Ben Shapiro, the editor of Daily Wire and host of the popular podcast (now nationally syndicated radio show) The Ben Shapiro Show, spoke on Wednesday at Liberty University’s student convocation that is billed as “North America’s largest weekly gathering of Christian students” with approximately 13,000 students who attend in person and many more who watch online or on TV.
Shapiro who is known for attracting protests on many campuses where he speaks received a warm welcome at Liberty.
Liberty University, the largest evangelical university in the nation, was founded by the late Pastor Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, VA. Convocation is held on campus three times a week and they play host to more than 80 guest speakers of national significance from every sphere of society. The gathering is not considered a chapel service and the university says it “allows us to view Convocation as a platform for an artist, a pulpit for a guest pastor or theologian, and a podium for a scientist or politician.”
“Liberty is an institution of higher learning, so our Convocation intentionally allows people from all walks of life to compel, equip, and challenge our students to think clearly and with conviction,” they note on their website.
Shapiro, who is Jewish, spoke about the importance of individual freedom and preserving God and society.
During his address, Shapiro specifically discussed how Marxists/Collectivists want to abolish the family in order to elevate the state.
Watch:
Transcript:
You see collectivists see the state as the source of our morals. Family is an obstacle standing in between individuals and their master. That is exactly what is happening with Alfie Evans where bureaucrats are standing between parents and their child saying, “We know best that a child has to die.” Because they know better than the parents do.
Collectivists, they… There is a reason that Karl Marx abhorred the traditional family, let’s just say that. He saw it as a capitalist institution base on capital and on private gain. He called for the abolition of the family.
There is a reason that Stalin trained Soviet youth to become “pioneers.” That is what he called them. Emissaries of the state who were told that the highest goal is ratting out your own family members. At one 1932 Soviet trial, a father actually cried out to his son, “it’s me your father.”
The son replied, “Yes, he used to be my father, but I no longer consider him my father. I am not acting as a son but as a pioneer.”
Stalin used to go around Soviet Russia talking about this story and using it as an example of good behavior. Breaking down the family is a precondition to building up the state.
Watch the full convocation message below: