<p>One of LU’s founding ideals was to make it open to as many as possible and not stat driven in admissions. I have no idea how anyone who has not attended it can really comment on the educational quality. It is unique to walk into a Starbucks in Lynchburg and hear people having serious discussions of religion and the Bible. Also nice to have a large college in town without having 1000’s of loud stumbling drunks running around on weekends and at football games.</p>
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<p>I have no doubt that it’s pleasant to have sober students with positive values residing around the university. But LU’s own acknowledged preconceptions and limitations undermine its educational credibility. The LU Statement of Philosophy states “Liberty continues the philosophy of education which first gave rise to the university, and which is summarized in the following propositions. God, the infinite source of all things, has shown us truth through scripture, nature, history, and above all, in Christ . . . Education as the process of teaching and learning, involves the whole person, by developing the knowledge, values, and skills which enable each individual to change freely. Thus it occurs most effectively when both instructor and student are properly related to God and each other through Christ.”</p>
<p>So students are equipped to change and grow, as long as they don’t find truth outside of scripture or grow in a fashion that constitutes an improper relationship to God through Christ. Their undergraduate experience could be personally rewarding and it might enhance one’s spiritual life, but IMO, it violates the definition of a higher education.</p>
<p>I could open a College of Poetry and teach students that the last word of each pair of lines they write must rhyme with the other line’s final word. This will be so essential to a “proper” definition of poetry, that if they violate this tenet they’ll have to leave my college. No matter how wonderful a job I do of teaching that version of poetry, you’d tell me that my definition of poetry is so constrained that it invalidates my premise that I’m teaching prospective poets at a college-level, and you’d be right.</p>
<p>Once they leave LU they can do whatever they wish and grow in anyway they please. Also even while there they can read whatever they want on their own time. There’s a large Barnes and Noble right across the street. LU provides a POV education just as do most colleges that adhere very much to a highly liberal secular humanist viewpoint. At least LU let’s you know what you are getting while most colleges claim to be neutral but are very much indoctrinating within their own dominant unwritten POV. Just try to find many conservatives on the liberal arts faculty of any major university. Their groupthink is easily as intolerant as anything at LU. As a matter of fact I think the most intolerant people I have ever met are liberal faculty members as most never have worked outside their world other than college type jobs and they only talk to each other.</p>
<p>There is a book, “The Unlkely Disciple” written by a Brown student, Kevin Roose, that is interesting reading. He attended Liberty for the very purpose of writing an expose of his experiences there.</p>
<p>I, for one, have no problem with anyone going to LU, unless you are going into a science since some of their teaching, particularly on evolution, are not in line with what other university and scientists go by. That can be a severe disadvantage. </p>
<p>But there are many very happy kids who go there. I have friends who have kids there, and the family couldn not be happier. It was on our list to check out, but DS was pretty set before we looked at the southern schools. The price is reasonable, the facilities are great and for most undergraduate offerings, it is fine. As some have mentioned, there is an intolerance of conservative an fundamental mindsets in many of our universities, that is not present at LU.</p>
<p>But visit,and have your student spend a day, maybe more with a student there. The environment and mindsets are quite different and if your student prefers a more liberal campus, s/he may not like it there. The rules are also stricter in terms of visitation and other things that most colleges do not enforce or even address. That could be something you like, or a big problem. I know kids bounced out of schools where such codes are strict for things that would get a write up and a warning from most colleges if caught for such infractions. </p>
<p>I tend to agree with Barrons about all of this.</p>
<p>There are no “alternative viewpoints” on so-called “creation science.” It is pseudoscientific mythological nonsense. Any “university” claiming it as a valid scientific theory is not worthy of the name. For starters, it’s unfalsifiable and makes no testable predictions about the world.</p>
<p>Education at places like Liberty and Bob Jones U. does not prepare its graduates to work in the modern secular, diverse society of today. It teaches hatred and intolerance, most notably of gays and lesbians.</p>
<p>What if a Liberty U. graduate has to work for, or with, a gay man? Calling one’s co-workers “immoral” and “ungodly” and “destined for hell” has a tendency to get you fired, sued or both, in our modern world.</p>
<p>One thing I will say to those considering LU, read what a lot of people here think about the school. That is an issue that will arise if you are going out among such folks. If you live in an Evangelist or Fundamental community and intend to return to it , or really anywhere that does not feel this way, it is one thing, but you can see that there are feelings of scorn and animosity that exist towards the school. Intolerance, yes, in my opinion. But definitely there.</p>
<p>Those who are intolerant have no standing or moral authority to demand tolerance of their unjust hatred.</p>
<p>In other words, one is not required to respect or “understand” the viewpoint of someone who believes a person is unworthy of human rights because of their sexual orientation. That is as indefensible a position as the idea that blacks were destined by God to be slaves.</p>
<p>That is the most absurdist “logic” ever presented here. What about abortion rights? Is that open to question? Are anti-abortion people also not worthy of their viewpoint?</p>
<p>The question posed was “Is LU a RESPECTED college.” Outside of the conservative evangelical community, the answer is a clear "no. " That may or may not be justified, but it is the reality.</p>
<p>In my opinion, abortion is a far more nuanced issue on which reasonable people can disagree. I support the right to choose, but I can see how others wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Can you provide a rational, non-religious-based argument as to why I, as a gay man, should not have the same rights and responsibilities as any other human being? No? Well, that’s not surprising because no such argument exists. Homophobia is irrational fear and hatred. Ergo, it deserves as much intellectual respect as Nazism.</p>
<p>Very recently several states had votes on gay marriage and it failed most times. More state have banned it than OK’d it. This is still a very evolving social issue and hardly equivalent of Nazism. Liberty is not really anti-gay but anti-gay marriage as they believe in the traditional views of marriage. Gay students are routinely admitted but all students are expected not to have sex while at LU. </p>
<p>[Same-sex</a> marriage legislation in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_legislation_in_the_United_States]Same-sex”>Same-sex marriage legislation in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>And in fact things changed markedly at LU since JFSr died and his son took over as the TV report shows.</p>
<p>[Soulforce</a> Launches 2008 Equality Ride as Liberty U. Welcomes Them - Towleroad | #gay #news](<a href=“http://www.towleroad.com/2008/10/soulforce-launc.html]Soulforce”>http://www.towleroad.com/2008/10/soulforce-launc.html)</p>
<p>I bet if you put segregation up to a vote in Alabama in 1960, it would have passed too.</p>
<p>Very poor analogy. Many people support gay rights but not marriage.</p>
<p>Fail. Marriage equality is part of gay rights. If you don’t support marriage equality, you don’t support gay rights.</p>
<p>As I said earlier in this thread, Unlikely Disciple should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand Liberty.</p>
<p>Well, whatever. I do and I don’t. Sue me.</p>
<p>That’s like saying you support African-American civil rights, except for that whole yucky immoral interracial marriage thing.</p>
<p>Can’t have blacks and whites marrying each other, see. It would undermine the whole foundation of Western civilization.</p>
<p>You cannot separate civil rights and dole them out to different groups based on your prejudices and fears, not while claiming the mantle of enlightenment. “Kind of equal” or “mostly equal” is still not equal. Your opposition to one right is as if you opposed them all.</p>
<p>Wiki says liberty universities acceptance rate is 96 percent, US news says its acceptance rate is 20 percent. Can someone clear that up?</p>
<p>collegeboard says 96%</p>
<p>I’m almost positive that their acceptance rate is not as low as 20%.</p>