The year was 2016 and I was a sophomore at Liberty University. I love my university and I love the tri-weekly Convocations residential students attend as it offers a wonderful break in my day to focus on my relationship with God through worship, instruction, and encouragement. 2016, however, was an extremely political time for my university, as our president publically endorsed Donald Trump and invited all of the presidential hopefuls to Convocation. Not only were presidential candidates invited, but a plethora of political commentators, speakers, authors, pastors and more joined the game. We felt lucky to make it a week without something political happening at Convo, whether it be a comment as President Falwell introduced a speaker or the speaker themselves.
One of these infamous political figures was Dinesh D’Souza. As Convocation is required for residential students (we’re given one unexcused skip per semester), most of us were there to hear him speak. Mr. D’Souza is a prominent Indian American who has a website listing him as an influential author, speaker, and filmmaker. He worked for the Reagan administration, has created two movies which are considered part of the top ten political documentaries, published fifteen books (some of which appear on the New York Times Bestsellers list), has been invited to speak at hundreds of college/university campuses, and more. At least that’s what his website informs us of.
Vanity Fair can inform us of his criminal background of campaign-finance fraud, which he openly admitted to at the 2016 Convocation. He served eight months in night jail because he pleads guilty- only after his claims of selective persecution (the unfair targeting of an individual by the government) were unfounded. He believed- and still believes as of that Convocation last year- that the Obama administration was jailing him for a crime that typically went under the radar simply because of his disagreements with the president.
Looking into D’Souza’s past, you will discover that he was the editor of The Dartmouth Review and published an interview with a former Ku Klux Klan member. What photo went along with this article? A staged picture of a black man being lynched. After working for the Reagan administration, he wrote a best-selling book. After that book, though, came The End of Racism, which claims that the American slavery system wasn’t based on race.
I would like the opportunity to speak with him on this matter and ask him some questions. If Africans were the same skin color as Europeans, does he believe they still would have been enslaved? Are all the historical references to the enslavement of black people due to the color of their skin making them inhuman somehow fake? Two of his black colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute where he worked resigned in protest. Soon after, he left D.C and went to San Diego with his wife.
In San Diego, he wrote another book blaming 9/11 on everything liberal- Planned Parenthood, Hillary Clinton, Brokeback Mountain, and more. When he suggested at the time that in order to combat terrorism Christians should partner with traditional Muslims, including those who agree with Sharia law, his colleagues at the Hoover Institution called him “suicidal.” Now he recants the argument, explaining he merely wanted to be original, but the comments of his colleagues are attributed to jealousy of his previously star status from his first book, not the intellectual concerns of his equals.
That alone is enough not to invite him to Convocation. As the biggest Christian university in the country, I believe we have no place asking a man who appears racist to speak to us. Perhaps he was simply a stupid college student when he wrote the article and included the photo and maybe he finally understands that Christianity does not work with Sharia law, but blaming the arguments of fellow intellectuals on jealousy is childish. Claiming a film about two gay men influenced 9/11 is simply ridiculous. I don’t want to be forced to listen to a childish, ridiculous speaker again, even if he’s not racist.
If that’s not enough Mr. D’Souza wrote a book in two months (never a good idea, ask any writer) about Barak Obama, claiming that his goal as president was to revenge his father’s native Kenya by weakening America economically and globally. He especially calls the former president’s father a “philandering, inebriated, African socialist.” Anyone who is that disrespectful to anyone’s family, especially the president’s, should not be invited to a Christian university. Imagine if a liberal called Donald Trump’s father a lying racist criminal and was then invited to speak at a prominent university. Republicans would be outraged by the disrespect and would hurriedly defend the president’s deceased father.
When D’Souza moved to New York to be president of the King’s College, he left his wife because she had supposedly become involved with someone else because she was bored of their political life together. Before divorce papers had even been filed, he began seeing one of his groupies who was twenty-two years his junior and the author of a blog which described her lust for him. Did I mention she was also married?
While in a relationship with her, he was asked to help a friend campaign for the Senate and when he reached the limit on financial donations, he asked his girlfriend and her husband to give $10,000 which he would reimburse. He asked the same of his assistants’ family and assured them that if they were ever asked questions, they should simply say that they supported his friend’s candidacy, not that he (as the young man’s boss) had asked him to contribute. Anyone who is willing to lie about such large amounts of money should not be invited to a place of high morals, such as our Christian university.
Soon after the donations, he claimed to be engaged to his girlfriend at a Christian worldview conference, sharing a hotel room with her. At the time, he had not filed divorce papers, although papers were filed roughly a week later when a reporter asked him about his lack of morality. Having lied to King’s College about his marriage and girlfriend during this time, he was asked to resign, and with his relationship now on public display, the couple discovered they could not handle the pressure. Although we are all sinners saved by grace, this obviously willful act of immorality destroys him as someone who is credible enough to speak at our university.
It was then that his campaign-finance fraud came to light, as previously described, and he was convicted. During his trial, his ex-wife wrote a letter to the judge and described Mr. D’Souza as a liar, manipulator, and financial abuse. Having been married to him for twenty years, I am compelled to believe her as a character witness. He spoke openly about his conviction and sentencing at Convocation, although I cannot recall any attempts to counter his ex-wife’s argument against him, and he continued to provide his insensitive politically-fueled rudeness by calling Hillary Clinton a “hag.”
As a Christian, I do not believe I have the right to insult anyone, no matter if they disagree with me or not. Everyone is made in the image of God and therefore deserves respect. Of course, I mess up and I do insult people, as all human beings do. Mr. D’Souza is a human being as well and perhaps the insult merely slipped out- but with an advanced notice that he would be speaking to 14,000 Christian college students, I find it difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt. He knew exactly what he was going to say and he planned to insult a former secretary of state simply because of their different political beliefs.
So why has this man been invited to speak at the largest gathering of Christian young people in the world? In what way does he contribute to our goal to show the world that we are champions for Christ? I do not see how we can learn from him or be encouraged in our faith by him. Instead, I am tempted to believe that our president simply agrees with his political stances and has invited him back to our university so that they may continue to celebrate the Republican victory last November. I hope I am wrong.
