The Eric Metaxas Show - Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño joins the program to discuss the state of education in America 

Welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show. We'll get you from point A to point B. But if you're looking for point C, well, buddy, you're on your own. But if you'll wait right here in just about two minutes, the bus to point C will be coming right by. And now here's your Ralph Cramden of the airways, Eric Mattaxas. As I mentioned, folks, at the beginning of hour one today,

we are today launching a new segment on the Eric Metaxis show. By the way, this is the Eric Mataxis show, and this is the segment we're launching. It is a supercentennial segment. Many of you know that on Instagram every day, we're doing a super centennial minute. What happened 250 years ago in American history today? This harkens back when I was a kid on TV every night. I think it was like on CBS at 8 p.m. They'd say this is a bicentennial minute.

They'd have somebody telling you what happened 200 years of. ago. We are doing the same thing except it's 250 years ago. And it's kind of cool. We're calling it a super centennial minute. So for example, today, July 9th in 1776, that of course, if you just did the math, that's 249 years ago today. Something wonderful happened. I'm really excited about writing about this episode in my book on The Revolution. What are we talking? about? Well, July 9th, 1776, you know what happened on July 4th. On July 9th, news of the Declaration of Independence and the document itself reached New York City. I am right now in New York City. It reached the document reached New York City. I mean, imagine it was in Philadelphia. What,

it took five days to go from Philly to New York City. Evidently it did. But the official document reaches the hands of George Washington. And once it was in his hands, he was able to read it himself to read it. And what did he do? This is kind of cool. This is to get the troops psyched. He read it aloud to the continental troops and the civilians gathered on the commons in New York. So this was an historic moment in American history. The entire army, of course, was gathered in New York, or I should say most of the Army, because in another, what, less than two months, they had the Battle of Brooklyn. So he read it aloud, or it was read aloud, I should say.

And that night, everyone was so excited about independence that they got a little rowdy in a crowd of jubilant patriots. I like the word jubilant. Jubilant patriots surged toward Bowling Green. Now, my wife and I were just down at Bowling, Bowling Green like a month ago to get our global entry. You have to go down all the, a lot of stuff that happens, official stuff, you know, wedding, when we got our wedding license 29 a half years or 29 years ago, you have to go down to

Bowling Green. Boling Green is the very site where a statue of King George III was. The fence around the statue is still there. You can touch the actual fence. And in the middle of this, it's no longer there because 249 years ago, today they tore it down, was the statue of King George III. It was a gilded lead statue. So the entire statue, amazingly huge made of lead.

You can imagine how heavy it was. But of course, it was gilded. So it looked gold. They tore it down. And, you know, they're shattering the image of British monarchy, British rule. So it was a big, big deal that they did that, that they tore it down, the statue of the king this day, 249 years ago. And when they tore it down, they discovered that it was made of lead. What do you do with lead?

Well, in their case, they melted it down. This is a lot of lead. They melted it down into musket balls using what had been an image of the monarchy against that very monarchy. So it was a moment of extraordinary public defiance, words on parchment, which is to say the Declaration of Independence gave way to action in the streets. That happened 249 years ago today in American history. That is the supercentennial fact for today, July 9th. since we have the time, I want to tell you what happened tomorrow in American history, July 10th. Now, this is actually, we don't normally do stuff this old.

This is 270 years ago today, of course, tomorrow, July 10th, 1754. This is interesting because this gives you some context for what happened in the buildup to 1776. 2070 years ago today, or again tomorrow, July 10th, 1754, Benjamin Franklin proposed or presented, I should say, what is called the Albany Plan of Union. It was the first formal proposal to unite the American colonies under a single government. Now, of course, this was long before anybody was dreaming of independence from Great Britain. Nonetheless, Benjamin Franklin, who I think it was the next year or two years later, moved to London for 18 years. He was a proud American and he was excited about the idea of the colonies being united but under the monarchy. So he proposed this. And so why is it called the Albany Plan of Union? There was a meeting in Albany, New York.

delegates from seven of the 13 colonies gathered to discuss a collective response to growing threats from French forces and their Native American allies. If you know history, you understand that two years later, the French and Indian War was begun. So this was an attempt by the Americans, the American colonies, to say, what should we do about this? We should be united in our defense of our frontiers on the West against the incursions of the French and their Native American allies. So Benjamin Franklin's plan, the Albany plan, called for a central government to handle defense, Native affairs, Native American affairs, and frontier policy, complete with a president general and a grand council of colonial representatives. So it's interesting that this

was happening. Ultimately, the plan was rejected by both the colonial assemblies and the British crown. I think the British crown got nervous at the idea of the Americans saying we want to be united. So the Albany plan was rejected, but it was a bold and visionary step toward intercolonial cooperation. And it gives you some insight into what Ben Franklin was thinking. Obviously, two days, two decades later, many of the core ideas of this Albany plan would resurface this time not in defense of an empire but in the founding of a new republic in which we are blessed to live today so since i've got a few minutes left let me tell you uh what happened on july 11th 1779 so that's 2405 years ago today july 11th 1779 uh the headline is norwalk in flames

Many of you know, I grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. Danbury was itself torched. But 245 years ago today, British forces under General William Tryon attacked and burned Norwalk, Connecticut as part of a larger coastal campaign to punish rebel strongholds and divert continental troops. Redcoats and loyalists landed by sea and stormed the town, meeting fierce resistance from local militia. Despite the defense, however, the British set fire to homes, churches, warehouses, and ships by the end of the day, July 11th, 1779. Most of Norwalk was in ruins.

It was one of the most devastating civilian losses of the war. Trions raids inflamed patriot anger. This is always what happened. When the British did anything especially cruel, it always backfired because the Patriots fought all the harder. It helped what Tryon did in Norwalk, helped rally more colonial support for independence. What the British hoped would intimidate, instead fueled the resolve of the American Patriots.

Norwalk rose again, but they never forgot the flames. of that summer day. Again, that is the supercentennial minute for July 11th, 1779. Stay tuned to this space for more supercentennial facts and follow our Instagram account, Supercentennial. God bless America. Mike Lindell and my pillow employees want to thank you, my listeners, for all your continued support. Mike has a passion to help everyone get the best sleep of their life. He didn't stop by creating the best pillow. He created the best bed. sheets ever. Yes, Mike is offering the best deal on his percale bed sheets. You can get a set now for

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When I flip a container around and I can't pronounce or recognize the ingredients, I put it back. That's why you'll find balance of nature's fruits and veggie supplements on a shelf in my home. because every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil, no binders, no additives or artificial colors, no fillers, just whole fruits and veggies, gluten-free and vegan-friendly. These harvested ingredients are freeze-dried into a fine powder using an advanced vacuum-cold process to better preserve nutritional value. I can say with absolute confidence that I'm getting 31 ingredients from fruits and veggies every single day with balance of nature. Imagine a platter with 31 different fruits and veggies on it every day. join me in taking Balance of Nature and use my discount code Eric to get 40% off plus free shipping this week only. You've got to use my discount code Eric.

Call them at 800 2468-751. Use discount code Eric or order online at Balance of Nature.com. Use discount code Eric to get 40% off this week only. Hey there, folks, as promised I have as my guest right now, the president of Cornerstone University. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gerson, Moreno, Riano. Did I get it? Did I get it? You got it.

I got it. Welcome to the program. You've been on here before. I thought we should start with me making an announcement that, I mean, I feel very honored by this, so I get a little embarrassed. But you as the president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids have made me a president's distinguished senior fellow at Cornerstone University. So first of all, I want to say that and say how excited I am and to say thank you to you

and the Cornerstone community for giving me that honor, knowing what I know about you and Cornerstone, it means a lot to me. Eric, thank you. That's humbling. And we're just so grateful that you're with us. Grateful for your work. I think I've shared this with you before. I'm just so grateful for your leadership, your courage.

and the significant questions you bring before the country and churches in the Christian community for us to think about and goading us, right, to be faithful to Christ and the gospel in a Christian worldview. So I'm just thrilled that you already distinguished senior president's fellow here at Cornerstone. Look forward to all you're going to do on our campus with our students in the community. A lot of excitement about that. And I'm thrilled to be a partner with you, Eric. Well, you know something. As you're talking, people are probably already thinking. this, but in case they're not, let me say this. Ladies and gentlemen, to listen to this program, what does it say about Cornerstone University that they would want me to be affiliated with them?

You don't see Wheaton College or Yale University inviting me to be affiliated with them. Why is that and why is it that Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids would do that? It tells you about the values of Cornerstone university. And, you know, we've talked about this many times on the program and Grisson. I've spoken to you about it privately. But one of the dismaying things of our time is to see so-called Christian universities be very, very fearful, in some cases really cowardly about addressing the vital issues that concern every American and certainly evangelical Christians in the country, and instead of being leaders or followers. And so the fact that you guys at Cornerstone, and there's just a handful of colleges

in the country, ladies and gentlemen, and you probably know what they are, Liberty, you know, Grand Canyon, there's just a handful of Christian colleges that are really being brave. And at the top of the list, Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids. So I am happy to say that maybe Grisone, that leads us into a conversation about about, you know, higher education or the concept of higher education for the public good. I mean, whenever anybody hears that I went to Yale University, I have to say to them, excuse me, let me be real clear.

I'm not proud of that. Yale University is at the top of the list of a place that once upon a time was proudly Christian a long, long, long time ago. And they slid and slid and slid and slid. and slid, and they are the opposite of that. Whatever the opposite of that is, that's what they are today. Harvard is the same, Columbia, all of these elite institutions. But it's even sadder when institutions that more recently were proudly on the side of truth

and the good, the true, the beautiful, and holding up the name of Jesus, bravely, prophetically, where they have slid. I mentioned Wheaton. There are others. we know that Biola hired Ed Stetzer recently. I mean, I'm always horrified because I have friends in all these places. And so when we're talking about higher education for the public good, I mean, you are the president of Cornerstone. What does that mean to you and what has happened to this idea in recent times?

Eric, thank you. And thank you for all your kind words and comments. you know, you have to go back and you know, you're an expert in there, you have to go back and look at the founding of our country and even before then and the purpose of higher education at the very founding. It was always to train ministers for the gospel, right, for churches, for ministry, and to connect the beauty of Christianity and the gospel in the biblical worldview theology to the work they were doing to serve the public good, to serve the country, to serve communities. And so Christ and the gospel was at the very core. higher education as early as 1600s in our country. When you begin to trace how that, how universities have drifted from that founding moral purpose

and vision, it's terrifying. And there are a lot of reasons for it. And when I think through one of the big things is that we have begun as universities, many universities have begun to champion freedom over truth, right? They've begun to champion prestige and the prestige of the academy,

which is always a moving target, right, over faithfulness and fidelity to Christ in the gospel. And it began to champion, I would say, what Paul says, the wisdom of the world over the wisdom of the gospel and the wisdom of Christ. And if I were to summarize it, it would be in those three ways that's happened throughout American history. Even evangelical and Christian University had begun to do the same thing. It seems as we want the respect of the academy. Again, a moving target, but whatever that is, many wanted more than they. want fidelity to Christ and fidelity to the scriptures. And I think that's at the core of this question, the prestige issue, the respect issue that the academy would give and that sometimes

academics long for, right, to be affirmed, to be told you're one of us, your scholarship is as as good as ours, whatever those things may mean. And I think that's part of it. The other part of it, I think, is that the intellect, when it is not hardest by the gospel and by Christ, becomes full of hubris and destructive. It's just one of the great cardinal sin of academia is hubris, it's pride. And unless the intellect is brought to under the yoke of Christ, right, of Christ, the king of king and Lord of Lords and the true beautiful good, what happens is the intellect can drift quickly and rapidly away. And I think that's part of what's happened as well.

And that's the history of civilizations, right? Hubris. Right? Yeah. Well, I mean, what's so interesting to me is because I'm writing this book on the American Revolution and part of my research, you know, I'm studying the Puritans, the 17th century. And it's so fascinating to me that no sooner, you know, do the Pilgrims come over in 1620 and Winthrop and the others in 1630 to found Massachusetts Bay Colony, they believe, and this is so fascinating.

they believe that in order for the faith to thrive, in order for people to thrive, education has to be central. They have to educate people to understand what does it mean to be a good citizen? What does the Bible teach? We have to be educated. And it's interesting because we think of these as like enlightenment values, but in fact, they're biblical values. And it's also this idea that we're not afraid of freedom. We're not afraid to teach that people can take those ideas and run with them. We have to trust that if we do our job, enough people will get it.

And the antithesis of that, of course, which they saw as, you know, in the corrupt established churches of Europe, the idea that we don't want the people to know too much. We'll tell them what to think. And they saw that, you know, they would have called it popery or whatever. But the point is the concept of people being stuck in this kind of feudal system where they don't know too much. The founders of this nation, that generation in the 17th century, he said the most important thing is education. So they founded Harvard. Folks, think about this, in the 1630s. Think about this. They come over on a boat in 1630 to Boston. Four years later, they found Harvard because they say this is vital that we educate our people to understand these kinds of things. And there were grammar

schools everywhere. It was utterly central, and that was a Christian vision. It was a Protestant Christian vision in the 17th century, and that was the whole point. Yale was founded for that. In fact, every single one of the Ivy Leagues, except for Cornell, were founded as explicitly Christian, absolutely, explicitly Christian. So that's kind of where we started, and we've seen all kinds of drift and all kinds of drift, and now we're at a point where places like Wheaton have drifted and it's sad and a lot of the institutions we thought of as Christian have drifted. Christianity today, you know, has gone to the devil and the Episcopal Church. We've talked about that on this program. I mean, it's kind of fascinating to watch this. So when I see somebody holding the line

bravely, as you guys are doing at Cornerstone University, and folks, this is not a commercial for Cornerstone, but since we're introducing the concept here, I just want to say, you know, I feel like this is the question to is who's willing to fight the battles, who's willing to stand. And the very fact, Gerson, that you and Cornerstone would want to be affiliated with me, I just have to say, it seems crazy. But in this day and age, that's kind of brave. It's kind of a big thing.

And that's why I'm so humbled by it. We're going to go to a break, but I want to say that, you know, to folks, if you're not familiar with Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, avail yourself. of this thing that I call the internet. And you can look it up. But we need to know where we could send our kids or grandkids where they're not going to get polluted. And right now, most of the colleges that I would have recommended 10 or 15 years ago,

I would not. Most of the Christian colleges, I would not. Okay, we'll be right back. Folks, don't go away. That's not you know I couldn't sleep, wouldn't sleep, tossing and turning about. Folks, welcome back. I have as my guest today, the president of,

of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His name is Gerson Moreno Riyanio. I give myself a big pat on the back, Gerson. Every time I mention to say your beautiful name, Gerson Moreno Riano. Thank you, Eric. Okay, hallelujah. Okay, so seriously, though, you, we were talking about higher education, and you mentioned in the break how Donald Trump is questioning the orthodoxy.

Talk about that because this is Trump's bravery on this is very big. Yeah, I mean, I'll give you one simple example. Just a few weeks back, I had the opportunity to be in Washington, D.C. I met with a number of senior leaders in the Department of Education to talk about higher ed and some of the things we're doing at Cornerstone. It was fascinating to me what some of the things they shared with me and said. One of them, they said, you know, you're one of the first presidents that's come to meet with us who has not come to complain and to ask for more. I just want to stop there and say that, right? You're not asking us for more reasons,

there's more money, you're not complaining about anything. I said, no, I'm here actually to share some solutions with you that we have that I think would be great for the country. But that made me think deeply about the, what I call sort of the entitlement of higher education in America. I mean, it is an industry that's significantly subsidized, right? I mean, it really is billions of dollars. And yet we have very challenging issues before us as a nation in terms of how we feel.

fund higher ed, how we deliver it, what the value of it really is. Is it truly helping or hurting the country? Those are questions that Donald Trump has introduced and before would have been any theme. We'll never talk about it. But now under his administration and a broader conversation, the question is, is what's the real value? Is it really advancing the public good? Or is it really actually hurting the country and hurting the citizenry? Listen, it has been hurting the country for all of our lifetimes. I mean, when I went to Yale in the 80s, I was amazed, at how anti-Americanism, anti-Christian worldview was everywhere.

I go in as a working-class kid. I was raised, we go to church on Sundays, we love America. And I'm confronted with this is, you know, one of the elite institutions in the land, and this was there.

And then I realized William F. Buckley, in 1950 or 51, publishes his book, God and Man at Yale, talking about the Yale, of the 40s, which was infiltrated by communist thinking, by atheistic thinking. This is in the 40s. So this has been in the academy for decades and decades.

And there is no doubt, if you send your kid to one of these elite institutions today, they will be brainwashed. And so, you know, my friend Charlie Kirk has said college is a scam. And I agree with him. In other words, unless you send your kid to one of a child, of these places, obviously I think of Cornerstone as one of these few places that you're going to get a real education, why are you doing it? To get a diploma, to get a credential, it's become utterly meaningless. These places are Marxist indoctrination camps, and they have ceased to, I mean, if you want to

know how you can have a ruling class that all thinks the way President Obama thinks and Samantha Powers and Susan Rice and that whole class into the military, General Millie and on and on and on and Comey and Clapper, they all think a certain way. And most of them have come out of these elite institutions. It's become part of elite culture, and it is deeply hostile to the values of most Americans. So we're in a bizarre place.

And I guess my question to you is when I hear that Donald Trump is threatening to take away the funding. I think, why is he threatening? Why doesn't he just take it away? Because the fact that they're getting taxpayer dollars, I mean, why should a steam fitter who's working hard every week pay his taxes to go to subsidize Harvard? I don't get that. Well, you know, I think the general public, Christian or none, have realized that there's something significantly wrong with higher ed. The service show it. The majority on both sides of the aisle, it's headed in the wrong direction. And so I think people understand there's something fundamentally flawed with the sit with higher end and what it's doing right it's really in some ways common sense to

many many people the president has introduced a conversation the question there's something wrong which is shifted we should remove funding threatened it re-regulated you know all the things that he needs to do they're thinking about doing a number of innovative things for the fall as well to to help universities break free from the some of the accreditation shackles there on schools so this would have been unheard of years ago but think about this eric All these institutions, whether they're the top 10% Ivy League or not, are the ones who are educating and training the Christian faculty and Christian universities. Right?

That's a very significant challenge. So that any Christian university, when they go to higher faculty, they're hiring them the product of those universities, right? And those faculty, you're right, are antagonistic. I remember during my doctoral program, one of the senior faculty came to me in my years, I was writing my dissertation and said this, quote, How can someone as smart as you believe in something as dumb as Christianity? That was his question to me.

Now, I opened the door from your share the gospel with him, which I did, but that thinking is pervasive in higher ed about Christians and Christianity in the gospel. And unless a student who is working through that system to become a faculty member, right, learns on his or her own or goes through a training to think through what does it mean to be a Christian, fill in the blank. sociologists, political scientists, biologists, chemists, whatever it is. How do I think about this as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, right? How do I think about that? How do I think about teaching and research in that way, being faithful to Christ and being excellent in my discipline? How do I do that? If that is not done, what happens is that Christian universities and hire people based on

credentials, on degrees, right, on their, under, you know, repertoire, and they don't always think through those issues. And then you have a significant problem at the universities because faculty then began to drift the institution away from its mission-centric gospel morning. And we've seen this over and over and over again, folks. We'll be right back. We're talking to the president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Welcome back. I'm talking to the president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gerson-Mareno, Riano. And we are, we're talking about education, basically. And I think, I want to ask you, Gerson, if I may. I find that you said this two segments ago, people are always looking for approval. When you're talking about the kind of

the ruling classes, the educated classes, the accredited classes, they want the awards, they want the this, they want the that. And it's my belief that all of those awards and all of that kind of accreditation has become meaningless. If somebody gives me the Nobel Prize, I would say, this is worthless. They gave this to President Obama five minutes after he was inaugurated because he was a black guy who, what, promised hope? They gave him the Nobel Prize. They gave the Pulitzer Prize to Walter Durante in the 1930s for his reportage in the New York Times, where he's basically propping up Stalin who murdered millions of people.

They gave him the Pulitzer Prize. What is a Pulitzer Prize worth? We're living in a day and age when a Harvard degree, these things, they seem to mean nothing. And we still have, I guess, these educated classes that are, they're running after this. I mean, I'm just fascinated that, you know, to say that I write for the New York Times used to mean something. The New York Times has become propaganda. It's, to me, it's a joke. So all of these things, I guess what I'm saying is.

is that you have to have courage to leave these things aside. But if you're still running after a Harvard degree or a Yale degree because it has some cachet, I think, first of all, I want to say that cachet is gone. And that if you hire somebody who's gone to one of these places, you know you're probably hiring a pretty ignorant, woke person who's just going to cause you trouble in your organization. But a lot of people, including Christians, they don't have that courage. They still are somehow worshipping what we would call things of the world, the accreditation of the world. They want the approval of the world. And the drift toward the left is so dramatic that even a lot of Christian colleges, they're afraid to speak out against Darwinian evolution, which is just a joke. I mean, if you want to talk about

the subject, we can get into the subject. But the idea that we're going to accept Darwinian evolution after all we have seen. We're not going to talk about intelligent design, but you have a lot of people, even in science departments in Christian universities, they're afraid to go there. Yeah, I tell you, I mean, part of it, again, is the desire to be affirmed, to be recognized, to be told, you know, you're great and you're smart and you're intelligent and that you belong to the cadre of over the intellectuals, right, in the academy. I think that drives a lot of what happens. And, you know, I'm mindful of what Christ tells us, and, you know, Paul writes about Christ in Philippians. too, he made himself of no reputation, right? I mean, he pursued with complete courage, but was right, true, beautiful, and good what the father had sent for him to do. I think that's a very important example for us, no matter what we do in the academy and other industries, we have to,

through the grace and power of God do what is true, what is good, what is right, whether it's recognized or not, whether we're heralded or not, whether it's symbolized or not. It doesn't really matter. You know, we will stand before the Lord, God of the universe, to give an account. And I think that's what we have to focus on and remind ourselves as a discipline. We have to remind ourselves daily throughout our day. That's why we're here to bring honor and glory to God, which means you do what is beautiful, true and good. You love him. You love your neighbor. Rightly done. That's what the ultimate, you know, T-Loss is here. It's not the degree, the recognition, I got published here or there, how much I got published, any of those things.

It's really true, beautiful and good. the centrality of the gospel. And that's what we're trying to foster at Cornerstone. I will tell you, again, it's a beautiful opportunity and it's a heart opportunity. Our missions to educate influencers in the world for Jesus Christ. And we've asked ourselves at Cornerstone this question in the last several years to be faithful to that mission. We have to ensure that Christ is the greatest influencer on our campus, in our hearts, in our thinking, right? In our teaching, right? I remember years ago, a colleague of mine was a sociologist, said to me, I'm a sociologist. I'm a sociologist. I'm a sociologist. first and a Christian second, right?

And I forget she said this to me. It made me think deeply about, wow, how do we, you know, how do we raise our disciplines and our callings or the things we love more highly than Jesus? Why will we do that? And how do we keep ourselves from do that? But that pull is significant, Eric. It's real. And whether it's in the academy or in other industry, that pull of putting other things

before the Lord and Christ in our profession is a real thing. To me, it kind of taps into what I've been writing about and talking about the last few years. And my last book is called Religionist Christianity. There's this idea of religiousness, religiosity, that they're really confusing true Christianity with this religiosity or this theological thing. If you are a Christian, folks, truth is your number one. So when you say I'm a sociologist or a scientist or whatever that, your number one value as a Christian is truth. So you're going to be the best scientist because of that. You're going to be brave because you're following the facts.

You're following the truth. But there are people that have relegated their faith to this kind of religious corner. I keep saying this over and over and over again. So for somebody to say, I'm a sociologist first and a Christian second means that they don't understand the values of Christian faith. But the values of Christian faith are what enable you to be good in whatever discipline you're in. So to say somehow that, you know, it's the values of science. Who do you think invented science?

Where do we get the idea that there is a no. universe that can be discoverable that we can this comes out of our fundamental beliefs as a Christian so that's a fascinating concept that somebody would have said that to you yeah and it was a Christian university where I was working right and so that's I learned from that moment on that anytime you bring in faculty or staff to university it's really important to discern where are you and the Christian worldview and you're coming into Jesus and truth and how central is that to what you do and how have you worked that out and it's also really important for you universities to develop their faculty and your staff. It's a continual thing to develop in that area.

Jesus Christ is supreme. Colossus 116 and 17. The supremacy of Jesus Christ has to be evident in all that we do. It's a high calling. It's a high bar that only by God's grace can we achieve and through effort, right? And so universities have a tremendous responsibility to educate their faculty well, develop them well, train them well, hold them accountable in this space because they will be shaping hearts and minds in the classroom. And so that, I've told this to faculty for years, that's some of the most important work that we do. Research is beautiful, scholarship is beautiful, but that intersection between my mind and my heart and the heart and mind of my students is absolutely pivotal. And we fail there. We fail as an institution. Well, that to me really is

at the heart of it. We come back. I want to talk. to you about truth, lying, and what that means to us as Christians in the academy. And we can talk about what happened at Harvard in the last year. Unbelievable. We'll be right back. I'm talking to Gerson Moreno Rianio, otherwise known as the president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. So Gerson, you know, just before we went to the break, I was thinking of Claudine Gay, who was the president of Harvard University, who, you know, it's one of these things. You can't even believe it. She basically lost her job because of a plagiarism scandal. In other words, you talk about, you know, we're teaching our kids at Cornerstone about character and values and faith. And you realize that without that, you cannot even have a university. I mean, if people are lying and, you know, using AI or using whatever, they're just cheating. If they don't get to. that everything breaks down and the head of the arguably the top institution of higher learning in America at least used to be is is taken out because of a plagiarism scandal what message does that send to everybody down the line including to the undergraduates the cynicism to find out that the one person that you're supposed to look to as the model is guilty of the most basic and egregious errors. And then to compound it that the corrupt system looked the other way.

Why? Because she was a black woman. A black woman, oh, that's like so sacred because, you know, we need to have this kind of diversity. And so we don't want somebody like that to be tagged as a plagiarist. So we're going to look the other way. and I know friends who looked into this kind of stuff, Christopher Rufo and others, they said that this scandal is so deep.

It's all through the academy, plagiarism, lying, looking the other way, corruption. It's just unbelievable. So unless you restore these basics, what are you sending your kids into? Yeah, I mean, that's a, I will tell you that today, it's so easy with AI and so many technologies and so many things to play fast and loose with truth

and beauty and goodness and boundaries and morality, right? It's almost as if many in any industry and throttages, I think, there are no boundaries. This stuff is all conventional, right? It doesn't really matter. There are no rules to anything. It's made up by somebody and therefore, you know, you can eliminate the borders and the guardrails. And, you know, it's a foolish, as you know, it's a foolish proposition. When the minute you begin to explore that and really drill down into it, it falls apart. It's destructive to human life, to civilization, to families, to communities, to a country. So that the importance of doing two things, one, upholding the beauty of what is true, good, and right, and those principles, number one. And number two, being able to educate students

to learn what it means to grow and to have discipline and to correction and have correction and redirect, right? So that, because oftentimes you look at heroes of the past and this is what the left will do, as you know, they'll point out their glaring errors and say, you know, because they were like this, these principles are false. They can't be valid. You have to reject everything because of the human sin or wickedness or poor rational decisions that made on and on. And that continues throughout our educational system, K-12, and higher ed. So you throw everything away because of human error or human sin. And part of what we have to learn to educate our students is to say, look, these principles are objectively true and beautiful.

youthful and good, regardless of whether people follow them or not, or how perfectly they follow them. Okay? So let's separate those two things. Let's talk about human error and sin and redemption and a need for salvation and correction. But that's a separate question to simply say the principles don't exist because none of us ever follow them. So they must be wrong, right? There must be something false. Yeah. There's no such thing as truth. That's the problem, folks. You have to believe there is such a thing as truth. God is real. There's such a thing as the good. There's such a thing as evil. We're going to have to leave it there. Gerson, just a joy to have you on. We'll talk to you whenever we get a chance. God bless you, my friend. Eric, likewise to you, and look forward to seeing you still on

our campus, Eric. Thanks so much.