Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has won a glowing endorsement from evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr, president of Liberty, the largest Christian university in the US, but there will be no such support coming forth from the president of evangelical Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
Falwell headlined with Trump on the campaign trail soon after Trump addressed students at Liberty.
In an open letter published on his college website, Dr Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, writes: "Will I be inviting Mr. Trump to Oklahoma Wesleyan University to speak in our chapel service? My answer has been simple and brief. No, I will not."
Piper, whose "this is not a daycare" article aroused national attention for his claim that students were over-sensitive and too quick to complain, said that after Trump spoke at Liberty, he had been asked by media if he would be next to issue an invitation. The answer, he said, was "no".
This was not about party affiliation or political positions. It was to do with the things that matter – personal conduct, public statements, theological integrity and moral consistency, Piper added.
University speakers are chosen who promote the university's mission and do not stand in opposition "to what we claim to hold dear as a Christian community."
Piper said he owed it to students, faculty, staff, the board, donors and the church not to invite Trump to speak.
Trump, he added, simply does not represent the university's behavioral, theological, moral or political ideals.
"Anyone who is pro-abortion is not on my side. Anyone who calls women 'pigs', 'ugly', 'fat 'and 'pieces of a–' is not on my side. Anyone who mocks the handicapped is not on my side. Anyone who has argued the merits of a government takeover of banks, student loans, the auto industry and healthcare is not on my side. Anyone who has been on the cover of Playboy and proud of it, who brags of his sexual history with multiple women and who owns strip clubs in his casinos is not on my side. Anyone who believes the government can wrest control of the definition of marriage from the church is not on my side. Anyone who ignores the separation of powers and boasts of making the executive branch even more imperial is not on my side."
Describing himself as conservative, Piper continued: "I will not sell my soul or my university's to a political process that values victory more than virtue."
In his endorsement for Trump, Falwell said: "I am proud to offer my endorsement of Donald J. Trump for president of the United States. He is a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again."
