today that's not true today unless you speak on behalf of kind of identity politics on groupthink radical left views you're not really encouraged to come on campus I'm a liberal and I have been banned and shut down on university campuses because I support Israel and if you support Israel you're regarded as a quote zyo fascist even though Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and even though I'm sometimes critical of some Israeli policies everybody should be critical of every government's policies that's the nature of democracy but the worst thing is the intolerance that the hard left has toward dissenting views it's amazing and I think every American should know this that you have invited me to speak here today even though we have some fundamental disagreements about some social issues about some political issues about some religious issues but you welcomed me with open arms the obverse is not true somebody with your views would not be welcome to speak today at major Ivy League universities I'd be there defending you I'd be there introducing you I'd be proud to have you as a speaker on my campus but you would be shut down there would be efforts to what's called deep platform U which is a fancy word of saying censoring you not letting you speak and when you get a congresswoman like congresswoman Omar from Minnesota saying that Jews control and hypnotize the world and it's only because of dollars and the Benjamins and Jews have dual loyalty and Chelsea Clinton correctly calls her out on it and then she gets attacked and called Islamophobic it's simply a way of trying to silence criticism it's a way of trying to say if you criticize bigots and anti-semites you will be called a bigot and an islamaphobe and he'll Chelsea apologized I wish he hadn't apologized me too I wish he would stand up for her principles I would never apologize for telling the truth and criticizing bigotry whether it's bigotry against Christians and let me tell you whenever there's bigotry against Jews the Christians are next the bigots who hate Jews hate Christians and they hate America for the most part and they're coming after you after they come after me so we're in this together and we have to defend and support free speech and religious freedom tell the story of my father was one of the first to lead the first evangelicals to promote the idea of evangelicals really need to be support the State of Israel for all the reasons you just said but tell the story about what happened the first time Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the United States after he was elected prime minister in 1996 the first person he came to see was the Reverend Jerry Falwell he wanted to express appreciation for at a time of diminishing support for Israel on the left increasing support for Israel among evangelical Christians and evangelical Christians we know love Israel support Israel are among the strongest supporters of Israel and so it was understandable for the Prime Minister of Israel to show his respect for the great Reverend Jerry Falwell the Clintons didn't like that because Reverend Falwell had made some very critical statements about the Clintons and the Clintons really let Benjamin Netanyahu know what they felt and not to know called me and asked me if I would speak to Bill Clinton who was a friend of mine and explained to him why it was the right thing to do and I have to tell you I did explain and Bill Clinton understood Hillary Clinton not so much but Bill Clinton clearly understood and he understood when you're the prime minister of a country you have to put your country's interests first and the interests of Israel were to show appreciation to the Reverend Falwell and to show respect by meeting him on his first trip so I'm proud of the Prime Minister for doing that I'm proud of the Reverend Falwell for welcoming the Prime Minister of Israel it's better than what some Democratic senators did when not in you who spoke in front of Congress about the Iran deal opposing the Iran deal which every decent person should have a pose the Iran deal many Democratic senators refused to attend they would have come to hear Castro they would have come to hear our fought they would have come to hear a people who are major deniers of human rights but they refused to come to hear the Prime Minister of Israel and even today as you watch the news some of the Democratic candidates for president refused to attend the APEC meeting in Washington AIPAC is the pro-israel lobby in Washington and that's a serious mistake Israel is a great ally of America and we should work together to fight against terrorism extremism and all other kinds of evils that are in the Middle East Israel is America's strongest ally most reliable ally nobody knows who's going to be in charge of Egypt tomorrow or Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Syria or Lebanon everybody knows that matter who's elected in Israel it will be a democratic election and whoever that prime minister is will support the United States of America militarily with intelligence and in every other possible way it's a great alliance and a great alliance between Christian Americans and the State of Israel I couldn't agree more a good Jew a good friend of mine who's a Jewish fellow called me last night from New York City and he was so proud because he went to Cornell and if the president of Cornell just wrote a letter yesterday attacking BDS right BDS means boycotting discriminating against vesting and sanctioning only one country in the world the nation-state of the Jewish people it's anti-semitic to its core and many students are pushing for that including congresswoman Omar and two other recently elected Congress but he was just so happy about that he neat when you when he heard you were coming he wanted me to mention that appreciate that thank you but uh but we one question I want to ask is if what advice if President Trump were sitting here right now and you could give him any advice that you wanted to give him what would it be I gave him advice on television I said don't tweet don't pardon and don't testify and the other bit of advice I would say is you're the President of the United States and you have to watch your language you have to make sure that you don't engage in the kind of language that we just don't expect from a president but you judge a president by many factors for me bipartisan as a means that I support a president who I didn't vote for I did not vote for Donald Trump but I supported his move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Israel and I said so I supported what he said just yesterday about the Golan Heights remaining within Israel I support many of his policies outside of Israel and when I support him I'm gonna say so when I opposed Barack Obama I said so that's what bipartisan means and I hope that we can maintain a sense of civility the one great thing about my relationship with the Reverend Jerry Falwell is we were always civil and friendly toward each other we listened to each other I learned from him I hope maybe he learned from me that's the nature of dialogue none of us was born with all the truth about every conceivable issue on our side we learn from other people and that's what's great about this assembly here today and what you do 80 times a year I gather you listen to different points of view and in the end there's only one person who can decide what you think is truth and that is you based on your experiences based on your intellect based on your assessment of the issues that's why I think it's so important that all voices be heard on university campuses and I think many people would be shocked to know that Liberty University is more diverse in its opinions than Harvard University you know that same that same fella I just mentioned from New York said last night he gave me the same advice because I was on vacation last week with my family when I get bored on vacation I start Twitter fights yeah and he happens to be our PR he own our PR firm in New York Liberties PR firm so he said Jerry I'm so proud of you this week I haven't seen you on Twitter I said because I've been busy yeah well no see I my wife won't let me get on Twitter she says if you want to tweet something you have to pass it by me you have to pass it by your assistant and now she says you have to pass it by your lawyer so I don't tweet that much I do a little bit but I get the approval most importantly of my wife and that keeps me under control otherwise I'd be Donald Trump my my wife gave up she actually stopped following me on Twitter that's the ultimate insult in the world of cyber today I know I can't agree on everything but yeah you and my father both agreed strongly on the issue of Israel and one thing I would appreciate about you is you've stayed so consistent over the years and you haven't drifted one way or the other in your in your views or in what you say you just I've stayed true to your core beliefs and that's rare can I give you an example of that people are shocked to know that you know I wrote a book which got me into a lot of trouble with my liberal friends and particularly my friends on Martha's Vineyard I wrote a book called a case against impeaching Trump that was not the original title the original title was the case against impeaching Hillary Clinton why because like most other Americans I thought Hillary Clinton would be elected and I remember that the Republicans was saying on day one as soon as she's inaugurated we're gonna start impeachment proceedings against her so I decided to write a book against using impeachment against Hillary Clinton well it didn't work out that way right and Trump got elected president so I wrote the same book I just changed the name from Clinton to Trump that proves my consistency but my publisher in addition in addition to these two covers the case against impeaching Trump and Clinton my publisher came up with a third cover it's a brown paper envelope so that people on Martha's Vineyard could read my book without being ostracized nobody would know that they were actually reading my book that's how bad it's become if you say anything that's perceived as supportive of Trump you're an enemy if you say anything that's perceived as not supportive of all Liberal Democrats you're an enemy it's like picking sides tonight everyone in this room is going to be rooting for liberty in the basketball game there's no compromise nobody here is going to say on the one hand Mississippi State on the other hand Liberty it's all Liberty every day all the time that's okay when it comes to sports that is not OK when it comes to life and politics and trying to keep America the leading country in the world Ted Koppel the other night said that the the mainstream press I think he named the New York Times and Washington Post had really become there weren't newspapers anymore they just everything's every article not every article many articles are just opinion pieces there's no question about that the New York Times has become untrustworthy when it comes to reporting the news I have to tell you it's worse than that The New Yorker which was once a great magazine has now become a political organ of the hard left they've just commissioned the hit piece on me because I support Netanyahu I support Israel I support the civil liberties and civil rights of Trump and the editor of The New Yorker hates me for it so he commissioned a piece to attack me wait till he finds out you spoke at Liberty hmm wait till he finds out you spoke it good I'm very proud of that I hope he puts that in the article but but it's true today my wife and I when we watched like the State of the Union we'll have two televisions on we'll watch it on CNN we'll watch it on Fox then we'll watch the commentary afterward and it's as if you saw two different speeches I don't know how many of you know the name Walter Cronkite he was the greatest journalist in modern mid-century America and he was known for his objectivity he couldn't get a job today he wouldn't get a job on a network he couldn't get a job writing for a newspaper because he's too nuanced he's too centrist he never took sides he reported the news as the news deserved to be reported and we're living in an Orwellian age today when the news and the media have become weaponized against political enemies the criminal justice system which I have been teaching for 50 years has become weaponized if you don't like somebody's politics indict um that's been the mantra whether you're a Democrat who wants to indict Trump or a Republican who wants to indict Hillary Clinton that's not the answer the answer is argue with them participate in the court of public opinion make your points known and then people will decide after hearing all the arguments what the truth is and that's what's so difficult today and where I don't envy your generation your generation is gonna have a very very hard time distinguishing truth from fantasy and you're gonna have to work harder than we had to work when I was a kid you could pick up the New York Times maybe you'd want to weed the Wall Street Journal as well but today I can't tell you the name of a newspaper or a television station which if you watched or read that alone you would be able to make an honest assessment about what's going on in the world you are challenged by that and that's why it's so important for you more than my generation more than the generation of people on this day age to think for yourselves you know we get we in the 2016 election we ran an opinion piece and the newspaper at Liberty owns a newspaper here on campus we ran a piece for all three candidates an opinion piece written by different students for all three candidates but we got accused of censorship because we didn't run to for Hillary and one for the other two and so appointed I mean when I see what happens to Washington Post the New York Times they make decisions every day that are slanted in one direction but yet when a conservative just does something as simple as one one article for each candidate we're used to censorship so it's it's a different standard and it's as conservatives I think you young people are gonna have to deal with the double standard anything you do will be it's even the least bit questionable you'll be condemned for it but while people on the other side get a pass and that's just it's gonna it makes your careers and your lives harder and it will it's something you're gonna have to deal with until there's some kind of monumental change and in the the open-mindedness and the dedication to the First Amendment in this country there that we used to have yeah and the other thing I would urge you is do not let them push you around if they're gonna condemn you stand up to them fight back even if you do things and say things that I fundamentally disagree with I will support you and defend you and every good civil libertarian should the American Civil Liberties Union used to do that now they're bought and paid for by the anybody but Trump campaign get Trump at any cost campaign the ACLU is not standing up for civil liberties on college campuses it's not standing up a due process it's not standing up for free speech and that's why you're gonna have to have a very thick skin look to be a Christian in America is to develop a thick skin today to be a committed Jew in America is to develop a thick skin you're being trained to do that but don't ever let them push you around even if you get a job with the liberal media and everybody there is a liberal stick to your principles remain true to your beliefs be open to other points of view maybe you'll change maybe you'll become a liberal maybe you'll become a radical leftist who knows you are free to do that as long as you do it from your own free will as long as you don't do it as the result of being pressured by other people and it's tougher I agree and it's tougher at your age to have a thick skin I remember when you get our age you let things roll off your back but but I remember going on a father when he spoke at Harvard Yale Columbia even at my law school at UVA law school it wasn't deep platformed but I introduced him at Harvard yes okay but well then we have met before but uh but he he he got booed and hissed some I remember sir ticularly a young do you remember a young woman got up and said I am your nightmare I am a lesbian communist atheist and do you remember that and he handled it brilliantly but I remember that day at Harvard because I was there I just remember it was a great memory I just remember at UVA law school I happened to be a student when he spoke there so I was sitting there with my fellow students and you know he was he was getting some heckling and some booze and and I just remember you know it took it pretty hard because I was with my classmates and somebody was with us with traveling my father said look you might think this is tough but you're gonna you're gonna see a lot more of this as you get older and you're tense your skin's gonna get thicker and thick and you just you have to get to the place where you just you don't let it affect you and it was good advice it's not easy not easy to follow it's it's easy advice to give but when you're in the vortex of the storm and everybody is screaming at you and everybody is saying that you're and then they use terrible words to describe you it's not easy and you won't find it easy because you're gonna want people to like you Reverend Falwell had a way about him no matter how much criticism there was he would have that smile and he knew because he had faith that he could defend himself and support himself it's not so easy to do and and and you're gonna have to work hard on accomplishing it especially when you're young because you're worried about your future elections in turn your future reputation look what might when I wrote my first petition against executing the Rosenbergs in the McCarthy period my mother and father thought my career was over that I'd have a permanent record as a communist supporter even though I hated communism but I thought I had to do it as a matter of principle and thankfully we live in America it would have hurt me if I had lived in the Soviet Union or an Iran or in other places in the world but in America you are respected for standing by your principles I liked your opinion on the ideas that have been thrown out recently about the Supreme Court about stacking it or changing the number of members and and I think what I read was is that you you said all the options to change probably have more downsides that we haven't thought of than upsides and and you made a great point back when our when the framers wrote the Constitution the average lifespan was what 4050 years ago and so when somebody was appointed to the Supreme Court it was near the end of their lives right and now they serve for sometimes 30 40 50 years right and so that is a different you know this is where it's a different world we live in but but talk more about that about the idea is to stack it to change it somebody said one of the ideas I saw in your article was have five Republicans five Democrats and let them choose five centrist but how do you how do you decide who's really a centrist I mean how do you know if they're telling the truth I would be opposed to that because it would increase the politicization in the Supreme Court I would like to see if we could ever get back to a time when there were nine justices who were all nonpartisan this is a great story about when President Herbert Hoover who was a very underrated president he helped save Europe after the first world war but he was president during the depression so obviously his legacy has been tarnished but when Oliver Wendell Holmes who was probably the greatest modern justice retired from the Supreme Court after serving on it forever and ever the president asked his attorney general to give him a list of the ten most qualified judges in the country to replace Oliver Wendell Holmes and it was a great list the very last name on the list was Benjamin Cardozo and President Hoover who was a Republican looked at the list and sold the Attorney General it's a great list but you have it upside down I want to appoint Cardozo and the Attorney General says well you can't he is a liberal Democrat you're a conservative Republican he is Jewish we already have a Jew Brandeis on the Supreme Court and the president said I don't care he's the most qualified person in America to serve on that court and replace olive-oil Holmes and he appointed him and he became a centrist non-ideological objective neutral I want to go back to those days where the Supreme Court is not seen as Republican justices versus Democratic justices I want every justice to be an American justice yes but you also mentioned that you might might favorite term limits for a supreme court do you feel the same way about congressmen and Senators I do I think in general are very very useful ways of creating kind of intellectual diversity in office also this nobody should serve in any office for 40 30 40 years it's just too much you know you can be the president of a university for 30 or 40 years or a minister but when it comes to government nobody should serve that long and particularly what we see now is presidents appointing younger and younger people in order to maintain their influence for as long as possible and I don't think that should be the case I think if we could do it without amending the Constitution I would favor 15 year terms for the Supreme Court or staggered terms so that every president gets to make at least one appointment to the Supreme Court it's an interesting story when Jimmy Carter was elected he had a list and according to at least Newsweek magazine I was on the list of possibilities to be appointed Carter never got to appoint a single justice to the Supreme Court he's the only president in modern history who never got disappoint a single justice so there are a lot of things but on balance if you ask me should we tinker with the Supreme Court I would say no if you're gonna amend the Constitution already then I would say term limits but I wouldn't start by doing that I think the Bill of Rights particularly should never be tinkered with they are wonderful wonderful documents of freedom and liberty everybody disagrees with some of them many liberals disagree with the Second Amendment on guns many conservatives disagree say with the privilege against self-incrimination or separation of church and state by the way on separation of church and state here's an issue we may have some disagreement I think the great reason why America is the most religious Western democracy in the world is because we have separation of church and state if you don't have separation then you blame the church on government's failings you blame the government on the church's fear of feelings I think countries that have separation of church and state religion thrives far more we are the most religious country in the world and if I have one criticism of Israel today it's that there is not enough separation that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has too much influence on personal matters like divorce and custody of children so I think we are blessed we are blessed with separation it's good for America it's good for religion remember the term separation of church and state comes from a religious minister Roger Williams who talked about not having the garden meaning the church influenced by the weeds and the forests of government keep the government out of the life of churches you are all event many of you are evangelicals that means you have a job to do you have to persuade people to be Christians and if you persuade them you've prevailed you don't need the help of the government you don't need the help of the law you have religion on your side go out and persuade you know it's interesting sometimes I hear criticisms from my friends who are Jewish who say why are you so close to evangelical Christians don't you know they're trying to convert you I say make my day go ahead try if you prevail okay as long as I have the freedom to maintain my religion as long as the government isn't compelling me to do it I have no objection to you trying to enter the marketplace of religion and trying to convert people to your way of life as long as I'm free to make my own decision I have absolutely no problem with that and that's why we that I agree but that's why Liberty puts a strong emphasis on apologetics because it it shows the historical proofs of what we believe what really happened with Jesus but that's that's not what I wanted to talk about the time this is Thomas Jefferson country and so when you talk about separation of church and state I learned something about it only because we had to sue the church the state of Virginia to change the Virginia Constitution in 2002 because churches could only own 50 acres of land in any in any city and we in the church that my father pastor needed to own more than that and so we did some research on it and we found out the reason that restriction was there goes back to Thomas Jefferson before the Revolution in Virginia every citizen had to be a member of the Anglican Church every citizen had to pay tithe and so the church bought up I don't know but maybe most of the land in Virginia and so after the Revolutionary War Thomas Jefferson's confiscated all those lands never compensated the Anglican Church and he also passed put it in the Constitution of Virginia that churches could never incorporate when those days no organization could own land unless it was incorporated so for years churches couldn't earn even one acre in the 1850s this Virginia Supreme Court changed it so that a church could appoint well no the church could go to the judge have trustees appointed the trustees could hold a property but they couldn't sell it or borrow against it couldn't do anything without court permission the number of acres increased over the years but that process that mm-hmm that rule was still in effect in 2002 and what we learned is the reason Jefferson was so was so determined for churches never to own land is because that the English government the British throne had used the church to create legitimacy for itself sure the the King appointed the archbishop of the Anglican Church and the King is the defender of the faith rise title the Pretender of the faith and so what they did is they used the church to text up to tax people through ties and Thomas Jefferson never wanted to see that happening he never wanted to see the government control the church so when he talked about separation of church and state he wasn't saying he didn't want the church to influence the government he was saying he didn't want the government to have control the church but the whole arguments been turned on its head look the churches can try to influence the government as much as they can they are advocacy groups you're entitled to you're entitled to your first class citizens in America you're entitled to try to persuade government to accept your views as long as there's no compulsion involved Thomas Jefferson was an incredibly great man I own one of his personal letters he wrote on the 25th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence talking about freedom of religion and freedom of speech it's one of my most valued and treasured possessions I actually wrote a whole book about it with a funny title called finding framing and hanging Jefferson because I found the letter I framed it and then I hung it on my wall so I love Thomas Jefferson and I'd love to be in Thomas Jefferson country yeah it makes me feel really good that's why there's so much red brick around yeah but but that was that was what he meant by separation of churches that he didn't mean that if a certain jurisdiction wanted to put the Ten Commandments up on a court courtroom wall that they couldn't do it well we disagree about that okay I knew I'd find something see I would put four of the commandments up I don't mind putting don't kill don't rob what I have a problem with is on a governmental church thou shalt they have no other God before you do not make unto thee a sacred image I'm even happy with respect your father and mother are maybe like without five of the commandments maybe that's a bad example I was across on the park or something I'm yeah no I think that crosses Stars of David every time you agree to have a cross on a public building you also agree to have a Muslim symbol a Jewish symbol an atheist symbol because we can't favor one religion over another what I much prefer is have the cross on private property adjoining the public sphere every year I like the Hanukkah candles in Miami Beach on a piece of land that's owned privately and the menorah is put up privately but it's in a public space I think our accommodation between religion and government and civil society is essential without the thumb of religion being too heavily integrated and entwined with with the state reasonable base is great because then there's strings attached on this always strings on the pair on the church right always you know he who pays the piper calls the tune if the church gets money they're gonna have to do something just like universities when universities get money they have to follow the rules that's true that's true these students all get federal financial right and good we don't get we don't get hardly any federal research money directly but but but you remember in the eighties the big criticism of conservatives like my father was you can't legislate morality and on issues like abortion and Family Values well now it seems like I hear arguments from the left that because Jesus said help the poor we should legislate that morality on all the citizens and tax everybody to give to the poor so it's like it's turned oh yeah look everybody picks and chooses you picked your favorite part of the gospel and you say we want that to be legislated or incorporated my own view is you're great advocates advocate for your position you're very persuasive you're gonna persuade people you don't need the heavy hand of government because the heavy hand of government comes with a hand being held out to and saying if we do this for you you're gonna have to do this for us so I stand by my separation of church and state and myself port for religious advocacy in the public sphere do your job you know render unto Caesar that's what obviously what Jesus said and it's a very very good I think mantra for governance as well I think I think it means good citizenship and I say that all the time and get got to the point that they would laugh a little bit when I said it because I said it so often render unto Caesar but but but we how are we doing on time David I forgot to let David ants ask any question I was just having so much fun but I know David has one question he wanted to ask me so I really just have enjoyed learning from both yeah I thought it's been amazing huh I think I think what was interesting is when we announced that you were going to be with us the number one question that the students wanted to make sure we asked is uh about OJ Simpson you know you are on the dream team okay and so I guess just because of respect for time let's just go ahead and get to it was OJ guilty or not so you're not the first person to ask me that question let me tell you what happened back in 1996 when Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister of Israel I've known him since he's 22 years old he called me into the office with my wife and my daughter to take pictures and say hello then he took me into his private private private room and he said so Alan I have a very important question to ask you I thought it would be about Iran or about the Palestinians he said Alan did OJ do it and I said mr. prime minister does Israel have nuclear weapons he said well you know I can't tell you that I said AHA you know I can't tell you that so we both agreed to keep a secret but let me explain to you in 30 seconds why OJ was acquitted despite the overwhelming evidence of his guilt they found a pair of socks black socks like the ones I'm wearing right in front of his bed and the black socks were analyzed and they had on them the blood of OJ Simpson and the blood of his victims my god could you come up with a better piece of evidence it's overwhelming you can't possibly be innocent if you have the blood of the victims along with your blood on the sock there was only one problem two problems number one the sock the blood on the sock had a chemical called EDTA which is an anticoagulant which is not found in the human body it's found because it'll kill you it's a blood thinner it's what's called used for rat poisoning but it's found in test tubes that is when you pour blood into a test tube you put EDTA in it so that the blood won't coagulate on the bottom and we were able to prove therefore that an officer named van adder took the blood of OJ Simpson and the blood in test tubes of the two victims and poured them on the sock when the sock was laying flat how else would we prove it because if you think about this for a second I'll have to stand up to show this to you wait a second okay I got it if you pour blood on a sock all right great I've never I've never had my legs approved of so much before when you pour blood on a sock you will find that it will splatter on this one side and then there'll be a mirror image on the inside of the sock but the third side of the sock and the fourth side of the sock that are separated by the leg will not have mirror images the only way you'd get a mirror image blood transfer is if the sock was lying flat and the blood was poured on the sock while it was lying flat rather than while it was being worn and we were able to demonstrate that all four sides of the sock had mirror image blood splatter that led the jurors to conclude that there was an attempt to frame now in the minds of many to frame a guilty person because the police thought he might get away with it because he had good lawyers and because maybe they would exclude certain other evidence and so the police plan to frame somebody they thought was guilty and several of the jurors said we cannot vote to convict even if we think the evidence is overwhelming if we believe that the police planted evidence so I want to put it to all of you let's assume you're the OJ Simpson jurors and you've come to two conclusions one you think the other evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Simpson was guilty but you also believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the police deliberately planted evidence against him how many of you vote to convict hands up how many of you vote to acquit how many of you have a hung jury okay so I think that explains why at least some of the jurors voted to acquit I don't think we won the OJ Simpson case I think the police and the prosecutors lost it now we know under our Constitution it's better for 10 guilty to go free one innocent to be wrongly convicted and I suspect that's what some of the jurors thought is it justice well somebody is going to judge that when the time comes was it human justice that's a very different issue okay I went way over I'm sorry I'm sorry but anybody else got anything that we forgot to ask just yell it out [Applause] right okay here why Oh [Applause] what do you like better Wendy's or McDonald's I have to tell you Katz's delicatessen on the Lower East Side of New York that's my favorite well we're so honored to have Allen here today and I bet you learned more today than you learn all semester can we thank Allen being here and being our guest fantastic

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 20,636

Rating: 4.3986926 out of 5

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty, Jerry Falwell

Id: aSo9BRJDzlE

Length: 56min 42sec (3402 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2019