Blessed Are Those Who Keep Their Mouths Shut About Trump

Jonathan Martin

Last night on the Liberty University campus in Lynchburg, Va., evangelical leader Jonathan Martin was planning to hold a prayer meeting with some students who believe that Jesus Christ is a better role model than Donald J. Trump.

Instead of leading a prayer meeting, Rev. Martin got marched off campus by armed college police who told him that if he ever returned, he'd be arrested.

Martin has been critical of school president Jerry Falwell Jr. for his idolatry of Trump. He's been critical of Trump for his unchristian behavior and opinions. He's been critical of Steve Bannon as the king of lies and the creator of “the darkest contours of Trumpism.”

“What does it mean for a college administration to be this afraid of free speech? What precisely do they fear?” Martin wrote on Instagram. ”[Jerry Falwell] openly encourages his students to carry guns, but fears public prayer from Christians who openly embrace nonviolence.”

“This confirms everything I’ve heard about the authoritarianism of Falwell, who, like the president for whom he serves as a full-time apologist, does not easily tolerate robust dissent,” Martin wrote.

Martin is a Southerner living now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has a B.A. from Gardner Webb University in North Carolina, an M.A. from the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, and a ThM from Duke. He's what the kids at Liberty University might call "a righteous dude," unlike the president of that place. (JonathanMartin.com)