The Jesuits were once renowned for their intellectual rigor.  Any person who graduated from a Jesuit-run institution was presumptively well educated, morally centered, and capable of reasoning.  Marquette University, a Jesuit institution, has slipped from that standard, for it attacked an incoming freshman for supporting Trump.  However, the bracing honesty coming from New Saint Andrews College signals that there's still hope for a rigorous Christian education in America.

In 1881, the Jesuits founded Marquette University, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  To Marquette's credit, although established as a single-sex men's college, in 1909, it became the first coeducational Catholic university in the world.  It is consistently one of the more highly ranked American colleges.

Don't let the college rankings fool you, though.  The Jesuits are among the most liberal groups within Catholicism.  That is their right.  It becomes a problem, though, when a Jesuit institution such as Marquette lets an incoming college freshman know that it might rescind its offer because she supports President Trump.  Marquette backed away from this position only when the story went public.

The College Fix initially reported the story as follows:

Soon to be Marquette University freshman Samantha Pfefferle has yet to even step foot on campus, yet she said she is already facing possible dismissal from the school.

The threat to cancel Pfefferle's admission came after she posted a video to her account on the popular social media site TikTok showing her support for President Donald Trump.

In the video that sent leftist tempers soaring, Pfefferle dances joyously before a Trump 2020 sign and a Marquette 2024 sign, along with captions revealing the prejudice she faces for supporting Trump:

@conservativegirl0

When the libs find their way to your page🤧🤣##trump ##trump2020 ##republicanhypehouse ##republicans

♬ GOOBA - 6ix9ine

The video went viral, and many in the Marquette community responded badly, with some going as far as to threaten her life or — and this is something significant coming from an ostensibly Christian community — saying she is unworthy of prayers.  That pushback was to be expected.  One enterprising person even created a form letter asking Marquette to eject her.

What wasn't to be expected was the school's official response:

Pfefferle explained that following the TikTok, she was contacted by Brian Troyer, dean of undergraduate admissions at Marquette, who she said told her her acceptance to the school was far from certain.

"[He] had the heart to tell me I wasn't a student," Pfefferle said. "This means that my classification is still in limbo and is currently being decided by the administration. I have been accepted, I paid for my housing, I have my roommates, I even have a complete class schedule. If that doesn't make me a student, what does?"

Some Marquette administrators also asked Pfefferle a series of questions meant to judge her morals, she said.

"They also asked me hypothetical questions regarding Dreamers," she said. "How would I respond if a Dreamer who lived down the hall from me came up to me and told me she didn't feel safe or comfortable with my views and me being on campus. They also asked me if they thought there was anything I could do to improve my image on campus. They proceeded to ask if I was comfortable with the reputation I have established for myself. The assistant dean asked if I put any thought into the response I would be getting from my videos."

Once the story went public, though, the college decided not to revoke her admission.  In other words, Marquette is a craven institution that doesn't have the courage to stand behind its execrable values.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Idaho, New Saint Andrews College shows the kind of muscular, humanist Christianity that drove the Great Awakening, along with abolition, the end of child labor, and universal suffrage.  The school, founded in 1994, is a liberal arts college that hews to the classic tradition: it is neither a trade school nor a purveyor of woke indoctrination.  Instead, the small school, which has roughly 200 students, teaches all of its students a classical liberal arts curriculum with a Christian slant.

Because its faith is real and not a political garment, despite today's censorious cancel culture, the school is unafraid to trumpet its beliefs.  Its latest offering is a powerful reproach to the Black Lives Matter movement, a movement that has little to do with putting a value on black lives and everything to do with leading a Marxist political revolution:

In our mob-run, cancel culture world, it takes real courage to say such things.  Speaking to PJ Media, college president Benjamin Merkle said there's been pushback but the school, and he can take it:

"If Christian colleges aren't ready to be bold in this moment, there isn't much of a future for them as distinctively Christian schools," he warned.

I asked him if he's getting more interested students and he said web traffic has been up but that won't necessarily translate into new students. Mainly, the full-throated message he's sending is to stand up to the rage mob and tell the truth. That hasn't always gone over well.

"We've had a lot of people get upset," he explained. "We had the mayor of our city also write an editorial in our local paper denouncing us. But I've seen a bunch of our alumni be really supportive. And my board is very behind us as well."

And if the rioters come calling? "I'm not worried about physical safety."

Image: Facebook screen grab.