Thread by @danielrbenn

"Metaxas says that schools are “inviting the devil” onto their campuses. They are doing “tremendous damage.”"
currentpub.com/2022/03/17/eri…

He's talking about CCCU schools, like mine. Okay. Time for a thread about the time we had Eric Metaxas to campus in September 2020. 1/12

We invited Metaxas to debate David French about whether Christians, in 2020, should vote for Trump. This seemed like a more interesting question than in 2016, given that Trump actually had a record to run on. 2/12

Shortly before Metaxas got to campus a video surfaced of him punching a guy in the head after Trump's GOP acceptance speech. That was a red flag, obvs, and we talked about not having him to campus after all. We decided to bring him anyway. 3/12

Our office got a lot of feedback from concerned students/alumni about his visit, citing his past comments and apparent assault. I had little issue with his past words (debate and discredit, if you can), but we answered a lot of emails/had a lot of conversations that week. 4/12

French arrived the evening before the debate and spent the day meeting with students in various settings. He was a great guest. Metaxas arrived with a friend from Kansas just in time for dinner before the debate, and without any other engagement. 5/12

Metaxas was polite enough at dinner, but I couldn't shake the thought that he was not prepared for robust discussions. E.g., one student asked him his thoughts on that summer's Bostock case, which read SOGI into Title VII. Big case! Metaxas said he wasn't familiar with it. 6/12

The debate went... poorly. French is a lawyer whose argument was structured and organized. Metaxas started his argument with "Jane, you ignorant slut," a reference to an SNL sketch from the 1970s. It predictably fell flat. 7/12

At another point Metaxas said that if Biden was elected, we may not be able to have conservations or debates like the one we were having that night. Like, seriously. He said this. 8/12

After the debate Metaxas did a quick interview with a student media group, and he and his friend left. He was in our presence for less than 4 hours total. And look, I get it, we agreed to these terms. But in the aftermath, it didn't feel hardly worth it. 9/12

This is all to say nothing of Metaxas's words and conduct following the 2020 election, which have been unhinged and completely disconnected from reality. In retrospect, I'm embarrassed to have helped give him a platform at our university. 10/12

So for Metaxas to attack the institutions that have given him a platform in the past as "inviting the devil" into Christian spaces when we read and debate ideas is, frankly, ridiculous. It's embarrassing. But it's in keeping with his decline in the past few years. 11/12

So, Eric, if you're reading this, we hope you'll consider returning the honorarium we paid you. Your conscience shouldn't be burdened by the damaging work we're doing. You have my email. 12/12