[ NYT Magazine quote continued ] This season Liberty is closing in on an unprecedented sweep -- first place in the rankings in all three national college debate groups: the American Debate Association, the Cross Examination Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament.

Two men are responsible for this improbable success. One is Liberty's founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who has spared no effort to make his school into a national debate power. The other is the team's head coach, Brett O'Donnell.

That sounds all authoritative-like, y'know ? Like revealed truth. [ per the Grey Lady's stupendous reputation for great reporting on, say, the presence of WMD's in Iraq ? ]    

Says Brayton:

"Liberty University gets to be #1 ranked by sending lots and lots of novices and JV debaters to smaller regional tournaments, piling up points. But their varsity team is slightly above average at very best. No varsity team from Liberty has finished with a winning record at the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in the last 8 years....

When weighted for quality, matched against the top winning teams, Liberty's top team is ranked 111th with a 3-6 record against the top 25. In matchups against teams that "clear" at tournaments - meaning teams that qualify for the elimination rounds at tournaments - Liberty doesn't rank at all and is below 26% in wins against them. And when you actually do adjust for quality of competition, where does the Liberty team rank? How about 117th.

Despite this, they're all over the media claiming to be the best debate team in the country, "higher ranked than Harvard", and the media is lapping it up like a hungry kitten. [emphasis mine]

In short, Liberty University's approach resembles a common approach of many leaders on the Christian right : game the system.

If you want some historical background on how the Christian right games politics to the detriment of the Democratic process, here are two great examples:

How Southern Baptists Have Changed:
Dr. Bruce Prescott - one of the world's top authorities on the subject - writes details the Christian right's takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Taking over The GOP: Eyewitness to the event, Joan Bokaer details how Christian right theocratic insurgents have largely over the GOP and vanquished the the secular faction of the Republican Party.

The point of both these personal narratives, deeply felt, is something like this : the strategic thrust of those who have engineered the rise of the Christian right in modern America has little to nothing to do with concern for truth or the spirit of Democracy. It is mainly about the acquisition of power.

Truth is elsewhere.