Liberty University \u00a0in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell. Its publications carry the slogan \u201cTraining Champions for Christ since 1971.\u201d Some of those champions are now being trained to pilot armed drones, and others to pilot more traditional aircraft, in U.S. wars. For Christ.<\/p>\n
Liberty bills itself as \u201cone of America\u2019s top military-friendly schools.\u201d It trains chaplains for the various branches of the military. And it trains pilots in its School of Aeronautics (SOA)\u2013pilots who go up in planes and drone pilots who sit behind desks wearing pilot suits. The SOA, with more than 600 students, is not seen on campus, as it has recently moved to a building adjacent to Lynchburg Regional Airport.<\/p>\n
Liberty\u2019s campus looks new and attractive, large enough for some 12,000 students, swarming with blue campus buses, and heavy on sports facilities for the Liberty Flames. A campus bookstore prominently displays\u00a0Resilient Warriors<\/i>, a book by Associate Vice President for Military Outreach Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Robert F. Dees. There\u2019s new construction everywhere you look: a $50 million library, a baseball stadium, new dorms, a tiny year-round artificial ski slope on the top of a hill. In fact, Liberty is sitting on more than $1 billion in net assets.<\/p>\n
The major source of Liberty\u2019s money is online education. There are some 60,000 Liberty students you don\u2019t see on campus, because they study via the internet. They also make Liberty the largest university in Virginia, the fourth largest online university anywhere, and the largest Christian university in the world.<\/p>\n
More than 23,000 online students are in the military\u2013twice as many as students who live on campus. Liberty offers extra financial support to veterans and those on active duty, allowing them to be credited for knowledge learned in the military and to study online from a war zone.<\/p>\n
Liberty has been turning out \u201cChrist-centered aviators\u201d for a decade. In fall 2011, Liberty added a concentration in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones), making it one of the first handful of schools to do this. Now at least 14 universities and colleges in the U.S. have permits from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones, and many institutions, including community colleges, offer drone training.<\/p>\n
If one chooses to concentrate studies on piloting drones, the load will include a half dozen courses on \u201cintelligence.\u201d Liberty students can also pick up a minor in strategic intelligence and take courses in terrorism and counterterrorism. (Liberty\u2019s school of government brags that Newt Gingrich helped develop its course on \u201cAmerican exceptionalism.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Currently, the vast percentage of drone pilots are training for war, but that is widely expected to change in the next few years. Congress has instructed the FAA to integrate drones into U.S. domestic airspace by September 2015.<\/p>\n
Liberty\u2019s School of Aeronautics has six faculty members, five of whom have spent 15 to 30 years in the military\u2013four in the Air Force, one in the Navy. Dave Young, dean of the SOA, spent 29 years in the Air Force and retired as a brigadier general. Last summer, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed Young to serve on the Virginia Aviation Board.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Drones] are going to be a viable part of the aviation industry,\u201d Young said in a\u00a0Liberty Journal\u00a0<\/i>article last summer. \u201cIt offers a grand opportunity for employment during a time when college graduates are entering a highly competitive job market.\u201d He also acknowledged that the technology could be misused. \u201cOur mission is to produce graduates who are not only skilled, but who are going to go out in the world as strong Christians,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
John Marselus, SOA associate dean, concurred. \u201cWe want to have graduates serving the Lord in this area of aviation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
I exchanged emails with Young about Liberty\u2019s drone program. He described it as a four-year degree program in Unmanned Aerial Systems and said that it includes \u201cflying UAS vehicles in an authorized and controlled environment.\u201d But, he added, \u201cthe focus on the program is not only on actual drone operations, but the command and control aspect, management of resources, and the various missions that UAS are capable of supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Virginia legislature recently became the first in the nation to impose a moratorium on drone use\u2013lasting two years. That might have been a concern for Liberty. But before he would sign the bill, Gov. McDonnell made some exceptions to the drone ban, including emphasizing quite strongly that educational drone programs, including Liberty\u2019s, would not be affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe very much appreciate the governor\u2019s continuing support of the development of the Unmanned Aerial Systems presence in the Commonwealth,\u201d Young wrote to me. \u201cParticularly as it is a rather contentious issue due to the lack of understanding concerning the missions UAS can perform that aid the public at a much reduced cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked Young about drones\u2019 most common use today, namely war fighting. \u201cIs that kind of drone use Christian?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only offer my perspective as a Christian,\u201d he replied. \u201cUAS are like any other aerial vehicle that can be used for a variety of missions including law enforcement, aerial surveillance, search and rescue, and crop spraying as well as for military reasons. As a former military combat aviator, I believe that UAS can be employed just like a manned aircraft and that there should not be a distinction between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n
A brochure promoting the Liberty School of Aeronautics features a photo of Dan McCready, First Lieutenant USAF, who is quoted, \u201cSince I was very young, I\u2019ve dreamed about becoming a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Liberty\u2019s aviation program gave me the opportunity to make my dream a reality, helping me to realize that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Carentz obtained his undergraduate degree from Liberty, works for the Air Force now, and is pursuing a master\u2019s in divinity from Liberty. Carentz told me he could not speak for the Air Force, but as a Liberty student and a pastor he believes \u201cit\u2019s biblical to have a national pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe authorities are put in place with the approval of God,\u201d Carentz assured me. \u201cIf he didn\u2019t want them there, he could easily remove them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also discussed how good members of the military can be and how there are opportunities for evangelism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there were no Christians in the military, how would they instill love and discipline?\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people pulled right from the ghetto who have nothing and who come into the military. And maybe their first supervisor is a Christian, and he takes them to the foot of the cross and leads them to Christianity, and they share that with their family, and you save generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Liberty, the military is considered a tool for Christian missionaries. But what, I asked, about killing people with drones?<\/p>\n
\u201cI can understand why some support [them], and I can understand why others don\u2019t support [them]. Our job is to pray,\u201d said Carentz, \u201cand to understand that things will continue to get worse until Christ returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Emery obtained a bachelor\u2019s in finance from Liberty and went to Afghanistan with the Air Force. But Emery left the military in 2010. He told me he was troubled by what he saw as a pursuit of vengeance rather than justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve thought about this a lot, how we\u2019re supposed to be forgiving and yet fight wars against enemies,\u201d he said. \u201cWe blame Osama bin Laden for what happened on\u00a0Sept. 11; one time I was in Japan, and they had a picture of him in a urinal. You were supposed to pee on his face. I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t feel right about this.\u2019 I\u2019m not going after some kind of vendetta. I just want to bring justice. You\u2019re supposed to be forgiving, but you\u2019re supposed to do your job. I\u2019m not going over there holding a grudge against Osama bin Laden. All the people we\u2019re killing, you know, I\u2019d like to see them get saved.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no problem taking another person\u2019s life,\u201d said Emery, \u201cif it would promote peace and liberty and the interest of the country we\u2019re in. I have no problem giving my life for it. I\u2019d end up going to heaven, so it doesn\u2019t really bother me. But it becomes a problem when I start to doubt what we\u2019re there for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emery proposed the nuclear bombing of Japan as a model for how Afghanistan should be handled. \u201cIt was painful, but we dropped a couple of atomic weapons and they quit fighting, and now Japan is one of our closest allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emery expressed general disagreement with President Obama on \u201cmoral issues\u201d until I asked about drones, and then he praised him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re cheaper. They\u2019re effective. They\u2019re tiny,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference between an F-15 and a drone is just the cost. If a baby is killed by a drone or an F-15 or a gun, the problem is with the intelligence, not with the drone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emery, however, was clear on one thing. He doesn\u2019t want drones patrolling our own skies or listening in on our cell phone conversations. In the view of this graduate, and others at Liberty, that wouldn\u2019t be a godly thing to do.<\/p>\n
David Swanson<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is author of\u00a0<\/em>War is a Lie<\/a>. He lives in Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n