Trey Gowdy Accepts Honorary Degree From Victim-Blaming ‘University’ (VIDEO)


By now, most of you know that Donald Trump is due to give the commencement address at Liberty University next Saturday–in part to pay back his massive debt to the religious right. Even allowing for that, Trump’s move is hard to understand, given that Liberty’s law school is currently facing a RICO lawsuit for its suspected role in helping an “ex-lesbian” flee the country rather than allow her former partner to have visitation with her daughter.


What you may not know is that an equally shameful display took place this weekend. On Friday, Bob Jones University awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to Congressman Trey Gowdy, best known as the chairman of the “what about Benghaaazi?” House committee. The hyperfundamentalist Christian school is located in Greenville, South Carolina–in the heart of Gowdy’s district.

Watch a clip of the ceremony here.

Gowdy was extolled as a man who has been the definition of a public servant during his tenure as a federal prosecutor, solicitor (district attorney) for Spartanburg County, and as a congressman. BJU president Steve Pettit praised Gowdy as a politician who stands for “truth and principle.”

If Gowdy really stood for “truth and principle,” he wouldn’t have been at BJU on Friday. After all, BJU’s history of responding to sexual assault has been nothing short of appalling. The great majority of BJU’s students come from independent fundamentalist Baptist churches. In that environment, pushing for a rapist or child molester to be brought to justice is seen as “damaging the cause of Christ.” That is, it could potentially keep someone from being saved.


Even worse, sexual assault victims are usually seen as bringing their ordeals on themselves. They justify this by way of some horribly twisted interpretations of verses in Proverbs that refer to “the strange woman.” In more contemporary versions, “strange woman” is rendered as “adulterous woman,” “immoral woman,” or “wayward woman.” Even children aren’t immune; in many of these circles, if a child is ever molested, it’s proof that he or she has gone astray from the moment he or she comes out of the womb. On top of that, for many years, whenever a victim sought counseling at BJU, he or she was usually told that they had sinned, and were thus responsible for what happened to them.

These hurtful and degrading practices were standard operating procedure for years at BJU. In 2015, after a three-year review, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) released a scathing report that called out BJU for rampant victim blaming and victim shaming, as well as failure to properly report abuse claims. It also held former president and current chancelor Bob Jones III and longtime dean of students Jim Berg responsible for these practices. However, Pettit rejected most of GRACE’s recommendations almost out of hand–including outsourcing student counseling and removing Berg’s DVDs and books from the shelves.

Given this history, there is no defensible reason for any  politician to accept an honorary degree from BJU. For Gowdy, a former prosecutor, to do so is incomprehensible. It’s even more so when you consider that BJU is under fire for how it handled two high-profile cases of sexual assault by former students. Last May, Micah Pretlove was arrested for assaulting two students during his time as a student at BJU’s attached Christian school, Bob Jones Academy. It turned out that one victim didn’t come forward when Pretlove attacked her in 2010. Another victim went to academy officials in 2013–only to have her parents kibosh any investigation.

A month later, it emerged that BJU officials allowed Ben Adams to quietly withdraw from school in 2004 when he was accused of sexual assault–but never reported it to the police. This didn’t come to light until Adams was arrested for molesting a boy last June–a near-exact replay of the Penn State scandal. It cannot be stated enough–Gowdy is a former federal prosecutor and district attorney, one who should be well aware of how egregious this behavior is. And yet, he accepted the degree anyway.

Either case would have been reason for Gowdy to stay home. BJU’s overall history of shameful response to sexual assault would have been reason enough for Gowdy to stay home. All together? In doing this, Gowdy has effectively spat in the faces of every person at BJU who has been sexually assaulted, as well as every sexual assault victim in Upstate South Carolina. If possible, this is even more shameful than Gowdy’s behavior in the Benghazi hearings. He kept the investigation going even though there was no evidence of a cover-up, and even after admitting that no troops in the area could have gotten to Benghazi in time.

Don’t expect Gowdy to be held to account for this, though. His district is one of the reddest in the nation. It has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+15, meaning that it would elect a comatose Republican. Donald Trump carried it in 2016 with 60 percent of the vote. If a Democrat were to win this district in a midterm election, it would mean the the Republicans have lost everything in South Carolina, and almost everything in the Southern states. If Gowdy were to lose in a presidential year, it would mean a 49-state Democratic landslide. When you usually don’t have to worry about being defeated in a general election, you can act as tone-deaf as you please.


That doesn’t mean we should let him forget it, though. If Gowdy has anything left in him, he will give back this honorary degree. No politician with any shred of honor should want any sort of honor from a university with such a sordid history. Let Gowdy have it on Facebook and on Twitter.

(featured image courtesy Gowdy’s Twitter)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.