students at liberty university,<u+00a0>one of the largest<u+00a0>evangelical christian colleges in the country, have issued a public statement denouncing donald trump, highlighting the increasingly bitter divide among conservative christians about whether to continue supporting the republican nominee after revelations about his alleged treatment of women. the statement is a rebuke not only to mr. trump himself, but also to liberty<u+2019>s president, jerry falwell, jr. , who has been one of mr. trump<u+2019>s earliest and most influential supporters among evangelical christians. even as mr. falwell spoke on cable news wednesday in defense of mr. trump<u+2014>who multiple women said this week had forcibly touched or kissed them in the past<u+2014>liberty students were trying to distance themselves from the republican nominee, writing that he<u+00a0><u+201c>is actively promoting<u+00a0>the very things that we as christians ought to oppose.<u+201d> mr. trump has denied the sexual-assault allegations . more than 1,000 liberty students had signed<u+00a0>the statement<u+00a0>online<u+00a0>by<u+00a0>thursday<u+00a0>afternoon, less than 24 hours after it had been publicly released, organizers said. <u+201c>donald trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him,<u+201d> said the statement, issued by the group liberty united against trump. the letter also criticized mr. falwell for backing mr. trump even after a video from 2005, released last week, showed him bragging about his efforts to seduce and grope women . days later, at the second presidential debate , mr. trump said he never did any of the things he claimed on the tape. <u+201c>as if sexual assault is a shoulder-shrugging issue rather than an atrocity which plagues college campuses across america, including our own,<u+201d> the statement said. the rift at liberty<u+00a0>university<u+2014>which<u+00a0>was founded in lynchburg, va., by jerry falwell, sr., in 1971,<u+00a0>and is now, school officials say, the largest christian university in the world<u+2014>follows a week in which the trump video has divided conservative christians and the republican party itself. at least one prominent religious leader has publicly pulled support for mr. trump,<u+00a0>while others who never backed him have been outspoken in their criticism. many evangelical leaders have kept faith with the republican nominee, however, including mr. falwell. in a telephone interview<u+00a0>on thursday, mr. falwell said that, on a campus of 15,000 students, very few students had signed the statement denouncing mr. trump. liberty has a total enrollment of more than 110,000, including online students, according to the school<u+2019>s website. <u+201c>i applaud their boldness<u+2014>i think it<u+2019>s a test of liberty university<u+2019>s commitment to free expression of ideas and thought. they<u+2019>re willing to take a stand that goes against the grain,<u+201d> he said. he noted that mike pence, mr. trump<u+2019>s running mate, spoke to thousands of liberty students on campus this week, and received multiple standing ovations. <u+201c>i believe mr. trump,<u+201d> he added, in response to mr. trump<u+2019>s denials of the sexual assault allegations made this week. <u+201c>i also believe he is a different man than he was 11 years ago when that video was<u+00a0>made<u+2026>it<u+00a0>reeks of desperation a little bit that the other side is resorting to these personal attacks, and they don<u+2019>t want to talk about the issues.<u+201d> still, misgivings about mr. trump are widespread on campus. he received only a fraction of the vote in the precinct where liberty is located during the republican primary, months after mr. falwell<u+2019>s endorsement. even the head of university<u+2019>s college republicans organization<u+00a0>wouldn't commit to supporting<u+00a0>mr. trump after the video, though he wouldn't rule it out. republican student organizations at several other nearby colleges<u+2014>including the university of virginia<u+2014>have recently withdrawn their support for mr. trump, or expressed concerns about his candidacy. savannah barry, a 21-year-old senior at liberty university, said that the campus is indeed divided over mr. trump. she hasn't signed the petition, but also said that she couldn't support the republican nominee, and was unsure who she would vote for. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve been very disappointed to see a lot of evangelical leaders who, even if they<u+2019>re supporting him, haven<u+2019>t necessarily denounced his comments,<u+201d> she said. when asked if she included mr. falwell in that list of evangelical leaders, she said, <u+201c>yes, i do.<u+201d> dustin wahl, a 21-year-old junior<u+00a0>who wrote the statement against mr. trump, said mr. falwell<u+2019>s outspoken support has inexorably tied to the school to the candidate<u+2014>a connection that, several students said, has led people outside lynchburg to assume the students were backing mr. trump. mr. wahl has never been a trump supporter, and campaigned for sen. marco rubio of florida during the republican primary contest. more students were signing the petition by the hour, mr. wahl said. faculty were also signing, he said, though some were worried about reprisals and wouldn't put their names down. <u+201c>we respect president falwell as our leader,<u+201d> mr. wahl said. <u+201c>but it<u+2019>s undeniable that what he<u+2019>s done has hurt liberty university, and has hurt our national appeal. his leadership in this area has been horrible for the school.<u+201d> write to ian lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com
donald trump denounced by liberty university students  - wsj
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