Trump administration closes criminal investigation into evangelical university
The Trump administration has closed a criminal investigation into Olivet University, declining to bring human trafficking charges against officials at the Christian institution in Southern California.
The university’s founder, evangelical pastor and media executive David Jang, has been portrayed by some of his followers as the second coming of Jesus Christ and is known for his founding roles in the creation of conservative, evangelical-friendly outlets like The Christian Post.
Last year, a Los Angeles Times report detailed allegations from former students and employees at the university, who claimed they’d been put under “near-constant surveillance and stripped of their independence” while enduring a “big brother-like atmosphere on multiple campuses where administrators prevented adults from leaving” and “forced them to work, sometimes for free.”
The university vehemently denied the allegations and pushed back with unsubstantiated claims that the accusers were seeking to manipulate the visa system. But after an investigation by California’s Bureau for Private and Post-Secondary Education, a judge fined Olivet more than $64,000 late last year and ordered the school to cease operations in the state to “protect the public.”
The university, which has faced several legal claims since its 2004 founding, also had to shut down two of its New York campuses after it pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and falsification of business records back in 2020.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest...rcna236013
The Trump administration has closed a criminal investigation into Olivet University, declining to bring human trafficking charges against officials at the Christian institution in Southern California.
The university’s founder, evangelical pastor and media executive David Jang, has been portrayed by some of his followers as the second coming of Jesus Christ and is known for his founding roles in the creation of conservative, evangelical-friendly outlets like The Christian Post.
Last year, a Los Angeles Times report detailed allegations from former students and employees at the university, who claimed they’d been put under “near-constant surveillance and stripped of their independence” while enduring a “big brother-like atmosphere on multiple campuses where administrators prevented adults from leaving” and “forced them to work, sometimes for free.”
The university vehemently denied the allegations and pushed back with unsubstantiated claims that the accusers were seeking to manipulate the visa system. But after an investigation by California’s Bureau for Private and Post-Secondary Education, a judge fined Olivet more than $64,000 late last year and ordered the school to cease operations in the state to “protect the public.”
The university, which has faced several legal claims since its 2004 founding, also had to shut down two of its New York campuses after it pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and falsification of business records back in 2020.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest...rcna236013
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
