Liberty next SBC addition?

[appmandan]

I don't think Liberty is getting an invite. There were some twitter feeds posted on the Sun Belt board that said No Liberty to Sun Belt, but I can't seem to find them.

[vegattk]

The Belt better tighten up soon and get a team in... Otherwise App will fall into yet another year without a chance at a postseason.... Sigh...

[TheMoody1]

The Belt better tighten up soon and get a team in... Otherwise App will fall into yet another year without a chance at a postseason.... Sigh...

It would be much better to forego a SBC championship game in 2014 than add the wrong school.

[bcoach]

I think he simply meant how much diverse, at least geographically, Liberty's student body is when compared to say, ours, since Liberty's on-campus, full-time, student body represents all 50 states and 75 or so countries.

I'm glad you added the "at geographically" because that (and maybe race) are about the only way they are diversified and I'm totally fine with it. They advertise what they are and it's well known and students/parents can either choose to go or not. That's why they make chocolate and vanilla.

My point for the post however is will we start seeing a lot of Muhammad's, Abdullah's and Rashād's, O'Malley's etc on their team and how will that affect their "core principles"? (I'm not saying that Catholic's are not christians or that the surnames defines the person religion, but I hope you can catch the drift)

Not saying but maybe thinking? Funny you tossed in O'Malley after the first three names.

[Saint3333]

The Belt better tighten up soon and get a team in... Otherwise App will fall into yet another year without a chance at a postseason.... Sigh... :x

It would be much better to forego a SBC championship game in 2014 than add the wrong school.

I'd rather wait a year and add a JMU or Mizz St. than Liberty. But JMU really doesn't have an excuse.

[T-Dog]

Lynchburg newspaper beat writer is now saying the "Liberty not going to the Sun Belt" reports are premature, and then said that they are in fact wrong as premature would imply they could still be right.

[Maddog1956]

Not saying but maybe thinking? Funny you tossed in O'Malley after the first three names.

Yeah I was trying to think of a catholic sounding name, so I thought Irish. To some fundamentalists they're devils too, but I really don't know how Liberty feels about them. I also could have added Schwartz and many others, I guess.

[MountainMan]

Lynchburg newspaper beat writer is now saying the "Liberty not going to the Sun Belt" reports are premature, and then said that they are in fact wrong as premature would imply they could still be right.

I'll stick by my sources that say NO LIBERTY in the SUN BELT -- and they don't think such reports are premature at all.

FWIW.

[HkyMtneer]

Not saying but maybe thinking? Funny you tossed in O'Malley after the first three names.

Yeah I was trying to think of a catholic sounding name, so I thought Irish. To some fundamentalists they're devils too, but I really don't know how Liberty feels about them. I also could have added Schwartz and many others, I guess.

Believe it or not, Liberty has A LOT of religious diversity as well. Okay, maybe I should not say "A LOT" but it's a much more diverse campus than one would suspect. They're are quite a few non-evangelicals on campus, be it Catholics or those with a Jewish background.

When I was there I even knew a few Palestinians. One of the weirdest things I remember is hearing a phone call where this girl, who was Palestinian, was talking with her Mother back home and you could hear explosions in the background. Pretty crazy stuff. They're are also lots of native Africans with diverse religious viewpoints, middle-easterners, and even some agnostics.

Why are they in Lynchburg? Lots of reasons...admittedly parents, money, athletics, might be the main reasons above choice but they are there and if any place that better exhibits the "hate the sin, love the sinner philosophy" (which I admire greatly) then I would not know where it is.

All I know is that I think if I were a high school senior today I would feel "more comfortable" being a liberal and outgoing Catholic student at Liberty than being a conservative and outgoing Southern Baptist student at ASU, FWIW.

[bcoach]

Not saying but maybe thinking? Funny you tossed in O'Malley after the first three names.

Yeah I was trying to think of a catholic sounding name, so I thought Irish. To some fundamentalists they're devils too, but I really don't know how Liberty feels about them. I also could have added Schwartz and many others, I guess.

The catholic, non christian thing just caught my eye. I have always thought that was just kind of ignorant.

[Maddog1956]

Not saying but maybe thinking? Funny you tossed in O'Malley after the first three names.

Yeah I was trying to think of a catholic sounding name, so I thought Irish. To some fundamentalists they're devils too, but I really don't know how Liberty feels about them. I also could have added Schwartz and many others, I guess.

Believe it or not, Liberty has A LOT of religious diversity as well. Okay, maybe I should not say "A LOT" but it's a much more diverse campus than one would suspect. They're are quite a few non-evangelicals on campus, be it Catholics or those with a Jewish background.

When I was there I even knew a few Palestinians. One of the weirdest things I remember is hearing a phone call where this girl, who was Palestinian, was talking with her Mother back home and you could hear explosions in the background. Pretty crazy stuff. They're are also lots of native Africans with diverse religious viewpoints, middle-easterners, and even some agnostics.

Why are they in Lynchburg? Lots of reasons...admittedly parents, money, athletics, might be the main reasons above choice but they are there and if any place that better exhibits the "hate the sin, love the sinner philosophy" (which I admire greatly) then I would not know where it is.

All I know is that I think if I were a high school senior today I would feel "more comfortable" being a liberal and outgoing Catholic student at Liberty than being a conservative and outgoing Southern Baptist student at ASU, FWIW.

Palestinian is a "people" not a religion, but that's not really the point. Their stated missions, etc is to made"Champions for Christ" or to make "better" Christians (not to even convert students to Christianity, it's expected that you are one to attend). And I don't have any problem with that, that's what their mission and purpose is, more power to them.

The point of my post was, will they now allow players that clearly have no intention of becoming Christians, that openly practice another faith, play sports (which is clearly not in agreement with their mission) just in order to improve their playing level.

Also while I can't say where you would feel more "more comfortable", you would be quite alone in your "comfort" because unlike ASU having a Baptist club, Liberty doesn't have a Catholic club. And while ASU has a Republican club you could join, Liberty only has a Christian Conservatives club.

I'm not saying APP isn't more liberal than the general population (hence, liberal education and arts), religion is not stated in it mission etc, so any persecution of a outgoing Southern Baptist student would be on a individual level instead of an institutional one.

I was a fundamentalist baptist (they think southern baptist are too liberal), but never a conservative, during part of my stay at APP and never felt at all persecuted in any way at APP. As a matter of fact, I really felt as part of the majority.

I think of it this way, every few years or so someone comes to APP and starting preaching on the mall. Students and faculty may laugh, pity or agree with him, but he gets to continue for days (usually until he gets in enough newspapers). OTOH, If someone went to Liberty and started preaching Islam on their campus I doubt if they could stay 5 minutes.

In addition, while Liberty speaks of diversity it's always used from the clearly stated standpoint of Western Christianity diversity and ethnicity, race, SES, gender, language, urban, rural diversity, so it you might say it always has an * beside of it. APP on the other hand just states diversity.

With that said, they may be a fine school, with great student's and facility and I don't mind plaything them at all. They are 100% free to teach anything thing they want and as long as the NCAA calls them a university for sports it's fine with me.