Evangelical students to return degrees in protest at Trump

Students from one of America’s most influential evangelical Christian universities are returning their degrees in a show of protest against their president’s steadfast support for Donald Trump.

The alumni from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia have condemned Jerry Falwell Jr for applauding President Trump’s response to violence in Charlottesville earlier in the month. President Trump prompted outrage for drawing a parity between white supremacists and anti-fascists.

Falwell Jr has been an unwavering supporter of Mr Trump since the early days of his 2016 presidential campaign. He wrote on Twitter he was “so proud” of Mr Trump for his “bold truthful” statement on the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville which saw neo-Nazis, KKK members and “alt-right” members clash with counter-protesters and three people killed.

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Falwell did later label white supremacists, Nazis, and other hate groups as "pure evil and un-American.” He wrote on Twitter: “The truth as stated by Donald Trump is that violent white supremacists, Nazi, KKK and similar hate groups are pure evil and un-American.”

Falwell then repeated his support for the US president during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday morning, saying: “President Donald Trump does not have a racist bone in his body. I know him well”.

“He loves all people. He’s worked so hard to help minorities in the inner cities… He’s doing all the right things to help the people that are in need, the minorities.”

His praise for Mr Trump did not go unnoticed, with the president tweeting that Falwell had been “fantastic” on the show in response, saying: “The Fake News should listen to what he had to say. Thanks, Jerry!”

Former students at the university have now come out and condemned Falwell’s perceived affiliation with President Trump. More than 260 people have joined a Facebook group called “Return your diploma to LU”.

“Falwell's unabated support of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and his actions as president have filled us with shame and anger as alums,” they said.

“Yesterday, Falwell doubled down on this support in the wake of Trump's many and varied statements, equivocating on what ought to have been unequivocal condemnation of racism, antisemitism, white supremacy, nationalism, anti-LGBTQIA, ableism, and neo-Nazism.”

They added: “Falwell not only failed to condemn these things which are patently against the religion he and LU claim, but continued to cheer on Trump and his administration. In doing so, he has placed himself squarely in support of the kinds of ideology that were expressed by the protesters brought to Charlottesville by Jason Kessler.”

The alumni said they would be returning their diplomas to Falwell’s office by September alongside letters explaining their reasoning for withdrawing support. They have already penned letters to his office and to the Board of Trustees calling for him to be removed from his position.

After a woman was killed when a car smashed into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville, President Trump took two days to condemn the KKK and neo-Nazi protesters.

Although he eventually gave in to political pressure and sustained criticism and explicitly condemned the actions of white nationalists as “repugnant”, he performed a U-turn a day later during a press conference in Trump Tower. He drew a moral equivalence between white supremacists and anti-fascists, saying counter-protesters who he dubbed the “alt-left” were as violent as the KKK and neo-Nazi protesters and the "alt-right" groups included some "very fine" people.​