I write an article about the evangelical Christian hired to be the “director of culture” for the UVA Basketball program, and guess who comes to his defense?
“I will take all the MAGA we can get. We all should,” a reader identifying himself as Maxwell Anderson wrote, in reporting I’ve done on the hire of a guy named Michael Crowder, a UVA alum and veteran of the evangelical Young Life Christian ministry, which the PR folks at UVA Athletics decided is the most important thing we need to know about him.
The issue with that, from a PR perspective, being, Young Life has been under fire for years for its exclusionary policies regarding the LGBTQ+ community, and the blind eye its leaders have taken to racial discrimination and sexual harassment in the organization’s ranks.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Odom hires evangelical to serve as ‘director of culture’
- I’m the bad guy for pointing out the obvious with the UVA Basketball culture hire
All it took was me describing what the critics of Young Life have to say about its ministry to get the MAGA hawks like this Maxwell Anderson guy from Springfield all in a lather.
“Secure borders, low prices, great economy and trade deals, law enforcement being respected and being allowed to do their job again, respect on a world stage instead of guy with dementia and falls asleep in meetings, sign me up!!!! MAGA 2025,” our new Maxwell Anderson friend concluded his message to me.
MAGA 2025, indeed.
(By the way, Max, my man – a Google search of your name and email leads me to a Google Drive doc with your phone number right out there in the open. Might want to check on that.)
“What a Dick you have become – ‘79 grad,” was the brief, yet telling, message from a guy named Larry Johnson, who, apparently, wasn’t mistaking me for being a guy with the first name Richard.
More about this Larry Johnson: his email signature linked him to an outfit called Castleworth Global, and a Google search of his name and Castleworth Global led me to his role with a company, My Banyan, that advertises itself as being “committed to providing a seamless platform for planning and securing your future.”
Johnson’s bio on the My Banyan site refers to him as a “distinguished security expert with a profound impact on both federal governments and corporations across more than 40 countries.”
“Distinguished.”
Sure, Jan.
Not everybody who got hot and bothered by being made to learn that there are people who have issues with a guy from a narrow-minded evangelical outfit being in charge of “culture” at a basketball program attached to a leading public university was that much of an ass.
Wait, actually, there was one more.
“Take your political and religious beliefs to CNN, MSNBC and ‘The View.’ The braindead people who watch and listen to those libtards would welcome your left-wing garbage with open arms,” wrote Darrell Owen, whose email address leads us to a Facebook page identifying him as a Liberty University alum who runs a transmission business in Greensboro.
“Stick to writing about UVA sports,” the Liberty U. alum dictated to me. “Ninety-nine percent of readers don’t give a damn what you believe about politics or religion. In fact, letting readers know you voted for Biden and Harris would probably make them question your intelligence.”
Liberty University has an acceptance rate of 99.3 percent, but people are going to be questioning my intelligence.
Gotcha.
I’m starting to feel bad for Michael Crowder here, that these are the people who are coming out of the woodwork in his name.
They’re not all MAGA extremists, though, to be fair.
“I’ll take a Michael Crowder and his association with Young Life any day over someone who has a broken moral compass or one that doesn’t function at all,” wrote a guy named Thomas Watson, who, from a quick Google search on his name and email, is the president of a nonprofit in Harrisonburg called Shepherd’s Way Foundation, which gives grants to missionaries and faith-based nonprofits.
Looking over its financials, this foundation seems to do good work.
The guy heading it up might be a tiny bit misguided leading us to believe he thinks people who don’t see the world exactly the way he does automatically have “a broken moral compass or one that doesn’t function at all,” but even so.
Seriously, there are as many ways to do good in the world as there are ways to build a college basketball team.
The issue with the Michael Crowder hire here being, if his work with Young Life is the most important thing UVA Athletics wants us to know about him, and what we know about Young Life is that it preaches a narrow, exclusionary view of Christianity, maybe that’s not the best way to build a basketball team.
My moral compass points to telling the truth, for those keeping score at home.
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Chris Graham
