You may not have heard of Patrick Henry College in Virginia, but you should familiarize yourself with it. Of the nearly 100 interns in the White House, seven are from Patrick Henry, one works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, one works for Karl Rove, one works for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, and over the past four years 22 conservative members of Congress have employed at least one. Influencing the halls of power is the very point of Patrick Henry College - they are on a mission to transform the world to conform to their fundamentalist vision.

The Independent explains:

The college was established in 2000 by Michael Farris, who runs the Home School Legal Defence Association, itself set up in 1983 to promote the values of Christian home-schooling... Last year, when George Bush signed legislation banning so-called "partial-birth abortion", Farris was one of five Christian conservatives invited to witness the act in the Oval Office. The college gets so much money from right-wing Christian donors that it operates without debt and yet charges just $15,000 (£8,300) a year for tuition - about $10,000 less than comparable institutions. ... [H]e has told The New York Times: "We are not home-schooling our kids just so they can read. The most common thing I hear is parents telling me that they want their kids to be on the Supreme Court. And if we put enough kids in the system, some may get through to the major leagues."

[S]tudents ... are required to sign a statement of faith before they arrive, confirming (among other things) that they have a literal belief in the teachings of the Bible. ...Students must also obey a rule stating that if they wish to hold hands with a member of the opposite sex, they must do so while walking: standing while holding hands is not permitted. ... Before being hired by Patrick Henry, all members of the teaching faculty, too, have to sign a pledge stating that they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible. Oddly, only staff teaching biology and theology have to hold a literal view specifically of the six-day creation story.

For all the warm welcomes, for all the smiles, for all the openness, there is something a little unsettling about Patrick Henry and the cultish devotion of its students. This is, after all, an establishment that claims to challenge its students to think for themselves, and yet establishes a fixed, rigid framework - both culturally and intellectually - in which they are to operate.

The ideology and goals of Patrick Henry College are not hidden - they are, in fact, put out in plain view for everyone to see. When people support Patrick Henry through donations or through the hiring of one of its students as an intern, that person or group also support Patrick Henry's goals and ideology. Thus, anyone voting for or donating to such person or organization is indirectly supporting and encouraging Patrick Henry College. I wonder, though, how many such people are aware of this?

Read More:

• Fundamentalism
• Religious Right
• Christian Extremism
• Christian Nationalism
• Evangelicalism