Pepperdine Prez Lashes Out At Anti-Gay Prop 8 Propaganda


It’s the intellectual versus the traditionalists!

Pepperdine University president Andrew K. Benton bit back at the Yes on 8 campaign this week after the activists invoked his institution’s name in an incendiary ad.

The ad in question insisted gay marriage in California would lead to compulsory homosexual education in schools, a fact “confirmed” by Pepperdine Law School professor Richard Peterson, who does not represent the University. Incensed, Benton insisted the campaign stop using Pepperdine’s name. They refused. And now Benton’s calling them out:

Just prior to running a second ad, the campaign announced to us that in their opinion it would be more effective if Pepperdine’s name was back in. They added a disclaimer, albeit so small and bare, that most do not see it. It was not the language which we had suggested. They did not ask us; they told us what they were going to do, and they did it.

Without any involvement in the campaign, Pepperdine has been lionized and vilified. We have been given credit where it is not due and blamed beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings. I, and perhaps many of you, continue to receive words of praise and condemnation from people who are either thanking us, or sharply criticizing us. Whether the writers are for or against Prop 8, I take no comfort from either position as it puts us where we don’t belong — in partisan politics.

Benton says he and his colleagues will “take whatever measures we deem appropriate to correct the misunderstanding.” That’s educator code for “we’re going to kick some ass.”

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