September 29, 2025 • 37 mins
On this episode of the Tudor Dixon Podcast, Tudor sits down with Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riano, president of Cornerstone University, to discuss why faith is essential in higher education and how Christian universities are shaping culture. They examine the impact of cultural shifts on families, the historical relationship between family and government, and the mental health costs of abandoning traditional values. Dr. Moreno-Riano also shares Cornerstone’s innovative mobile-based degree program, designed to make higher education more affordable, accessible, and relevant for today’s students. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
Learn more about Cornerstone University
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm excited today because we are going to talk about
faith at university is something that I think is on
everybody's mind right now. We certainly saw that with a
memorial to Charlie Kirk and everything that we saw with
his wife, but all of our administration officials that are
out there talking about faith, even the Vice president who
said I've talked more about Jesus Christ in the last
(00:25):
five days than I have my entire time in office.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I thought that was so cool to see him say that.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
So we have a friend at a university, the president
of Cornerstone University, doctor Jisan Marino Riano, thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thank you, Tutor. Great to see you again, Great to
be in your podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm so happy about what you guys are doing here
in Michigan because I've been to your campus many times
and we know that you are faith led. That actually
was a challenge for you at first to even come
into the university and say we're going to really push
our our faith. We're going to make sure that these
kids are focused on Christ's that's so important for our
(01:06):
kids today. And I think I was just having a
conversation earlier today with someone who said, once my kids
got out of college, there wasn't that opportunity for them
to find a spouse that was also christ Led.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And that was a conversation that we heard from. Charlie.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You need to be aware that you want to have
a life with someone else, and that's something that I mean,
we know that we have two people that work with
us that let just recently graduated from Cornerstone and they're
getting married.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So you guys, are you had the whole package.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
We're contribute into every good thing possible.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, honestly, I think that's great. But
how I want to talk about how faith based colleges
are saving this next generation?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, thank you, tutor. You know it's I think universities
have such a pivotal role in the space, and unfortunately
it has been a role that has been are left
behind by American universities for decades and decades and decades. Right,
I mean, in many ways at the outset of our country,
we talk about American higher education before the states were
even here, when the collegies were here, it was really
(02:11):
Christian higher education. Right, we need to be true and
factual about that. It was Christian universities that started in
this country. Quite frankly, they have drifted, that drifted significant
as we all know. And now I think there are
handful universities who truly are committed to Christ, to the
Christian faith to provide an excellent education. I do think
(02:32):
that they are one of the most important, some of
the most important institutions we need to be supporting and
advancing to bring about this transformation we're all talking about.
And I say that because back in two thousand and three,
UCLA researchers did it profoundest study. It was called the
Spiritual Life of College Students. They serve it over one
(02:52):
hundred thousand undergraduate students in America and they discovered at
two our colleges on the majority right as these students
had high levels of spiritual interest and involvement. They all
believe or somebody believe in the sacredness of human life.
Over fifty percent of them said that spiritual life and
(03:14):
spiritual growth was essential to them, are very important to them,
and they were searching for the meaning and purpose in life.
That's two thousand and three. It hasn't changed. I think
the numbers are probably larger today. There's a real hunger
and thirst on the part of young people in high
school and as they're entering college as to what do
we do with our life? How do we live a
(03:35):
meaningful life? And I think the universities can have a
pivotal effect and a transformative effect if they are right
aligned with truly caring about the souls of these students.
If they're not, they actually perpetrate more damage. And I
think that's the challenge we have before us in hire it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We've had a radical infiltration of indoctrination and these radical
leftists professors that have come into universities across the country.
Harvard Graduate School just released a study showing that nearly
three in five young adults feel a lack of purpose
(04:15):
in their lives. But they many of them have come
out of these universities that have told them, you don't
need to get married, there's no reason to have kids,
there's no reason to have a strong relationship. It's very
me focused, and there is actually no purpose in focusing
on self. If you can't put others above self, then
(04:38):
what is your purpose? You're only focused on you?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, you know, I've seen this one of the more
jarring things I've seen. There have been a number of
articles published in the last few months and a couple
of years in the New York Times or The Atlantic
talking about the new movement for family strange mass right,
how young adults children are cutting off their entire families, parents, siblings,
(05:05):
and it is a deliberate choice they are making. And
so you have clinical psychologists and sociologists studying this problem,
asking what's happening, Why is this happening, And here's what
they're saying, that there's a significant shift in American society
in the family, where for centuries the family was about
obligations and duty toward others and thinking of the best
(05:28):
for others, and in the last decades it has shifted
from that to identity and understanding the family. The parents
have to identify with me. I firm and embrace my
identity whatever that is or my view of the world.
And if they don't, I cut them off. They're causing
me emotional and mental trauma. So I let them go.
I massive shift in family understanding, and I believe that
(05:52):
it's not many universities have perpetrated and helped to perpetrate that,
but the culture has as well, the popular culture has
as well. There are so many forces against this fundamental,
important unit of society, of the fabric of our country,
called the family, and all of a sudden it is
beginning to be seen as actually a bad thing, which
(06:12):
is a real perversion of society, of our culture. So
I think there's an opportunity though, because young men and
women know they're crying out for belonging, They're crying out
for meaning, they're crying out for I mean. I spoke
to a young man in the last few months who
was graduating from high school entering college, and I asked them,
(06:33):
what is it that you and your friends talk about?
What do you guys talk about when you guys get together.
And he said, look, I can't tell you all the
details about I'll tell you in general what we're concerned about.
We want to find someone that can love us, and
we have families, and we want to find a meaningful work.
That's what we talk a lot about. Some can we
(06:53):
find someone that will love us and marry that person
and then find meaningful work. I was absolutely floored. They
weren't talking about video games, they weren't talking about college
football and NFL, right they were talking about some of
those fundamental questions of life, love, meaning, and purpose. Where
do they go, I will tell you something, to door.
(07:14):
They're not going to their families to talk about this.
They're not going to their parents, They're going to each other.
And on the one hand, well that's good. There's no
real wisdom going into those conversations oftentimes, and so that's
why I think that universities like Cornerstone plays such antividal
role when the young men and women come to our campuses,
(07:35):
that we can have really honest not just conversations, not
just discussions, but provide moral direction, you know, soul transformation,
soul shaping. That's really what education is about. It's about
moral formation and do that. And it helped them not
just talk about it, but provide guidance through the scriptures
(07:55):
where Christian University through the Gospel, but also through of
human history. That always posts to the fact that the
institution of the family is the most important institution for success,
for flourishing, for moral protection, for guidance.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Okay, but take us on a history tour, because wouldn't
you say that one of the hallmarks of communism and
socialism is separate the younger generation from their family. And
this has been had, Like you said, it's come in
from all different areas of culture. We don't actually even
see exactly where it's coming from. So how have you
seen that in history in the past, How have we
seen this in What are the effects?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, you know, I think that the first person that
began this, unfortunately, was a Greek philosopher named Plato in
his book Republic, which is I mean, one of the
most influential books in philosophy how you ever written. And
in that work he argues that the family is a
conventional arrangement, that actually the state or the political society
can raise children better than parents.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Sounds familiar, right.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
This was three hundred BC, okay, three centuries are so
before christ Is this argument was already being discussed and
talked about, and he developed an entire systematic approach to
doing that. That idea has been carrying a lot of
water for centuries. A lot of people have been taking
that and douctly seriously. Communism sort is the latest one.
(09:17):
Because any social institution that we would say is divinely ordained,
like the family or the church, right, Communism said, no,
it's all conventional it's all power argument, it's all about control.
So communism promises people real freedom through destroying all these institutions,
which is a falsehood. We've seen what that happens. So yes,
(09:38):
communism socialism seeks to destroy this institution of the family
because they understand the power, not just the power in
terms of control, but the incredible amount of moral influence
parents can have in shaping the lives of children and
shaping their moral outlook and shaping their moral direction. And
that's a dangerous thing for some socialism because only the
(10:02):
states should do that. Only the state knows best, so
you have to try to destroy that and destroy any
other institution that would suggest that the state shouldn't do that.
So that's been going on for a long long time,
and it's soft for forms in American culture. The argument
is that freedom, individual freedom is more important and trumps
(10:24):
any social institution and social norm and mora a so
that it's really any institution that would dare stay is
coming to your life and say no, you shouldn't do
it that way, you should do this. There's something wrong
because it's keeping you from being your true authentic self.
And your true authentic self is determined by your true
(10:47):
authentic self. It's circurlogic, I understand, but it's a very
powerful argument because you have young men and women who
hear that. Human beings would hear that and think I'm
the captain of my soul and the master of my
direct Yes, right, and no one can tell me otherwise.
That's very powerful. That's very liberating and what that movement
(11:09):
has done. On the one hand, we love freedom and liberty,
but you can't have that without moral context, moral responsibility,
without the moral virtues, and that argument that is freedom,
no responsibility, liberty, no moral ground. That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's liberating, but it's also very lonely, and that's not
how the human body was built. That's not what God
intended for us. This is very much against what God
intended for us. And you talked about identity and all
of that. And I think there is an impact on
mental health. When we break this down, we have people
are saying we have a mental health crisis. I really
(11:48):
think that this is a manufactured crisis. In many cases
where they've been there has been mind control and brainwashing
of these.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Groups that they know what they're doing, they know how
to do this.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I'll say the other day, I saw a video and
I thought it was incredibly impactful. There was a young
woman who said, I transitioned and I became. I thought
I was becoming a man. And she said, think about
what my position was in my family. I was my
mother's daughter. And I told her, I'm not your daughter anymore.
(12:19):
I had responsibilities of a daughter. God gave me responsibilities
of a daughter that I said, you have to accept.
That's not what I'm going to do anymore. Same thing
with my father, she said. Probably the worst of all
is I was an older sister to my younger sister,
and I told her, you don't have a sister anymore.
And I don't have that responsibility. You have a brother,
and you are supposed to support me in that. I'm
(12:41):
not supposed to give you anything anymore. She said, I
made them go through my surgeries. I made them watch
my body change, and that wasn't who I was. It
was just totally selfish. She said, this is a narsis.
She called herself narcissistic. She said, this is a narcissistic
mental disorder that is created by this culture right now,
and she had broken free. I want to talk about
(13:04):
that because Charlie had been so he had been so
outspoken about you can't do this and if you're doing this,
it's selfish, and I think a lot of the pushback
on him was that he said. And as we know,
the shooter had these trans messages on his weapon, on
his bullets, so we know that it was very hard
(13:24):
for these youths to understand that it's not all about you.
In fact, my pastor over the weekend was just talking
about what is love and God's love and God's love
is not love of self.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
True love that you learn from the Lord.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Is to put others above yourself, and that's kind of
that's the breakdown in culture today. So how do you
bring that message to a college campus? Love is to
put others before yourself.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, So two things. One the mental health piece. I've
always said, then when we asshuman beings go against the
divine order that God has designed and created, it caused
great damage to ourselves. It's just playing set. But we
can call it mental health, we can call it spiritual.
I think it's deeply spiritual with mental and physical ramifications.
When we violate the order of God, we bring great
(14:14):
violence to our own being, into our own mind, So
the one who I do think you're a very significant
amount called social engineering going down out there and the messaging,
and it's clear and there's a lot of data showing
that being done. There's also very real spiritual mental damage
we're doing to ourselves when we violate god To order,
when we push against it, when we rebel against it,
(14:36):
and that's I think part of what's happening here. I
think there is a definitely social engineering happening. You saw
the other day the announcement at Google certainly was biased
against conservatives during the present Biden's administration. Now it's out
there what people were saying was actually happening, actually was happening.
But I've also seen person hand how individus who are
(14:57):
going through this LGBTQ identity trans crisis are also arrestling
with deep, profound spiritual questions in their own life. And
as they drink, as they pursue these options there against
God's order and design for them, they are hurting themselves deeply, deeply.
So we have to on college campuses take them very seriously.
(15:18):
We have to address and bring spiritual healing and spiritual
direction to individuals who may be struggling dealing with or
having already after effects of those things, because we believe
in the redemptive, transformative healing power of the Gospel. That's
absolutely clear in it. And then no one's too far
gone that God can't heal to get to the Gospel
(15:39):
if they give their lives to Him. So that and
we've seen that. So it's a very powerful thing to
do and beautiful thing to do. And I think college
campus have a great opportunity to do that now more
than ever because I think the conversation is out there
being had. And in terms of the love piece, You're
absolutely right. You know, we have something here at Corners.
So we call it the Beautiful Christian Community, and the
(16:00):
Beautiful Christian Community is found that on what we believe
is a true understanding of what love is. Love is
not embracing everything and saying it's great when we support you.
That's not love. That's a lack of discernment, and sometimes
it brings great damage. Love is also being truthful. Love
has to be grounded on goodness, on truth, on beauty,
(16:23):
and love then pursues those things and helps individuals pursue
those things. Now, I've oftentimes I said this to our students,
if you see someone running as fast as possible toward
a cliff, are you going to say I support your running,
You're a great runner, or are you going to jump
in and keep them from running into the cliff off
the cliff. Real love says you jump in, right, You
(16:46):
do all you can to keep this person from going
off the cliff. That's love, because you know that's damaging, destructive.
You just don't embrace him and say you're being your
authentic self. That's not what you do. So real love
means you sacrifice for what is good and what is true.
Is not just embracing a relationship and supporting a relationship.
(17:06):
It is ultimately a commitment to what is beautiful, true
and good and thus learning our for our students to
learn to have those conversations as deep conversations with truth,
the true north right at the center, and having those
conversations with grace and mercy and nuanced because they're very
different from person to person to person. At the end
(17:28):
of the day, the goal is not just winning an argument.
The real goal is let's bring transformation, the transformative power
of God's love and the hearts and souls of students
and people that's what work should be.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
After let's take a quick commercial break, we'll continue next
on a Tutor Dixon podcast. And I think it's interesting
that that kind of conversation truth and love was banned
from YouTube. And if you talked about anything that you
said you can't be transgender, you were banned from you YouTube.
(18:00):
But truth and Love of God, you were also not
allowed to talk about that. And that's why it's so
it's so important to hear the Vice President of the
United States come out and say I am allowed to
talk about Jesus Christ because it was controversial. Think about
how strange this is. It was controversial in twenty sixteen
(18:20):
when Donald Trump said we can say Merry Christmas again.
Now we're amazed that we're talking about Jesus Christ in
a country that was founded on Christian values.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, you know interesting. I was just in New York
City this past this week working at a partnership between
our university and some our organization and organization in New
York City, and I had a conversation with an individual
that who shared with me that he that some of
the individuals who oversee broadly this institution and others were
concerned with the use of the word God given. Now
(18:55):
do you think about that god given? They had concerns
about the use of that term god given. I thought
to myself, Wow, this is incredible to me. Here here
we are, you know, in a country that has deep,
profound Christian influences and its founding and throughout its history
on the part of all kinds of people and leaders, right,
(19:18):
and now we're saying that it's dangerous to say or
we shouldn't say God given about goodness or about kindness
or about benefiting people like this is crazy to me.
It's sad to me. So I think though, one of
the beautiful things that, as you mentioned, on the part
of the Vice president and even with the president and others,
is that they have had the courage to stand and
(19:38):
introduce or reintroduce important questions and conversations to challenge the
conventional orthodoxy that has been in place for decades and
now that has been challenging Jarred. We're actually having conversations,
sometimes difficult ones, but we're having a conversation about Jesus,
about faith, about spiritual formation, about the role of high education,
(19:59):
the real role of higher education. How about the purpose
of politics. You know, as I was in New York
City yesterday. I spoke at a high school there, and
a student came up to me and said, can we
talk I know, sir, you he a political science background.
Can we talk about politics? And what do you think?
Because some people say it's bad and we should never
get involved, and I don't know what to think about it.
(20:21):
What do you think? I said, Look, politics is the
art of how to live together well in a society.
That's really what politics is about. How do you live
how do we live well together in a way that
everyone can flourish. That means we have to get involved.
We have to be speaking, we have to be talking.
(20:41):
You just can disregard it. Now. If people mean by
politics manipulation and control, that's not good. That's not what
we're talking about. But we cannot have have individuals or
let that definition really overcome the true definition of politics,
which is the art of living well together. I think,
I'm we should all have been in that conversation. And
(21:02):
so I think that what the vice president president has
done and others are doing is really opening up this conversation.
And it's a complicated one. It's a difficult one because
the conventional orthodoxy has put a number of things in
place for decades that are being challenged and no one
likes it, or those people don't like it, I understand,
But we have to have the conversation about all kinds
(21:22):
of things right now if we're going to live well
and live well together. Tudor.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
When I was in high school, I took a class
called comparative Religions, and the only religion that was not
in there was Christianity that we talked about. Yes, yes,
And honestly, I've thought about it so many times as
an adult. At the time, I had no idea what
was happening. I really didn't. It was an elective. I
(21:48):
wanted to learn about other religions. It never dawned on me,
sweared they don't talk about Christianity, and it was comparing
all religions. None were compared to Christianity.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But I think about that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I'm my gosh, I was in high school thirty years ago,
so think about the impact over thirty years of how that.
I feel like they were just testing at that time
to see how far can we push Christianity out of
the mainstream. And now it's way way beyond that. And now,
if you talk about your faith, you're being attacked. I
think if we look at what's happened in the last
(22:23):
few weeks, I mean, really, what was offensive about Charlie
Kirk was that he wanted people to get married and
have kids. That was what people thought was so offensive
about him. The message of Christ was to have a
three strand rope, to get married and worship the Lord
and have children and continue his kingdom. That was so
(22:47):
offensive that people. There has been an outrage in this country.
But the impact to me is so strong. The image
of Christ has come out in such a great way.
Once they finally did their worst and they took Charlie's
life here on earth, the reaction of Christians was to
(23:09):
come around and celebrate his life. No outrage, no breaking
into buildings, no protests, nothing like that. It was to say,
look at what he did to further the kingdom. That
sends a huge message.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, And I think, honestly, the most powerful thing that
I have chills just even talking about it was Charlie
Kirk's wife saying, I forgive you that to me spoke volumes, volumes,
volumes more than anything else that will be done and
could be done. That she was wanting to go out
and say I forgive you, I forgive you. That is
(23:46):
so powerful and so beautiful that she did that. And
so I think we have we have an incredible opportunity
before us. And it doesn't mean that will no longer,
there will not be challenging times and horrible times. Just
how to Charlie Kirk, I think there is an antagonism
about what is true and about the Gospel, about Jesus.
(24:08):
I mean, if you look at his last comments speeches
to the apostles in John thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen,
he says, do not be surprised if the world hates you.
He hated me first, don't be surprised if you get
kicked out of synagogues and you're taking to death. It's
going to happen. It happens, It's going to happen to me.
So I think we have to be honest that there
(24:28):
is a real significant spiritual battle that has physical ramifications
in the world. Now. The message of the Gospel God
conquers darkness and evil, but darkness and evil doesn't just
sit still. They're going to fight back in some way,
shape or form. As a spiritual thing, we're told we
don't wrestle against flesh and blood. It's definitely spiritual, but
(24:48):
it has physical ramification. So I think that Charlie Kirk
murder assassination is one of those. And every time you
see these horrific shootings or whatever happens, it's so terrible.
That's what it is, spiritual cry of anger and hatred.
I remember speaking to a young person several years back
here in Michigan, being grants in Michigan and this individual set,
(25:10):
you know. I remember asking this person, why are you
so angry at these other people? Why are you so
angry at them? And I'll never forget what he said,
I'm really really angry at God, but says I can't
do anything about it. I'm going to take it out
of his people.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Wow. The answer right, well, we know where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And a sobering answer to me. Right, And I really
do think I think you see this with that. I
think I shared with Eric Metaxas a couple of weeks ago.
You see this with canaan Abel. I can't I'm angry
and I'm really actually angry at you Lord, but I
can't do anything about that, so I'll take it out able, right.
I think you see that, and I think that I
(25:48):
hope it doesn't continue to happen, but it could. This
is spiritual anger, hatred, disgusted that God right, and so
therefore we can't do much about that or the idea,
but we can do something about those who embody be
to me, that body the Gospel, and that's what's scary
to me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
That shows that they're truly is a revival though, And
that's why I sat my girls down because they were asking,
you know, why would someone who speaks for Christ like this,
why would they go after him? And I said, look,
it hasn't happened in my lifetime until now, and I
think that's because we see young people returning to the church.
Our church just planted a new campus. So look at
(26:27):
our own church. We just planted a new campus because
so many young people are coming back. And that's when
the devil has to start working again. And that's what
we see. The devil is real, and if you think
he's not, then you're being very naive and you're taking
great risks. You talked about Erica Kirk and forgiving the
man who shot her husband. Can you, for our audience
(26:49):
explain a little bit about what Christian forgiveness is.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, that's a great question. And first I will say
I'm always mindful all the simple prayer that I think
most people in the world know and have prayed, and
maybe sometimes we pray, we don't think much about which
is the Lord's prayer. So when disciples ask Jesus teach
us to pray, right, and he says, you're going to
pray this way, our Father, who art in heaven hollowed,
(27:13):
be thy name, thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done
on earth. Is it in heaven? Give us a day
our daily braain, and forgive us our sins and debts,
as we forgive those who sin it or owe us.
I mean that the core of his prayer was you
have to forgive others if you expect the Father, and
how to forgive you the fit you have to do right.
(27:36):
So I think that the core of that it's a
message for us as Christians and anybody else as well,
the centrality of forgiveness, which is you let go of
your desire to carry out justice for the wrongs that
have been done to you. Right. I mean, Jesus Christ
openly said it many times. You know the Lord will
take care of those things. I entrust myself to him.
(28:00):
That's hard to do because we are all just as
seekers in a very flawed way, right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I mean, you can't do his work.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You can't do his work if you are held by unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness does not free you up to do his work.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
But you know, I mean in Christ's message to his
followers and to the people who are following listening to
him was you know, it's you know, be careful how
much you condemned. Don't condemn and judge, because you're going
to be judging condemned in the same way. You know.
And secular philosophers have said this, it's so easy for
us to magnify the faults of others and minimize our own.
(28:35):
Just a standard fear for human life, for human beings.
But forgiveness turns it around. Forgiveness that really hits home,
doesn't it. Yeah, Forgiveness turns it around. And it says,
the Father in heaven, the Lord God, who create all
things from everlasting to everlasting, has every moral prerogative perfectly
so to judge you for your sins, and he chooses
(28:57):
mercy in a way of forgiveness, when he will be
perfectly justified to deal with you. So let that be
the example for you forgive like your father forgives. And
if you expect that forgiveness, which is you, let that go.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
And I hope that parents that are listening are understanding
why it is important when you send your kids off
to college that you choose a university that has those values.
And that's what I love about Cornerstone is that that continues.
My kids are in Christian school, that message continues throughout.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Their time at university. But there are some people that
can't make it to campus.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
There's all kinds of discussion right now about the fact
that the college degree is unattainable. People can't afford it,
they can't fit it in. It's the most expensive time
we've ever seen. I mean just I take my kids
to fast food and it's like going to what would
have been going to a fancy dinner a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, I'm not kidding. I just am.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Shocked by alcoholic yes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right exactly. So when I look at that, I think,
how why I ever get to college? But there are
other opportunities for online to do it at your own pace,
things like that. That's something that I love about what
you've been able to do. Or is a new program
that you guys have created at Cornerstone, the first in
(30:17):
the nation where you have a smartphone based app that
you can actually get a business degree. Tell us about
it because it's something so many people are looking for
at this time.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Thank you to you. We worked on it for two years,
invested our own resources to develop something because we knew
we were in a highered crisis in our country. Not
just the moral crisis we're talking about now, but you
talk about the fact that in Michigan alone, five million
adults in Michigan no college degree. In West Michigan it's
over seven hundred thousand adults with no college degree.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's has the population because there's ten million people here.
So for people who don't understand what Michigan the population
looks like, half of our people have not received college degree.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
It's incredible. And out of the over one hundred million
adults in the US with no college degree, forty two
million of those have some college but no degree. They've
never finished and they're not going back. This is a
serious problem in our country, for the economy, for our families,
for our democracy, republican democracy. We've got some problems here,
(31:22):
So we decided to tackle that. How do we take
a world class cornerstone education to adult and to any
student who wants it. They can't come here, maybe they're
far away, or maybe they're disenchanted, or maybe they think
they can't afford it. How do we switch this whole
thing around and go to them. So we created our
country's first accredited bachelor's degree delivered via a mobile phone,
(31:47):
Apple or Android device. The entire degree is delivered in
a world class learning experience. Tutor, I will tell you
the beautiful experience, and the degree will cost no more
than twenty four thousand dollars for the entire degree. Say
that one more time, tutor, if I may no more
than twenty four thousand dollars for an entire accredited, world
class degree in strategic business management. It's revolutionary. We got
(32:10):
rid of the cost, the high cost through entry barrier,
you know, the disenchantment that irrelevance often in times of
high ed and we develop a beautiful model where it's
immediately applicable. It's micro learning, so you learn as you go.
Is you can consume as much as you want at
your own pace. As you mentioned, it's just relevant, and
we're seeing an incredible, incredible core of interest in the
(32:33):
part of companies and individuals, and some incredible stories already
of students saying, I never thought I never thought I
could do this. I never thought I could go back.
I have a family, I have so many things. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for doing this. And we've seen
students already be promoted at their places of work because
of it.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon podcast. What I think is the most
fascinating part about it, So we used to do We
used to pay for employees to go to college when
we had our steel foundry. So important, especially when you
have a manufacturing company like that, you need people with
(33:12):
management experience. They need to be able to get a
business degree to understand that. But they're also working long hours,
and we wanted to be able to balance those things.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
This you can do at your own pace, yep.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
And this I mean, I can tell you a number
of students who are doing and they tell us we're
doing on our commute to work. Really it's all yeah,
it's all micro learning. So you have it's multi sensor.
We have podcasts, we have interviews, we have audiobooks, we
have videos, and so little bytes of knowledge and beautiful
content provide the student in a streaming model app. And
(33:45):
so we have a student that actually we're speaking with
this individual this evening who said, actually, and I might
commute to work in and out. I listened to my podcast,
I listened to my audiobooks, and when I get to
work before I enter, I do the assessment that I
go into work. And we have no many examples like that.
So we've made it tremendously flexible because today's students need flexibility,
(34:08):
tremendously accessible, a price point is incredible, and then world
class content, and we believe just a beautiful solution in
a beautiful way to bring a world class education to
help so many many Americans who need it well.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
And even President Trump was I think a champion for
you on this because I heard him when he was
interviewed about Charlie and he was talking about how smart
Charlie was and what a great kid he was.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
He said I always wanted him to go get a
college degree.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I thought that's so funny because that was not Charlie's message.
But even President Trump is on board that he thinks
you need a college degree to get and you really,
you know, I think there are there are great things
you can do with trade trade skills and a trade degree,
and you can you can own your own business, and
you can become a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
But if you want to.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Be in the business world and be competitive in a
bigger business than oftentimes, you need that degree. And you
even have President Trump on your side.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Well, two to the as wonderful to know. And I
will tell you, I mean, regardless of that, despite the
conversations about whether college is valued or not, the data
does not lie. It's still the most important credential for fiscal,
financial flourishing of an individual in a family. You know,
degree attainers who complete degrees oftentimes based on number of studies,
(35:26):
live five to seven years longer than those who don't
have a degree. Really, yeah, it touches every part of
your life. A very serious thing, becau It's not just
a credential, I mean, area has deep profound implications on
the quality of life we live, on how we raise
our families, on our democracy. If you think about individuals
who have degrees, they tend to be more involved, voting,
(35:48):
more more involved in civic organizations and volunteering than those
who don't. So it's really a transformative thing for our country.
And we also did something else, So we did soar
because we want to reach it's one hundred plus million
Americans who are never going to go back to college
or never going to start because of the price and
the costs and the lect flexibility. But we also did
a tuition reset a couple of years ago, but we
(36:10):
lowered our tuition by twenty two percent. So we are
the most you know, from a private university. We're part
of the most competitive, high quality university in terms of
price and content out there right now. And we've seen
the market react because parents have realized we're taking this
very seriously. We want not just a great opportunity to
(36:31):
enroll the adult, but the traditional student tradition of family place.
Come on in. We have made it very affordable for
you too.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
And it's an I mean, for anybody who doesn't know
where it is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You are in
a beautiful spot, great family values are drive to.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
The beach at Lake Michigan.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
It is just a great place to I mean, I
really cannot I cannot say enough good things about the
area that we are in, but I appreciate you so much.
I appreciate what Cornerstone does. We are so excited to
see where sore goes. But it's always a pleasure having
you on. Doctor Marino Rihanno from Cornerstone University. Thank you
so much, Tudor, Thank you for.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
All that you do as well from Michigan and the
country thanks to the opportunity have agree with you to day.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Thank you, and thank you all for listening to the
Tutor Dixon podcast. For this episode and others, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts and you can watch it at YouTube or rumble
at Tutor Dixon. Join us next time and have a
blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm excited today because we are going to talk about
faith at university is something that I think is on
everybody's mind right now. We certainly saw that with a
memorial to Charlie Kirk and everything that we saw with
his wife, but all of our administration officials that are
out there talking about faith, even the Vice president who
said I've talked more about Jesus Christ in the last
(00:25):
five days than I have my entire time in office.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I thought that was so cool to see him say that.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
So we have a friend at a university, the president
of Cornerstone University, doctor Jisan Marino Riano, thank you so
much for being here today.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thank you, Tutor. Great to see you again, Great to
be in your podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm so happy about what you guys are doing here
in Michigan because I've been to your campus many times
and we know that you are faith led. That actually
was a challenge for you at first to even come
into the university and say we're going to really push
our our faith. We're going to make sure that these
kids are focused on Christ's that's so important for our
(01:06):
kids today. And I think I was just having a
conversation earlier today with someone who said, once my kids
got out of college, there wasn't that opportunity for them
to find a spouse that was also christ Led.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And that was a conversation that we heard from. Charlie.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You need to be aware that you want to have
a life with someone else, and that's something that I mean,
we know that we have two people that work with
us that let just recently graduated from Cornerstone and they're
getting married.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So you guys, are you had the whole package.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
We're contribute into every good thing possible.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, honestly, I think that's great. But
how I want to talk about how faith based colleges
are saving this next generation?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, thank you, tutor. You know it's I think universities
have such a pivotal role in the space, and unfortunately
it has been a role that has been are left
behind by American universities for decades and decades and decades. Right,
I mean, in many ways at the outset of our country,
we talk about American higher education before the states were
even here, when the collegies were here, it was really
(02:11):
Christian higher education. Right, we need to be true and
factual about that. It was Christian universities that started in
this country. Quite frankly, they have drifted, that drifted significant
as we all know. And now I think there are
handful universities who truly are committed to Christ, to the
Christian faith to provide an excellent education. I do think
(02:32):
that they are one of the most important, some of
the most important institutions we need to be supporting and
advancing to bring about this transformation we're all talking about.
And I say that because back in two thousand and three,
UCLA researchers did it profoundest study. It was called the
Spiritual Life of College Students. They serve it over one
(02:52):
hundred thousand undergraduate students in America and they discovered at
two our colleges on the majority right as these students
had high levels of spiritual interest and involvement. They all
believe or somebody believe in the sacredness of human life.
Over fifty percent of them said that spiritual life and
(03:14):
spiritual growth was essential to them, are very important to them,
and they were searching for the meaning and purpose in life.
That's two thousand and three. It hasn't changed. I think
the numbers are probably larger today. There's a real hunger
and thirst on the part of young people in high
school and as they're entering college as to what do
we do with our life? How do we live a
(03:35):
meaningful life? And I think the universities can have a
pivotal effect and a transformative effect if they are right
aligned with truly caring about the souls of these students.
If they're not, they actually perpetrate more damage. And I
think that's the challenge we have before us in hire it.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
We've had a radical infiltration of indoctrination and these radical
leftists professors that have come into universities across the country.
Harvard Graduate School just released a study showing that nearly
three in five young adults feel a lack of purpose
(04:15):
in their lives. But they many of them have come
out of these universities that have told them, you don't
need to get married, there's no reason to have kids,
there's no reason to have a strong relationship. It's very
me focused, and there is actually no purpose in focusing
on self. If you can't put others above self, then
(04:38):
what is your purpose? You're only focused on you?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, you know, I've seen this one of the more
jarring things I've seen. There have been a number of
articles published in the last few months and a couple
of years in the New York Times or The Atlantic
talking about the new movement for family strange mass right,
how young adults children are cutting off their entire families, parents, siblings,
(05:05):
and it is a deliberate choice they are making. And
so you have clinical psychologists and sociologists studying this problem,
asking what's happening, Why is this happening, And here's what
they're saying, that there's a significant shift in American society
in the family, where for centuries the family was about
obligations and duty toward others and thinking of the best
(05:28):
for others, and in the last decades it has shifted
from that to identity and understanding the family. The parents
have to identify with me. I firm and embrace my
identity whatever that is or my view of the world.
And if they don't, I cut them off. They're causing
me emotional and mental trauma. So I let them go.
I massive shift in family understanding, and I believe that
(05:52):
it's not many universities have perpetrated and helped to perpetrate that,
but the culture has as well, the popular culture has
as well. There are so many forces against this fundamental,
important unit of society, of the fabric of our country,
called the family, and all of a sudden it is
beginning to be seen as actually a bad thing, which
(06:12):
is a real perversion of society, of our culture. So
I think there's an opportunity though, because young men and
women know they're crying out for belonging, They're crying out
for meaning, they're crying out for I mean. I spoke
to a young man in the last few months who
was graduating from high school entering college, and I asked them,
(06:33):
what is it that you and your friends talk about?
What do you guys talk about when you guys get together.
And he said, look, I can't tell you all the
details about I'll tell you in general what we're concerned about.
We want to find someone that can love us, and
we have families, and we want to find a meaningful work.
That's what we talk a lot about. Some can we
(06:53):
find someone that will love us and marry that person
and then find meaningful work. I was absolutely floored. They
weren't talking about video games, they weren't talking about college
football and NFL, right they were talking about some of
those fundamental questions of life, love, meaning, and purpose. Where
do they go, I will tell you something, to door.
(07:14):
They're not going to their families to talk about this.
They're not going to their parents, They're going to each other.
And on the one hand, well that's good. There's no
real wisdom going into those conversations oftentimes, and so that's
why I think that universities like Cornerstone plays such antividal
role when the young men and women come to our campuses,
(07:35):
that we can have really honest not just conversations, not
just discussions, but provide moral direction, you know, soul transformation,
soul shaping. That's really what education is about. It's about
moral formation and do that. And it helped them not
just talk about it, but provide guidance through the scriptures
(07:55):
where Christian University through the Gospel, but also through of
human history. That always posts to the fact that the
institution of the family is the most important institution for success,
for flourishing, for moral protection, for guidance.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Okay, but take us on a history tour, because wouldn't
you say that one of the hallmarks of communism and
socialism is separate the younger generation from their family. And
this has been had, Like you said, it's come in
from all different areas of culture. We don't actually even
see exactly where it's coming from. So how have you
seen that in history in the past, How have we
seen this in What are the effects?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Well, you know, I think that the first person that
began this, unfortunately, was a Greek philosopher named Plato in
his book Republic, which is I mean, one of the
most influential books in philosophy how you ever written. And
in that work he argues that the family is a
conventional arrangement, that actually the state or the political society
can raise children better than parents.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Sounds familiar, right.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
This was three hundred BC, okay, three centuries are so
before christ Is this argument was already being discussed and
talked about, and he developed an entire systematic approach to
doing that. That idea has been carrying a lot of
water for centuries. A lot of people have been taking
that and douctly seriously. Communism sort is the latest one.
(09:17):
Because any social institution that we would say is divinely ordained,
like the family or the church, right, Communism said, no,
it's all conventional it's all power argument, it's all about control.
So communism promises people real freedom through destroying all these institutions,
which is a falsehood. We've seen what that happens. So yes,
(09:38):
communism socialism seeks to destroy this institution of the family
because they understand the power, not just the power in
terms of control, but the incredible amount of moral influence
parents can have in shaping the lives of children and
shaping their moral outlook and shaping their moral direction. And
that's a dangerous thing for some socialism because only the
(10:02):
states should do that. Only the state knows best, so
you have to try to destroy that and destroy any
other institution that would suggest that the state shouldn't do that.
So that's been going on for a long long time,
and it's soft for forms in American culture. The argument
is that freedom, individual freedom is more important and trumps
(10:24):
any social institution and social norm and mora a so
that it's really any institution that would dare stay is
coming to your life and say no, you shouldn't do
it that way, you should do this. There's something wrong
because it's keeping you from being your true authentic self.
And your true authentic self is determined by your true
(10:47):
authentic self. It's circurlogic, I understand, but it's a very
powerful argument because you have young men and women who
hear that. Human beings would hear that and think I'm
the captain of my soul and the master of my
direct Yes, right, and no one can tell me otherwise.
That's very powerful. That's very liberating and what that movement
(11:09):
has done. On the one hand, we love freedom and liberty,
but you can't have that without moral context, moral responsibility,
without the moral virtues, and that argument that is freedom,
no responsibility, liberty, no moral ground. That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's liberating, but it's also very lonely, and that's not
how the human body was built. That's not what God
intended for us. This is very much against what God
intended for us. And you talked about identity and all
of that. And I think there is an impact on
mental health. When we break this down, we have people
are saying we have a mental health crisis. I really
(11:48):
think that this is a manufactured crisis. In many cases
where they've been there has been mind control and brainwashing
of these.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Groups that they know what they're doing, they know how
to do this.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I'll say the other day, I saw a video and
I thought it was incredibly impactful. There was a young
woman who said, I transitioned and I became. I thought
I was becoming a man. And she said, think about
what my position was in my family. I was my
mother's daughter. And I told her, I'm not your daughter anymore.
(12:19):
I had responsibilities of a daughter. God gave me responsibilities
of a daughter that I said, you have to accept.
That's not what I'm going to do anymore. Same thing
with my father, she said. Probably the worst of all
is I was an older sister to my younger sister,
and I told her, you don't have a sister anymore.
And I don't have that responsibility. You have a brother,
and you are supposed to support me in that. I'm
(12:41):
not supposed to give you anything anymore. She said, I
made them go through my surgeries. I made them watch
my body change, and that wasn't who I was. It
was just totally selfish. She said, this is a narsis.
She called herself narcissistic. She said, this is a narcissistic
mental disorder that is created by this culture right now,
and she had broken free. I want to talk about
(13:04):
that because Charlie had been so he had been so
outspoken about you can't do this and if you're doing this,
it's selfish, and I think a lot of the pushback
on him was that he said. And as we know,
the shooter had these trans messages on his weapon, on
his bullets, so we know that it was very hard
(13:24):
for these youths to understand that it's not all about you.
In fact, my pastor over the weekend was just talking
about what is love and God's love and God's love
is not love of self.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
True love that you learn from the Lord.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Is to put others above yourself, and that's kind of
that's the breakdown in culture today. So how do you
bring that message to a college campus? Love is to
put others before yourself.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, So two things. One the mental health piece. I've
always said, then when we asshuman beings go against the
divine order that God has designed and created, it caused
great damage to ourselves. It's just playing set. But we
can call it mental health, we can call it spiritual.
I think it's deeply spiritual with mental and physical ramifications.
When we violate the order of God, we bring great
(14:14):
violence to our own being, into our own mind, So
the one who I do think you're a very significant
amount called social engineering going down out there and the messaging,
and it's clear and there's a lot of data showing
that being done. There's also very real spiritual mental damage
we're doing to ourselves when we violate god To order,
when we push against it, when we rebel against it,
(14:36):
and that's I think part of what's happening here. I
think there is a definitely social engineering happening. You saw
the other day the announcement at Google certainly was biased
against conservatives during the present Biden's administration. Now it's out
there what people were saying was actually happening, actually was happening.
But I've also seen person hand how individus who are
(14:57):
going through this LGBTQ identity trans crisis are also arrestling
with deep, profound spiritual questions in their own life. And
as they drink, as they pursue these options there against
God's order and design for them, they are hurting themselves deeply, deeply.
So we have to on college campuses take them very seriously.
(15:18):
We have to address and bring spiritual healing and spiritual
direction to individuals who may be struggling dealing with or
having already after effects of those things, because we believe
in the redemptive, transformative healing power of the Gospel. That's
absolutely clear in it. And then no one's too far
gone that God can't heal to get to the Gospel
(15:39):
if they give their lives to Him. So that and
we've seen that. So it's a very powerful thing to
do and beautiful thing to do. And I think college
campus have a great opportunity to do that now more
than ever because I think the conversation is out there
being had. And in terms of the love piece, You're
absolutely right. You know, we have something here at Corners.
So we call it the Beautiful Christian Community, and the
(16:00):
Beautiful Christian Community is found that on what we believe
is a true understanding of what love is. Love is
not embracing everything and saying it's great when we support you.
That's not love. That's a lack of discernment, and sometimes
it brings great damage. Love is also being truthful. Love
has to be grounded on goodness, on truth, on beauty,
(16:23):
and love then pursues those things and helps individuals pursue
those things. Now, I've oftentimes I said this to our students,
if you see someone running as fast as possible toward
a cliff, are you going to say I support your running,
You're a great runner, or are you going to jump
in and keep them from running into the cliff off
the cliff. Real love says you jump in, right, You
(16:46):
do all you can to keep this person from going
off the cliff. That's love, because you know that's damaging, destructive.
You just don't embrace him and say you're being your
authentic self. That's not what you do. So real love
means you sacrifice for what is good and what is true.
Is not just embracing a relationship and supporting a relationship.
(17:06):
It is ultimately a commitment to what is beautiful, true
and good and thus learning our for our students to
learn to have those conversations as deep conversations with truth,
the true north right at the center, and having those
conversations with grace and mercy and nuanced because they're very
different from person to person to person. At the end
(17:28):
of the day, the goal is not just winning an argument.
The real goal is let's bring transformation, the transformative power
of God's love and the hearts and souls of students
and people that's what work should be.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
After let's take a quick commercial break, we'll continue next
on a Tutor Dixon podcast. And I think it's interesting
that that kind of conversation truth and love was banned
from YouTube. And if you talked about anything that you
said you can't be transgender, you were banned from you YouTube.
(18:00):
But truth and Love of God, you were also not
allowed to talk about that. And that's why it's so
it's so important to hear the Vice President of the
United States come out and say I am allowed to
talk about Jesus Christ because it was controversial. Think about
how strange this is. It was controversial in twenty sixteen
(18:20):
when Donald Trump said we can say Merry Christmas again.
Now we're amazed that we're talking about Jesus Christ in
a country that was founded on Christian values.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Yeah, you know interesting. I was just in New York
City this past this week working at a partnership between
our university and some our organization and organization in New
York City, and I had a conversation with an individual
that who shared with me that he that some of
the individuals who oversee broadly this institution and others were
concerned with the use of the word God given. Now
(18:55):
do you think about that god given? They had concerns
about the use of that term god given. I thought
to myself, Wow, this is incredible to me. Here here
we are, you know, in a country that has deep,
profound Christian influences and its founding and throughout its history
on the part of all kinds of people and leaders, right,
(19:18):
and now we're saying that it's dangerous to say or
we shouldn't say God given about goodness or about kindness
or about benefiting people like this is crazy to me.
It's sad to me. So I think though, one of
the beautiful things that, as you mentioned, on the part
of the Vice president and even with the president and others,
is that they have had the courage to stand and
(19:38):
introduce or reintroduce important questions and conversations to challenge the
conventional orthodoxy that has been in place for decades and
now that has been challenging Jarred. We're actually having conversations,
sometimes difficult ones, but we're having a conversation about Jesus,
about faith, about spiritual formation, about the role of high education,
(19:59):
the real role of higher education. How about the purpose
of politics. You know, as I was in New York
City yesterday. I spoke at a high school there, and
a student came up to me and said, can we
talk I know, sir, you he a political science background.
Can we talk about politics? And what do you think?
Because some people say it's bad and we should never
get involved, and I don't know what to think about it.
(20:21):
What do you think? I said, Look, politics is the
art of how to live together well in a society.
That's really what politics is about. How do you live
how do we live well together in a way that
everyone can flourish. That means we have to get involved.
We have to be speaking, we have to be talking.
(20:41):
You just can disregard it. Now. If people mean by
politics manipulation and control, that's not good. That's not what
we're talking about. But we cannot have have individuals or
let that definition really overcome the true definition of politics,
which is the art of living well together. I think,
I'm we should all have been in that conversation. And
(21:02):
so I think that what the vice president president has
done and others are doing is really opening up this conversation.
And it's a complicated one. It's a difficult one because
the conventional orthodoxy has put a number of things in
place for decades that are being challenged and no one
likes it, or those people don't like it, I understand,
But we have to have the conversation about all kinds
(21:22):
of things right now if we're going to live well
and live well together. Tudor.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
When I was in high school, I took a class
called comparative Religions, and the only religion that was not
in there was Christianity that we talked about. Yes, yes,
And honestly, I've thought about it so many times as
an adult. At the time, I had no idea what
was happening. I really didn't. It was an elective. I
(21:48):
wanted to learn about other religions. It never dawned on me,
sweared they don't talk about Christianity, and it was comparing
all religions. None were compared to Christianity.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
But I think about that.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I'm my gosh, I was in high school thirty years ago,
so think about the impact over thirty years of how that.
I feel like they were just testing at that time
to see how far can we push Christianity out of
the mainstream. And now it's way way beyond that. And now,
if you talk about your faith, you're being attacked. I
think if we look at what's happened in the last
(22:23):
few weeks, I mean, really, what was offensive about Charlie
Kirk was that he wanted people to get married and
have kids. That was what people thought was so offensive
about him. The message of Christ was to have a
three strand rope, to get married and worship the Lord
and have children and continue his kingdom. That was so
(22:47):
offensive that people. There has been an outrage in this country.
But the impact to me is so strong. The image
of Christ has come out in such a great way.
Once they finally did their worst and they took Charlie's
life here on earth, the reaction of Christians was to
(23:09):
come around and celebrate his life. No outrage, no breaking
into buildings, no protests, nothing like that. It was to say,
look at what he did to further the kingdom. That
sends a huge message.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, And I think, honestly, the most powerful thing that
I have chills just even talking about it was Charlie
Kirk's wife saying, I forgive you that to me spoke volumes, volumes,
volumes more than anything else that will be done and
could be done. That she was wanting to go out
and say I forgive you, I forgive you. That is
(23:46):
so powerful and so beautiful that she did that. And
so I think we have we have an incredible opportunity
before us. And it doesn't mean that will no longer,
there will not be challenging times and horrible times. Just
how to Charlie Kirk, I think there is an antagonism
about what is true and about the Gospel, about Jesus.
(24:08):
I mean, if you look at his last comments speeches
to the apostles in John thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen,
he says, do not be surprised if the world hates you.
He hated me first, don't be surprised if you get
kicked out of synagogues and you're taking to death. It's
going to happen. It happens, It's going to happen to me.
So I think we have to be honest that there
(24:28):
is a real significant spiritual battle that has physical ramifications
in the world. Now. The message of the Gospel God
conquers darkness and evil, but darkness and evil doesn't just
sit still. They're going to fight back in some way,
shape or form. As a spiritual thing, we're told we
don't wrestle against flesh and blood. It's definitely spiritual, but
(24:48):
it has physical ramification. So I think that Charlie Kirk
murder assassination is one of those. And every time you
see these horrific shootings or whatever happens, it's so terrible.
That's what it is, spiritual cry of anger and hatred.
I remember speaking to a young person several years back
here in Michigan, being grants in Michigan and this individual set,
(25:10):
you know. I remember asking this person, why are you
so angry at these other people? Why are you so
angry at them? And I'll never forget what he said,
I'm really really angry at God, but says I can't
do anything about it. I'm going to take it out
of his people.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Wow. The answer right, well, we know where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And a sobering answer to me. Right, And I really
do think I think you see this with that. I
think I shared with Eric Metaxas a couple of weeks ago.
You see this with canaan Abel. I can't I'm angry
and I'm really actually angry at you Lord, but I
can't do anything about that, so I'll take it out able, right.
I think you see that, and I think that I
(25:48):
hope it doesn't continue to happen, but it could. This
is spiritual anger, hatred, disgusted that God right, and so
therefore we can't do much about that or the idea,
but we can do something about those who embody be
to me, that body the Gospel, and that's what's scary
to me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
That shows that they're truly is a revival though, And
that's why I sat my girls down because they were asking,
you know, why would someone who speaks for Christ like this,
why would they go after him? And I said, look,
it hasn't happened in my lifetime until now, and I
think that's because we see young people returning to the church.
Our church just planted a new campus. So look at
(26:27):
our own church. We just planted a new campus because
so many young people are coming back. And that's when
the devil has to start working again. And that's what
we see. The devil is real, and if you think
he's not, then you're being very naive and you're taking
great risks. You talked about Erica Kirk and forgiving the
man who shot her husband. Can you, for our audience
(26:49):
explain a little bit about what Christian forgiveness is.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, that's a great question. And first I will say
I'm always mindful all the simple prayer that I think
most people in the world know and have prayed, and
maybe sometimes we pray, we don't think much about which
is the Lord's prayer. So when disciples ask Jesus teach
us to pray, right, and he says, you're going to
pray this way, our Father, who art in heaven hollowed,
(27:13):
be thy name, thy kingdom, Come, Thy will be done
on earth. Is it in heaven? Give us a day
our daily braain, and forgive us our sins and debts,
as we forgive those who sin it or owe us.
I mean that the core of his prayer was you
have to forgive others if you expect the Father, and
how to forgive you the fit you have to do right.
(27:36):
So I think that the core of that it's a
message for us as Christians and anybody else as well,
the centrality of forgiveness, which is you let go of
your desire to carry out justice for the wrongs that
have been done to you. Right. I mean, Jesus Christ
openly said it many times. You know the Lord will
take care of those things. I entrust myself to him.
(28:00):
That's hard to do because we are all just as
seekers in a very flawed way, right.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I mean, you can't do his work.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You can't do his work if you are held by unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness does not free you up to do his work.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
But you know, I mean in Christ's message to his
followers and to the people who are following listening to
him was you know, it's you know, be careful how
much you condemned. Don't condemn and judge, because you're going
to be judging condemned in the same way. You know.
And secular philosophers have said this, it's so easy for
us to magnify the faults of others and minimize our own.
(28:35):
Just a standard fear for human life, for human beings.
But forgiveness turns it around. Forgiveness that really hits home,
doesn't it. Yeah, Forgiveness turns it around. And it says,
the Father in heaven, the Lord God, who create all
things from everlasting to everlasting, has every moral prerogative perfectly
so to judge you for your sins, and he chooses
(28:57):
mercy in a way of forgiveness, when he will be
perfectly justified to deal with you. So let that be
the example for you forgive like your father forgives. And
if you expect that forgiveness, which is you, let that go.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
And I hope that parents that are listening are understanding
why it is important when you send your kids off
to college that you choose a university that has those values.
And that's what I love about Cornerstone is that that continues.
My kids are in Christian school, that message continues throughout.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Their time at university. But there are some people that
can't make it to campus.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
There's all kinds of discussion right now about the fact
that the college degree is unattainable. People can't afford it,
they can't fit it in. It's the most expensive time
we've ever seen. I mean just I take my kids
to fast food and it's like going to what would
have been going to a fancy dinner a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, I'm not kidding. I just am.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Shocked by alcoholic yes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Right exactly. So when I look at that, I think,
how why I ever get to college? But there are
other opportunities for online to do it at your own pace,
things like that. That's something that I love about what
you've been able to do. Or is a new program
that you guys have created at Cornerstone, the first in
(30:17):
the nation where you have a smartphone based app that
you can actually get a business degree. Tell us about
it because it's something so many people are looking for
at this time.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Thank you to you. We worked on it for two years,
invested our own resources to develop something because we knew
we were in a highered crisis in our country. Not
just the moral crisis we're talking about now, but you
talk about the fact that in Michigan alone, five million
adults in Michigan no college degree. In West Michigan it's
over seven hundred thousand adults with no college degree.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's has the population because there's ten million people here.
So for people who don't understand what Michigan the population
looks like, half of our people have not received college degree.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
It's incredible. And out of the over one hundred million
adults in the US with no college degree, forty two
million of those have some college but no degree. They've
never finished and they're not going back. This is a
serious problem in our country, for the economy, for our families,
for our democracy, republican democracy. We've got some problems here,
(31:22):
So we decided to tackle that. How do we take
a world class cornerstone education to adult and to any
student who wants it. They can't come here, maybe they're
far away, or maybe they're disenchanted, or maybe they think
they can't afford it. How do we switch this whole
thing around and go to them. So we created our
country's first accredited bachelor's degree delivered via a mobile phone,
(31:47):
Apple or Android device. The entire degree is delivered in
a world class learning experience. Tutor, I will tell you
the beautiful experience, and the degree will cost no more
than twenty four thousand dollars for the entire degree. Say
that one more time, tutor, if I may no more
than twenty four thousand dollars for an entire accredited, world
class degree in strategic business management. It's revolutionary. We got
(32:10):
rid of the cost, the high cost through entry barrier,
you know, the disenchantment that irrelevance often in times of
high ed and we develop a beautiful model where it's
immediately applicable. It's micro learning, so you learn as you go.
Is you can consume as much as you want at
your own pace. As you mentioned, it's just relevant, and
we're seeing an incredible, incredible core of interest in the
(32:33):
part of companies and individuals, and some incredible stories already
of students saying, I never thought I never thought I
could do this. I never thought I could go back.
I have a family, I have so many things. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for doing this. And we've seen
students already be promoted at their places of work because
of it.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon podcast. What I think is the most
fascinating part about it, So we used to do We
used to pay for employees to go to college when
we had our steel foundry. So important, especially when you
have a manufacturing company like that, you need people with
(33:12):
management experience. They need to be able to get a
business degree to understand that. But they're also working long hours,
and we wanted to be able to balance those things.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
This you can do at your own pace, yep.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
And this I mean, I can tell you a number
of students who are doing and they tell us we're
doing on our commute to work. Really it's all yeah,
it's all micro learning. So you have it's multi sensor.
We have podcasts, we have interviews, we have audiobooks, we
have videos, and so little bytes of knowledge and beautiful
content provide the student in a streaming model app. And
(33:45):
so we have a student that actually we're speaking with
this individual this evening who said, actually, and I might
commute to work in and out. I listened to my podcast,
I listened to my audiobooks, and when I get to
work before I enter, I do the assessment that I
go into work. And we have no many examples like that.
So we've made it tremendously flexible because today's students need flexibility,
(34:08):
tremendously accessible, a price point is incredible, and then world
class content, and we believe just a beautiful solution in
a beautiful way to bring a world class education to
help so many many Americans who need it well.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
And even President Trump was I think a champion for
you on this because I heard him when he was
interviewed about Charlie and he was talking about how smart
Charlie was and what a great kid he was.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
He said I always wanted him to go get a
college degree.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I thought that's so funny because that was not Charlie's message.
But even President Trump is on board that he thinks
you need a college degree to get and you really,
you know, I think there are there are great things
you can do with trade trade skills and a trade degree,
and you can you can own your own business, and
you can become a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
But if you want to.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Be in the business world and be competitive in a
bigger business than oftentimes, you need that degree. And you
even have President Trump on your side.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Well, two to the as wonderful to know. And I
will tell you, I mean, regardless of that, despite the
conversations about whether college is valued or not, the data
does not lie. It's still the most important credential for fiscal,
financial flourishing of an individual in a family. You know,
degree attainers who complete degrees oftentimes based on number of studies,
(35:26):
live five to seven years longer than those who don't
have a degree. Really, yeah, it touches every part of
your life. A very serious thing, becau It's not just
a credential, I mean, area has deep profound implications on
the quality of life we live, on how we raise
our families, on our democracy. If you think about individuals
who have degrees, they tend to be more involved, voting,
(35:48):
more more involved in civic organizations and volunteering than those
who don't. So it's really a transformative thing for our country.
And we also did something else, So we did soar
because we want to reach it's one hundred plus million
Americans who are never going to go back to college
or never going to start because of the price and
the costs and the lect flexibility. But we also did
a tuition reset a couple of years ago, but we
(36:10):
lowered our tuition by twenty two percent. So we are
the most you know, from a private university. We're part
of the most competitive, high quality university in terms of
price and content out there right now. And we've seen
the market react because parents have realized we're taking this
very seriously. We want not just a great opportunity to
(36:31):
enroll the adult, but the traditional student tradition of family place.
Come on in. We have made it very affordable for
you too.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
And it's an I mean, for anybody who doesn't know
where it is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You are in
a beautiful spot, great family values are drive to.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
The beach at Lake Michigan.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
It is just a great place to I mean, I
really cannot I cannot say enough good things about the
area that we are in, but I appreciate you so much.
I appreciate what Cornerstone does. We are so excited to
see where sore goes. But it's always a pleasure having
you on. Doctor Marino Rihanno from Cornerstone University. Thank you
so much, Tudor, Thank you for.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
All that you do as well from Michigan and the
country thanks to the opportunity have agree with you to day.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Thank you, and thank you all for listening to the
Tutor Dixon podcast. For this episode and others, go to
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts and you can watch it at YouTube or rumble
at Tutor Dixon. Join us next time and have a
blessed day.
Host
Tudor Dixon
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