Liberty University shuts down a news story, threatens prayer with arrest

From Relevant magazine:

This week, speaker, author and activist Shane Claiborne joined a group of Christian leaders for the Red Letter Revival in Lynchburg, Virginia. One of the goals of the revival was to pray for justice issues but also take a stand against what the organizers see as an unbiblical rise in American nationalism among Christians, especially since the election of President Trump.

In an April 9 tweet, Claiborne wrote, “I am concerned about Trump’s adultery with Stormy Daniels. But I’m just as concerned about white evangelicals who are in bed with Babylon. It’s time to end the church’s love affair with empire.”

Presumably, Claiborne’s position on conservative white evangelicals’ support of Donald Trump may have inspired the results of this attempt to connect with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr.:

Last week, Claiborne explained on Twitter that he’d sent a letter to Liberty University founder—and vocal Trump supporter—Jerry Falwell Jr., to pray together and asked for permission to hold a communion service on the campus while they were in town. Instead of a reply from Falwell, he received a letter notifying him that he would be arrested if he came on campus.

Now, according to Relevant’s citing of a Religion News Service report, Falwell has tried to shut down the university student newspaper’s coverage of the Red Letter Revival:

Erin Covey, an assistant news editor at the Liberty Champion and a junior at the university, said she wanted to write about the “Red Letter Revival” — a gathering of progressive evangelical Christians and others in Lynchburg to pray against “toxic evangelicalism” — because it was a large event that involved Liberty students. She said she pursued the story with the approval of her fellow editors, including the Champion editor-in-chief and a faculty adviser.

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