Dr. Cornel West & Dr. Robert George - Liberty University Convocation

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] see they're just a song that sounds really good - when 10,000 people sing it or it's true and it's not true because we sing it we sing it because it is true that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone he is the foundation and the beginning and the end of everything that we build and so we want to build our life on Christ as the cornerstone we want to build our marriages we want to build our friendships we want to build our occupations everything that we want we want for his renown for his game amen and so it's good to be able to sing that we changed the second song that we were going to sing this morning at about 5:00 a.m. last night we had the privilege of getting to have dinner with our two distinguished guests and while we were having dinner I asked our guest I said is there is there a hymn these are two devout Christian brothers and so I said is there a song or hymn that maybe he grew up singing that really meant a lot to you and right away it was interesting dr. George said I loved the song softly and tenderly I loved that song he said I even though I'm a devout Catholic I remember going to you know just a church that was you know church that sang hymns and a church that just would always sing that truth about God and we thought we'd had it today just not just in his honor but because it's such a true song that's all I'm softly and tenderly in one sense is very missional it echoes revelation 3:20 where it says behold I stand at the door and I knock and it's so true that Jesus the ultimate gentleman begins the conversation by knocking at the door of your heart the conviction of his spirit and then we answer and we say I'm in you come on in and come take over my life be the landlord of everything that I am so in one sense there's a reason that people like Billy Graham and DL moody use this song an invitation song this missional but it's also Memorial in the sense that some in 1968 for example when this country was mourning and in lament because Martin Luther King had been assassinated this was the last song that they played at his memorial service at his funeral service to remind everyone that it was a temporary goodbye for the people of God that Martin might not be here but that he'll be in heaven and so he softly and tenderly calling us not just to be saved but to be sustained amen and that in this moment we sing that same truth that death loses its sting and evangelism but then death also loses a sting because one out of one of us will one day die and in that moment we'll finally get to be home amen so let's just come to the Lord and prepare our hearts for it and so will we sing this truth we preach it to one another we preach it to ourselves we thank you for the home that we find so much more than brick and mortar so much more than a place but a person that heaven is where you are God so thank you for calling us home thank you Lord that many of us have different stories to tell and when you knocked on the heart and we answered that call best thing we ever did and so we even as we sing this moment we look back at the hour we first believed let us not lose focus of what you've done in our life [Music] Jesus [Music] he's way [Music] jeez [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I looked over at dr. George when we were singing come home and I thank them for prompting that the worship leader that you are sir I'm just telling you there there's someone in this room this morning that needed to hear maybe someone watching from livestream there needed to to come home maybe even someone who's saved but it's just been protocol maybe just full of shame because of decisions that have been made and they just need to know that that God has his arms out and he's the forgiving father for the prodigal child and you needed to hear that today come home God's not upset with you God loves you just the way that you are and he wants you home him in and then can we thank the worship collective for leading great job have a seat real quick man I know that just judging from the traffic of the amount of people who have been emailing me trying to figure out how to come backstage and meet these two academic legends that been so many of you are so excited to have them in the house let me just give you a little bit of bio information and then we'll sit down and have a conversation by the way we typically even though we have up to 75 minutes in a combo typically take about an hour hour and five today we'll probably utilize the entirety of it and so just know that they typically sit down and have this conversation somewhere in the two to three hour range and so we're condensing it to about a forty 45 minute I mean about a 45 minute 15 minute conversation today trust me Tom's gonna fly when you hear what they have to say but just a little bit of information dr. George Robert George is a highly respected scholar and leader and one of the most prominent conservative voices of our time many of you look to him to speak into matters in culture as a conservative evangelical leader and as someone who always seems to have gravitas but at the same time is not as willing to say something that might even be confrontational without being dishonorable he's a widely published you know a professor as well you can read his writings in the New York Times and the Harvard Law Review in the Washington Journal and The Washington Post he's an award-winning a judicial fellow with the Supreme Court he's earned multiple degrees doctorates from Harvard Oxford he's been awarded over 20 honorary degrees in areas such as law ethics science and the division of humanities and so again just a celebrated author and a professor and one of the great a conservative thinkers of our time we also have with us dr. Cornel West a cultural icon and honestly just one of the preeminent liberal voices of our time and so this is this rare moment where you get a guy on the far right and you get a guy on the far left and they happen to be the dearest friends he's the first african-american to graduate from Princeton with a PhD in philosophy and has degrees from Harvard as well as over 20 honorary degrees as well he's published 20 books many of you might not know him from his academic work but you probably saw the movie The Matrix and the Matrix Reloaded then you go that looks like the guy in the movie all right but it there's been over 25 documentaries that he's been a part of the man has you know just Grammy nods in his life he's was written just so many different things there's so many artists he really is just a voice in the wilderness and he's a dear brother in Christ such an honor to have him here for those of you who maybe are going I thought I saw him in the movie we do have about a 50 second a real from the movie Matrix Reloaded come on let's watch this together put your hands together for these two youma you come on put your hands together for these distinguished guests such an honor to have you here before we talk about just civil discourse which is really what we want to attack more than anything else today could you give us a little bit of your own personal testimony we'd love to hear just you know how you got to the place that you've gotten to how you know your upbringing is affected so much of what we see now on the visible edges in your life but you know give us a little bit of your backstory if you don't mind well thank you first pastor David let me say what an honor and privilege it is to be here at Liberty with these wonderful students and your wonderful faculty and staff and it was such a joy to be with you and your dear wife and your daughter Grace yesterday evening and Katie for that lovely dinner and we're so grateful to you for that and of course it's always a joy a joy to be with my beloved friend my brother dr. West he's not only counselor West in there he's counselor West for me and I rely on his counsel and guidance and have learned so much from him and especially from the wonderful example the model of integrity and honor and decency that he that he sets so what a privilege it is to be here with him and with all of you I grew up in the hills of West Virginia just a few miles across the border that hunting and fishing and hiking and being a sort of Huck Finn type character my my grandfathers were both immigrants to this country my mom's mom fleeing the poverty of southern Italy Calabria my mom's dad my my dad's dad fleeing the oppression in Syria as a member of a small Christian minority in that troubled country and of course we're all working and praying for the Christian communities and other victims of persecution in the Middle East today where that continues I'm wearing as his brother Cornel a bracelet that was given to us by Pastor David's beloved sister representing the chains that bind so many people as they try to practice their faith across the world today and we're certainly in sympathy and in solidarity with people who are struggling but my father was saved by the mine from the mines by the Second World War he was conscripted at age 18 into the service served with great distinction in Normandy and in France and then with the occupation army he's he was honored for that as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour of France but he didn't have the opportunity to get higher education further education when he got back from the war went straight into work so I was the first in my family to go to college went off to Swarthmore College where I fell in love not only with a wonderful beautiful girl who has been my wife of 34 years but also I fell in love with ideas and with the pursuit of knowledge with the pursuit of truth and above all for that I have to express my gratitude to a dear friend that I hope someday to meet and that's the ancient Greek philosopher Plato it was encountering Plato's dialogues that transformed my understanding of what life was fundamentally about and certainly what academic work was fundamentally about I learned something profound that I hope all of you will learn if you have not learned already and that is as much as we value for instrumental purposes the pursuit of knowledge the pursuit of truth as much as we hope out of our education to get good jobs and make some money and acquire social standing all of which are good things there's nothing wrong with those things but they're not what's fundamental and they must never be put in the place of what's fundamental what I learned from Plato is that above all knowledge truth is valuable just for its own sake its intrinsic value is what matters so don't allow your education to be totally instrumentalized keep your eyes focused on truth and the pursuit of truth for its inherent enrichment for its intrinsic value and of course we as Christians believe that the truth is not merely a set of propositions about the way the universe works or the way a cell operates or what caused the first world war or anything like that those are important things those are worth knowing those are valuable truths but we believe that the truth is not just a set of propositions but above all the truth is a person the person of Jesus Christ the second person of the Blessed Trinity our Redeemer but dr. George before we go to dr. Weston his personal story I'm just curious I think when people look at you you look like someone they'd cast in a movie as a professor at an Ivy League school like Princeton and you look like you would be maybe like a child of privilege or a bit of a silver you know a spoon character but you're the first from West Virginia in your family to go to college I'm just curious how many of you you're the first person in your immediate family to go to when you stand up just real quickly I think there's a instant personal connection with that wow that's amazing yeah isn't it so many of you aim high you might get there one day alright this is good as against the West well first I want to say I'm just so deeply blessed to be here it's been such a warm welcome for both of us yeah and I want to thank you for that even at the airport was of brother Kevin and Rose sweet and this brother right here he is a special visionary delete' brother David Nasser oh yes very much so in his beloved wife Jennifer Jennifer and and daughter Grace and sister Katie we had a time last night in the life of the mind and the life of the Lord honestly I got to tell you they say things and presume you know what they're talking about cuz is it a whole other level so I kept going to the bathroom and asking Siri like words that are really long y'all would just say things and I was like sure and I'm like I'll be right back and I was like Siri what did Freud say in his fourth book in the fourth chapter then I'd come back out exhausting amazing I am Who I am because somebody loved me somebody cared for me that I am a product of the West family who I wish you all could have met my father before we passed and my mother's still going Irene be west of the elementary school named after her in Sacramento California where I grew up and my family was inextricably tied to Shiloh Baptist Church it's on the chocolate side of Sacramento but we worshipping the same God and the same Jesus very much so trying to see Jesus more clearly follow Jesus more nearly love Jesus more dearly that's what has gone into the shaping of who and what I am no I'm just being very honest about it and then I'm a crack vessel always been a crack vessel but always recognize I've got a joy that the world didn't give me in the world can't take away no it's true I've got a love that can't be defeated I've got a courage that can't be crushed and it has everything to do with what the great favorite philosopher of my dear brother Robin and anytime Ravi and I get together we'd only just have a good time we revel it in each other's humanity the love can never reducible to politics made an image of God made in the likeness of God deep friends beyond friendship not reducible to agreement on public policy I think he drawn on a number of issues he thinks I'm wrong on a number of issues we work it out but we revel in each other's humanity and we meet each other at the foot of the cross and that blood at that frog you gotta go back to your story though I know you don't like to talk about yourself but I heard last night honestly from you your father drove you to Harvard and you went through Harvard in three years money I wouldn't recommend that to anybody you stay four years study love hard work hard play hard learn how to grow and mature or most importantly as I tell my students learn how to die in order to learn how to live if Christians must die daily Christians must die daily trying to crush that sin that evil inside of us the last thing we ever want to be is well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference that indifference one trait that makes the very Angels weep indifference the evils more insidious and evil itself is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel so to be a Christian and it takes tremendous audacity to be in a process of becoming a Christian because we know we're fall and we know we're finite we know we're fallible we are cracked vessels and we're trying to allow a spirit greater than us to work through us so that we become a force for the kingdom and if the kingdom of God is within you then everywhere you go you ought to leave a little heaven behind how you relate how you connect how you laugh how you talk how you smile your witness moral spiritual political economic focused on the least of these focus on the vulnerable focused on the weak across the board I don't care what color you are I don't care what gender you are I don't care what sexual orientation with national identity you were made in the image and likeness of God and you have a sanctity you have a dignity that warrants a certain kind of treatment preach so good so again on paper you are such an unlikely couple I mean you are a conservative voice you are you don't even like to be called a Democrat because your way to the left I'm a Christian that means I'm trying to turn the world upside down in the name of love that's a different orientation it cuts deeper than all of these political Caliphate categories and labels you see yes sir and so because of your commonality in Christ talk to us about how this friendship started and how you do disagree all the time but you're never disrespectful tell us about the unity that that really allows you to be able to disagree but yet growing your friendship in the 1990s we were both teaching at Princeton University I'm still there but brother Cornell has abandoned me to go up to Harvard but but but but the good news is that when his daughter had to decide whether to go to Harvard to study with Daddy or to come to Princeton to study with Uncle Robby she made exactly the right decision so I've got stay tuned right here with me at yeah that's right so we were we were in some seminars together some faculty seminars together we we knew each other a little bit but not very well we were appointments as we weren't yet yet friends and of course we didn't see things and don't see things exactly the same way we have some profound differences but I noticed that in these conversations and faculty seminars on issues of public policy and political philosophy and so forth although I thought you know Cornell's getting all the wrong answers I said the cat's asking all the right questions and nobody asks else is asking the right questions so I began to admire him even then I understood the depth of his insight and understanding because 3/4 of the battle is asking the right question so often we fail because we're asking the wrong questions well then back in 2006 one day I got a knock at the door during my office hours a wonderful student of mine turns out also to have been a student of Cornell's named Andrew came to see me to ask if I would participate in a project that he and some of his fellow students were organizing they were creating a new magazine at campus magazine called the green light and in the magazine and each issue it was going to feature an interview of one professor by another professor so he said for the first issue we have asked professor Cornel West to be the interviewer and we've invited him to select another faculty member to interview and he said that he'd like to interview you would you be willing to be interviewed for the inaugural issue of our magazine by professor West and I said well Andrew now Andrew was a religion major brilliant religion majors at Princeton I said well Andrew let me make sure I've understood what you're saying here you're telling me that you asked professor West to do an interview with any other member of the faculty and he selected me to be the interview subject and Andrew said yes that's right and I said well I want you to send a message back to professor West I want you to tell professor West the professor George says but it is I who should be seeking baptism from you to which and responded huh I said you just tell him that and he'll understand he said okay but will you do it and I said I'd be absolutely honored and delighted to do it so Cornell came to my office on the appointed day we were supposed to talk for an hour we talked for four hours the the recording machine ran out but we just kept going on in those days we had recording machines you're young people don't know what they are you do this on your cell phones and they never run out until the battery runs out this is an old fashioned cassette tape player and the tape ran out but we just kept going because once we were in it we couldn't stop and we've never stopped since since that day in 2006 so even even when I looked at my watch and saw that it was six o'clock and time to go home I said well brother Cornell this has been wonderful you know it's just so good to get to know you better and this has been such a rich conversation we need to get to know each other better let's get together let's have lunch let's talk some more and he said oh brother Robbie that would be a wonderful thing to do and I said want you to walk me down to my car parked down in the parking lot down here so then we walked down to the car where I stood for another half hour 45 minutes with my hand on the latch as we continue to go back and forth with with each other and then just in that same week a few days later we got a letter and from our from our Dean of the college saying that she was needing more senior members of the faculty to teach freshman seminars and so the light bulb went off over my head and I said to myself wouldn't it be wonderful if brother Cornell and I could just continue that conversation perhaps have some some readings with a group of students freshman and and just and just kind of keep the conversation going so I got in touch with Cornell and asked if he'd be interested in doing that and he said he'd absolutely love to do that so we started teaching a Freshman Seminar together we read Sophocles Antigone and Plato's gorgeouss which had been so important to me in my own intellectual and spiritual Odyssey we read st. Augustine's Confessions we went all the way up through into the 19th century with Marx we read Hayek and into the 20th century read John Dewey CS Lewis and so forth and it was a fantastic experience and then so we just kept doing that and we kept teaching not always for freshmen but sometimes for upperclassmen kept teaching until brother Cornell abandoned me and went to Harvard and even then on one occasion he's come back to Princeton and we've continued to teach together just and I came to Harvard so it's been a blessed it's been a blessed relationship and that's how I've learned so much not only substantively in engaging these wonderful profound texts with brother Cornell not so much substantively but also about how to teach because this man is a master teacher as well engaging with with students bringing out the best in students requiring students by the way to consider all sides of a question never confusing education with indoctrination some people say the opposite of education is ignorance no the opposite of education is indoctrination education means considering the best to be said on all sides of questions being willing to have whatever your views are challenged in a serious way so that you can get to the truth of the matter the reason we need open minds and intellectual humility and robust dialogue and freedom of speech is not because there is no truth but because those are the conditions of truth seeking and people that understand that [Applause] one boy because I mean Jesus Christ would take away you seeing them but he doesn't take away your mind that your mind is to be used in such a way that you recognize both your own limitations we all have various forms of ignorance we'll all have various forms of wrestling with sin but at the same time something is Unleashed intellectually spiritually morally in relation to others with those you agree and disagree with because when you learn and when you listen when you have the kind of genuine humility and that humility is rooted in great gratitude on the one hand and a sublime dependence on a God greater than you and once you decide to live that kind of life which is a way of life is just not a matter of consenting to propositions it's a way of life a mode of being in the world with a smile on your face what a quest for truth and the condition of truth is always to allow suffering to speak the suffering inside of you the suffering inside of friends or stranger of neighbor and we Christians we're told to love our enemies you don't try that one on your own you need a whole lot of grease for that a lot of grease for that but that's part of the imperative in the obligation and you headed towards something so grand you've coined the phrase intellectual humility and I think your friendship exudes that can you expound a little bit more on that and and how even at any level you continue to be a student and learn from opposing thought and learn to be challenged sometimes it strengthens your own conviction sometimes it opens you up to new avenues that maybe you had obstructed speak into intellectual humility a little bit more is that I mean life itself is an adventure connected to a love and justice on the one hand a beauty and a quest for a genuine relation with a God who out of canosa self-emptying self donating self giving loved us so that we have access to a sources as the source of our piety that dependence here and given that framework it means in the language of the great Samuel Beckett that we try again fail again fail better try again fail again fail better all of us fall short the glory of God all of us fall short of the standards that has been bequeathed to us and yet we are fortified we put on the whole armor intellectually morally politically socially even as we again learn from each other in disagreement you see I try to look at the world through the lenses of the cross and that crosses not simply the cross where Jesus blood was shared but it's also a site where there is unarmed truth unconditional love justice what love looks like in public tenderness what love feels like in private tenderly that song said softly intended lazy Christians we yes we're tough Jesus have lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision he's turning over tables running out of the month running out the money changers in the temple but Jesus is so sweet and tender and Jen that's what we also ought to be connected to the swing between the toughness and the tenderness and we need a magnanimity of surrender that's very different than simply a coal obedience is not a matter of just following along but that magnanimity of surrender allows you to become self-emptying to give of yourself itself giving self donating in this way a willingness to acknowledge that something bigger than you can work do you as a force for good given our crack vessel status that I was a gangster before I met Jesus and now I'm a redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities pray for me maintain to conquer it every day so what I call anybody a gangster I'm looking inside of myself I mean I've got in trouble for calling the president a gangster you know what I mean brother West how come you called Donald Trump he's my brother he's made in the image of God he got gangsta proclivities he's got to work much harder it seems to me I got to work much harder we're in it together we loving each other and also keeping each other accountable answerable he can come back to me brother West sounds like you against the two let's just work it out but let's be honest let's be candid love as a matter of respect protect but also correct also correct oh yes when grandmama loved us she respected us she protected us and corrected us sometimes a little violent we won't go into the details one fact about ourselves that we know infallibly and that is the fact of our own foul ability now all of us every single person here every single person in the country every single person in the world who's honest knows that some of their beliefs the beliefs that they hold right now are not true the trouble is they don't know which ones they are if they knew which ones were untrue they would replace them with true beliefs now that as soon as we acknowledge it provides the foundation for this crucial condition of truth seeking called intellectual humility we have to understand that we could be wrong our critic could be right we could be wrong not only about trivial and ephemeral and minor things but about profound major important things and what does that mean that means we've got to listen to the critic we've got to be willing to entertain the challenge we must never shut down the critic or treat an intellectual adversary as an enemy when brother Cornell and I disagree whether it's about economics whether it's about social issues whatever it is when we disagree we are not enemies trying to defeat each other we are friends joined together in the common pursuit of truth we're pursuing it in the Socratic manner by what philosophers called dial inodes and philosophers out there I've met you you're wonderful by what philosophers called dialectic right we're going back and forth sometimes we get a little passionate but what binds us together is something more profound and deeper than what separates us whatever the issue is and that is the desire to get at the truth and so we are working with each other together in the common project of trying to get at the truth so I want to be challenged I want brother Cornell a challenge because I might be wrong and if I am wrong if he persuades me that I am wrong he has done me the greatest service even if it's a public embarrassment he has still done me the greatest service because there is nothing more important than truth nothing more important than truth and if he has moved me from error and falsehood to truth he has been the greatest friend that God could ever have and as and so for us for us as Christians Christ being our greatest model of Correction the posture of that is is even it's not even just a suggestion but a command that if God puts people in my life that I don't agree with the job that you're gonna have any years to come the people that you're going to do life with that happen to be in the same Debate team with you or whatever that you can win the point and lose the person by seeing them again as someone who's the enemy instead of the prize of God and so the obligation for us as believers is that we have to be honorable to someone even if they're not honorable to us charitable Christian hatred and I learn that in Vacation Bible School Sarah rate and never forget it she said lil roni hate the sin and tried to love the sinner you hate to end justice anytime you love people you hate the fact they're being treated unjustly anytime you love your neighbor you loathe the fact they've been treated unfairly and if you don't do something the rocks are gonna shout out but you never lose sight of the fact that one they're made in the image of God and two just like you early in your life they are redeemable they can be changed and transformed Christians never give up on other people because there was a time in our lives what we needed to be redeemed and transformed in anybody who has a genuine relationship with Jesus knows the fundamental change that has taken place in your life and that kind of change is available to anybody no matter what color sexual orientation national identity cross the board profoundly human affair so in that sense Christians really become profound humanists without being Carolee secular humanists they're humanists because they're embracing the humanity of each and every one of us but it's always tied to an ascending view of the world in which you keeping your eyes on a kingdom that is so much greater than granted and you can imagine you know there's another there's another dimension of that that I think is very important for Christians today so I'm speaking to you as Christians and that is this in addition to intellectual humility we need courage now Christians have always needed courage to go all the way back to the to the earliest period of the church to the ecclesia Christians have always needed courage there's never a time when that was a virtue that wasn't necessary but we certainly need it today and in part for this reason you will be tempted if you have not been tempted already to go along with what you know or deeply believe to be wrong for fear of being accused of hatred being accused of bigotry being accused of hating somebody this is why what Cornell says about loving the sin of sinner while hating the sin is so critically important if you don't have courage you will capitulate for fear of being labeled for fear of being called a hater people will say to you if you disapprove of what I do if you disapprove of what I how I conduct my life if you disapprove of these actions then you're a hater you're a bigot you don't love me you cannot succumb to that you cannot succumb to that don't be a hater but don't let anyone bully you or intimidate you into capitulation with what you know to be wrong for fear of being labeled can you speak a little more into that can you talk about I know you're both such advocates of freedom of speech and we'll talk in just a minute about how that's being squashed in the higher academic world these days and it's such a concern for both of you but can you talk about the abuse of freedom of speech and the accountability for someone to not be abusive with their freedom everybody knows don't shout fire in a theatre but beyond that by bullying on the Internet a shaming someone because you're correcting publicly in an effort to get a lot of retweets talk about the responsibility of the way correction should be handled and I think I mean you were talking about the United States itself but I mean when you think of the the world as a whole you got so many precious brothers and sisters in various countries who don't even have the right to freely worship the right to freely express their voice their opinion their perspective and we've got to be in solidarity between your Blessed sister talked about that when we were walking in but think about what's going on in Kashmir think about what's going on in Tibet think of what's going on in so many places where people do not have the right to even express themselves blessed Iran good god amighty then you come to the States we do have the right to express ourselves but you got crowd mentalities you got mob mentalities and people are just so willing to fit into and conform with the ways of the world somewhere I read be not conformed but transformed there's a fundamental difference between Christian greatness and worldly success and never reduced Christian greatness to worldly success so there be it issues of free speech allowing voices to be heard and I come from the black people our anthem is lift every voice doesn't say lift every echo see what I mean you're just gonna be an echo in the echo chamber they're going to be conformist complacent and cowardly and get your worldly success and miss out on all that Christian greatness you're missing out on the good stuff you missing out on the joy you can have your ephemeral pleasure that you want you're missing out on the deeper enduring Joy's in that sense and you're missing out on the ability to have the kind of witness that allows the world to say its dominant ways hatred Envy contempt domination indifference callousness those are the dominant ways of the world that's what it is to live in a sinful world but here come those tied to love that crossed Roman Empire and all of its viciousness crushing Jesus thinking that somehow they impose a foreclosure on the love but that blood and that love just keep trickling and trickling trickling and people affected by that blood and I'm talking about blood at the cross not the kool-aid we got a lot of churches too just providing kool-aid they're not providing the deep blood I'm talking about that transformative stuff that turns you upside down it makes you recognize that you can be a force in ways you could not conceive of and that kool-aid just allows you to conform your prayer becomes let's make a deal with God give me my next blessing please God move this mountain now no no God gives you the strength to climb the mountain God gives you the strength to be over against this is not a matter of a of a market religion and a commodified religion this is a blood centered Christocentric religion in which you learn how to step out on nothing and land on something that's called faith that's called fame and it's a beautiful thing but it's dangerous it's scary ticket or call it living dangerously that's what it is to be in the world but not of the world to be tested and then have a what a testimony you know that testimony is something else you all know what I'm talking about you got testimonies yourself it wouldn't be here but all of us need to be pushed deeply pushed so that we don't in any way accommodate ourselves the Empire don't accommodate ourselves the any form of ideology that loses sight of the humanity of people it was not in tight black anti white anti read and type brown it's not anti-jewish it's not anti-arab it's not anti Muslims on anti-mexican it's not anti Palestinian is not anti indigenous peoples it is they all made in the image of God Jesus loved the little children all the children of the world red yellow black and white they are precious in His sight whoo that's revolutionary language if you really love all of those children we have a tremendous witness to bear what David free speech is absolutely critical as I said to the whole enterprise of truth seeking and I don't mean that simply in the formal context of academia I mean truth seeking is an existential project that is leaving a life as a truth seeker leading the examined life now here's the problem we human beings frail fallen fallible creatures that we are naturally tend to wrap our emotions more or less tightly around our beliefs around our convictions now that's not in itself bad as a matter of fact we need some emotion behind our convictions in order to get anything done you know to get up for work in the morning or for school to get the get the kids fed and diaper it or get the kids off to school fight for a worthy cause all that requires some emotional oomph but here's the problem if we wrap our emotions too tightly around our convictions we fall into the ditch of dogmatism and pretty soon into the chasm of sophistry we care more about our opinion because we've fallen in love with them then we do about the truth and then we perceive an opponent as an enemy and then we abuse our free speech rights in order to bully and intimidate that's a corruption of free speech that's an abuse of free speech and we must never permit ourselves to fall into that kind of behavior and then rationalize it attempt to justify it in the name of free speech now that's not to say that we shouldn't exercise our free speech or speak boldly including speaking truth to power including cultural power including economic power including political power but we have to be careful because we are emotional as well as rational creatures and Cornell and I are no different from anybody else we fail we fall sometimes we go overboard we get so passionate about our beliefs we say things including online that we shouldn't say you know it's very easy when you're a when you're a strong believer as I am in the market economy I think the market needs to be properly regulated but I think markets have lifted millions and millions of people out of poverty I don't want to go down the road to socialism it's very easy for me to respond to a socialist argument or a social democratic argument by calling that guy a communist or people who who support that politician of communist acquainting them with Stalin and on the other side it's easy to say all the way if you support Donald Trump you're a fascist you support Donald Trump you're a Nazi or something like that and again that's the passion getting control of us when we're doing it right we're exercising our space free speech by deploying the proper currency of intellectual including political intellectual discourse and that currency consists of reasons arguments and evidence whether you're online whether you're in the classroom whether in the dorm whether in the dining hall having a conversation no matter how strongly you disagree discipline yourself we need to discipline ourselves to speak in that currency give reasons give arguments cite evidence don't resort to name-calling or abusing or shaming or relying on a background orthodoxy which we then enforce through peer pressure that's not helping anybody including yourself a little bit you tell me whether you agree or disagree no problem is that I mean as Christians our ultimate allegiance ought to be to Jesus our penultimate allegiance could be to a whole host of political perspectives so that every flag is under the cross but when that flag coincides with the kinds of truth and justice and love and you think of the history of those who struggle with that flag for for that flag you say yes when that flag does not there is a critique of the flag in the name of the cross it doesn't make you anti flag or anti-american it makes you a Christian who was anti injustice in America that's a very different view of the world and you see it in Dorothy Day and Maher Luther King jr. and a whole host of great Christians that we know one just died Tony Mars just bared her on Friday the Christian you all know the great Tony Morrison beloved paradise jazz always rooted in for her the Incarnation or concepts and the conception of what it is to be human so in that sense the the the dialectical interplay between flag and cross so that you can be a patriot but a patriot who always has a allegiance to a cross which means you're willing to be critical of your nation not to trash the nation but to recognize all of us every nation every civilization is subject to critique judgment under that cross capitals I completely agree now here's the thing what is the great perennial threat to the human spirit what is the great perennial threat to our spiritual wholeness or spiritual welfare it is idolatry it never goes away if you think idolatry something that happened only 3000 or 5000 years ago or only in primitive cultures and societies you got the wrong idea of what idolatry is what Cornell is talking about here Jesus being ultimate is the vaccine against idolatry it's what prevents us from turning a flag a country a cause even a just cause even a just cause into an idol if we replace anything anything we use anything to replace Jesus we have become idol worshippers and even if the idol is something in itself good it has still taken us into that ditch we cannot be truly human we cannot be truly just we cannot be people who are for other people leading lives for other people when we fall into idolatry no matter the character of the idolatry whether it's worshiping a golden camp or worshiping a country or worshipping a political cause so just that just to exemplify a very important monster very much so just to exemplify it capitalist socialist you minimize abuse of the freedom of your view when you begin to give the other person the benefit of the doubt and you're thinking you want what I want you want children to have food and education and medication and you want you both wake up thinking you're an advocate for the least of these you're an advocate for the least of these and so when you begin to see someone as you know you see their point of view as even their intent is good intent but then you think to yourself maybe as a capitalist I just I you want what I want I just want to bury I think there's a very different way to get there I think your ways making everybody broke and you're like I think your way he's the system of me monsters and so you know that the degree to which we learning from each other you see we recognize again the ism is something not to be blinded by you see there's no doubt that markets are indispensable there's no doubt that personal rights and liberties are precious it must be protected there's no doubt that private sectors are crucial the question is how do we ensure that given the ways in which our complex societies are organized that we don't have like we have right now one out of two out of children's black and brown under six years old live in poverty and richest nation in history the world how do we come to terms of poverty we have a history of socialist Pharaoh years communist Pharaoh years regimentation repression ugly but there's a history of capitalist failures in which for example in America America began as the capitalist society predicated on indigenous peoples land genocidal attack enslavement of Africans you can go to poor brothers and sisters in Appalachia capitalism not delivering go to the ghettos in hoods capital is not delivering so that Robbie would be the first one to say I'm not in any way leaning towards socialism but do I believe in public schools absolutely do I believe in healthy public being taught in those public schools now that's what I want to know but but you believe in the institution of public schooling I also believe in school choice and I believe in private schools not believe in home-school want to live the public they got about unless they go into a situation you which they're becoming tools of indoctrination and in aiding yeah into an ideologies that is hostile to what I think is right and no you want Socratic energy in public schools to make sure there's no indoctrination becchi but we want to make sure a public schools are of high quality because most people don't have a chance to go to private schools but we make we completion rectify that but with we should rectify that we should make it the case that more people have the opportunity to go to Christian schools Jewish day schools Muslim madrasahs homeschooling these types of opportunities you know do what you wanna but you do want context in which different religious orientations difference ideological political come together I mean look for example at the military the military today is the institution in our society that is the most trusted of the most respected 81% of our fellow citizens trust the military now what is it about the military is the military a market is a military outsourced to private sources not at all it's public to the core we were just at the Air Force again we had a wonderful time we had a good time yeah absolutely and to see what I love about the military is they got a martial spirit their soldiers will see I'm a Christian soldier I got a martial spirit anymore Christian soldier absolutely I'm one of the liver you see but when you have this more love laid-back commercial orientation I'm just interested in the money I won't status I won't position I want to be the next peacock everybody can look at me and see how rich I am and how smart I am I say let the phones be smart you got to be wise and loving and courageous and most importantly the last thing you need is just to be successful like some kind of peacock look around look at me look at me look at my foliage no I come from a Christian tradition that says buy your fruits you shall know them not to fall it the fruits that you bear that's what Christian witness is all about you say something flood and to this institution you know I want to take an opportunity to just congratulate Liberty University and its students and faculty on the way you have received so many people here representing such a spectrum of views I was so proud of you when Bernie Sanders came to speak and he was treated with respect and he was engaged and taken seriously he loved it I talked to him right after I was praying for him you all were wonderful you all were one of them but I'll tell you and and you know as I said on online you contrast that with the way conservative speakers have been treated at places like Middlebury and Evergreen State and yeah so you know God bless you for that and you got to keep up that spirit of openness and being willing to engage you know I suspect that if we did a poll we went down a series of issues public policy issues in this particular environment this would be unusual because most of the time it'd be the opposite where Cornell and I visit probably the majority of students would agree with me on most of the issues and not with Cornell now you know what that tells me your guys think it's he's gonna say it tells me that you're really smart now I'm not what that tells me is the guy you have more to learn from is him than from me because he will challenge [Music] we have a debate about public do you have a debate about public schools he's challenging me he said when I say you know we need to empower people to send their kids to schools that represent their faith to Jewish day schools and and and Christian classical schools and Muslim schools and so forth then he says to me he raises a very important interesting challenge but shouldn't there be places where students from different faiths are joined together and getting to know each other and that's true too and it's that kind of conversation that you have to be open to that kind of challenge think think about what your interlocutors saying consider maybe there's some truth in that maybe it might be right about that how does that change what I should be thinking about this or that public policy issue we learn from each other cuz I got a whole lot to learn from Liberty University I can tell you that we we invite people from all walks of life all views first of all thank you for accepting our invitation I do want to say thank you for that please tell we talked last night I don't want to name them out loud it's not wouldn't be fair or it wouldn't be polite but please tell all your liberal friends they would be welcome here we are we are willing to learn from the review point we want them please tell them that come on little fella beautifully invite them all the time but that leadership as part of it has to do with the stereotype of Liberty University you see it's such superficial stereotypes that are out there and so when people think of Liberty University they're automatically associated with various stereotypes we know every University every community has a variety of different kind of people heterogeneity diversity you all have your own conflict you have your own struggles you have your own interpretations of Jesus you have your own ways of trying to understand what is it like to be a Christian in 2019 and once you get beyond that stereotype what do you see all of these calm located human being the featherless two-legged link Kwok linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces made in the image of God trying to make they move for mamas womb to tomb I'm stepping out with the two sentences girl your buyer says it but that needs to be that needs a surface more in a powerful way in this room right there 95 nations represented in this remains the definition of everything is so diverse I think what I love more than anything else even more than the content is the posture that you guys have exemplified for us today we've got about four minutes I don't want to I want to finish up by doing something fun they've agreed to do this right before they came out this morning they wrote but then no one saw each other I was there watching them to make sure they didn't look but they wrote answers and we're gonna do this game where you at Commons one where's Commons one out oh there they are all right where you at Commons to where you had comments on so here's what we did no no they called themselves the shoe even though they're common street so let me know when you want to be called common Street because right now y'all this look cold call the shoe alright so let me know but and the rest of you the hill east everybody else yeah alright hold on alright so I got a game we got a game so here's what we're gonna do and we've got hold on we've got this thing played out the whole semester where everybody will get based on the different kinds of guests opportunities for this all right so we got the whole thing laid out but today since you guys have so much in common we're gonna play this call game called Commons denominator alright and it's gonna be Commons one against Commons - alright so you're gonna be playing for that we're gonna play a game ok so let's go ahead and get this set up as we're setting this up here's the game let's watch this little videos 80s throwback right here it's time to play comments denominator the game where great minds battle it out Ford great students in this episode we'll see dr. Cornel West and dr. Robert George try to answer five questions about one another to see how well these friends really know each other freeze question they're able to answer correctly they'll see one point and at the end of the game that contestant with the most points wins today dr. Cornel West we played for Commons one conductor Robert George we're playing for comedies to the contestant who comes in first place will not only have ragging rights but also 1,300 miss between doughnuts for the dorm there playing pool [Applause] let's get ready to rumble [Applause] we literally have brought look at these bucket we have tons and tons and tons of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts there's one if you win we got doughnuts for you comments new if you win that we got doughnuts for you the rest of you this is why these Commons dorms cost a little more money alright so so here's what we did we got questions and we want to see since you guys are such good friends if you actually have common denominator and know each other these are not the can I get the car it's either the question you guys have the cars with the questions thank you Thank You Dylan Dylan Dylan Dylan all right are you ready we're gonna go what what I will ask both of you you've already answered this and we'll see if you get it right whoever gets the five first alright what is your friend's favorite color what is your friend's favorite color let me think maybe the sky blue blue alright what is your friend's favorite color red red alright let's see if they get it [Applause] all right that's pretty good that surprises us what is your friend's favorite author oh the one and only the inimitable Gilbert Keith Chesterton Chesterton that's a good Catholic answer right there that's that's safe what is your friend's favorite author let's get yes sir Oh Anton Chekhov wonderful alright let's see what the answer is [Applause] y'all eat ice cream the new Ivy League professors eat ice cream you got to use your mic after dressing we can hear are you ready what is what is your friend's favorite ice cream flavor we've never had ice cream together they have no we we drank some wine ask us about wine can you ask me what my favorite kind of wine become unfermented thank you all right what is your favorite ice cream flavor I just don't know what brother Robby I would probably say chocolate [Applause] what is your friend's favorite my guess is he likes chocolate - that's my listen survey says no no no put that back up put that back up y'all the irony the irony right there the irony what is your friend's favorite sporty I will say West Virginia football team yeah Oh were you actually talking about our football team to Liberty flames that place hearing tomorrow the gun Sarah choose Sarah choose tomorrow Sarah choose tomorrow yes sir do your enemies Liberty flames or whispers no this is his favorite oh that's right I'm sorry this is what is your friend's favorite what's for West Virginia Vina yeah so West Virginia is his favorite team all right what is your friend's favorite team I'm gonna guess this because of his admiration for the great the legendary the incomparable Willie Mays the San Francisco Giants okay here we go [Applause] nerds what is your and listen you can't duck to us your favorite movie can't be like oh that's a tough one because I've been in 24 you can't answer that that was he so what is your friend's favorite movie oh he will never get this in a million years to teach together that Duvall was in your member what was the name of that you're talking about the Apostle he might know you might actually like that movie more and forgot about it and want to add it because that's that's the one he really really loved without what maybe say it's the Wonderful Life final answer yeah it's a wonderful wonderful life okay what is your friend's favorite movie I'm gonna guess that it's West Side Story West Side Story the great Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim the great Stephen stop there it is the man who shot Liberty valance oh the irony but who directed that film ask me ask me what my favorite movie is I don't watch movies I read the Bible all day honestly in all of these I'm so heavenly minded I'm not really good honestly there but I think I think you're saying you know if dr. Falwell is not here you're safe you can tell the dress you my favorite my favorite vision total of feed The Sound of Music the greatest the greatest story ever told yes sir my favorite I mean my favorite movies obviously my favorite movies uh how Stella got her groove back no no my favorite movie is Saving Private Ryan that was my favorite what last one who's ahead what's the score what's the score last one before we get your head okay how you catch on - all right let's see y'all bout to get doughnuts unless we catch up here what is your friend's favorite band or musician Ravi is a great artist banjo player unbelievable he's a magician God he does Bob Dylan so magnificently Steve Martin Steve Martin yes the comedian slash pendulum sleeve Martin you kind of look like Steve Martin although better it's also handsome guy what is what is your friend's favorite move any band or musician John Coltrane John Coltrane survey says all right we're tied we're tied we're tied alright last one last one alright it's tied I don't even wait wait wait did you just say to divide them and give them that is not capitalism sir that's socialism and we will not know sir what is you what is your friend's favorite season it was a fall is it winter what's your friend's favorite season hold on alright what is your friend's yes sir what what is what is your friend's favorite season yes what is your friend's favorite season autumn in the fall what is your friend's favorite season spring you got it wrong right oh yeah I don't know what is your favorite season now you got me completely confused honestly I went over there and your your goatee got in my ear I don't even listen to a thing you said Cornell's won me over doughnuts for everybody here doughnuts for everybody all right he's know we're gonna do you know we're gonna do we're gonna give the donuts to because honestly half I don't know if you know about these kids half of them are gluten-free so we're gonna give we're gonna give half the donuts the comments do and half the donuts two comments one come on y'all give it up for them amazing job can we thank these brothers one more time all right hey god bless you guys one more time can we thank these great gentlemen for being here [Applause] hey you're dismissed you can tell your professor that you're excused for the few minutes that we'll be running late okay you catch me - thank you god bless you guys you [Music] you

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 13,650

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty, Jerry Falwell

Id: QIZ3ke9mr2s

Length: 83min 53sec (5033 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019