A little over three weeks ago, a group called Scholars and Writers for America made a statement in favor of the candidacy of Donald Trump. Currently 156 Trump supporters have signed.
More recently in response, 152 scholars and writers have joined a group called Scholars and Writers Against Trump.  Very simply, the group affirms the following:

Scholars and Writers Against Trump

We are writers, academics, critics, historians, and authors who have voted for Republican presidents and candidates.

Given our choices in the presidential election, we believe that Donald Trump is the candidate most dangerous to our nation’s founding ideals. He is a unique and dire threat to the political principles, liberties, and cultural values of justice, fairness, honesty, and decency we have long defended. We urge you to vote, as we will, for someone else.

I am a signer and encourage others to consider doing so.
On point, recently a group of originalist Constitutional scholars confronted the belief among some conservatives that Trump would be the better candidate to uphold the Constitution.
 

During the debate between Clinton and Trump last night, Eric Metaxas tweeted the following:

Hillary misquoting Tocqueville is like Reagan misquoting Marx.

— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) October 20, 2016

Hillary said in passing that “America is great because America is good.” Although the quote is commonly associated with Tocqueville, it can’t be found in his works.
During the debate, Clinton did not attribute the quote to Tocqueville. However, Metaxas himself attributed that quote to Tocqueville in an advance copy of his new book If You Can Keep It. The attribution of the quote was corrected before publication.
I understand the analogy he tweeted. However, it is noteworthy that Metaxas complained about Clinton’s use of the quotation because he has his own quote snafu to resolve. Metaxas has yet to provide a source (or acknowledge the quote isn’t Bonhoeffer’s) for the following quote:

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

This quote is attributed to Bonhoeffer on the back flap of Metaxas’ biography of the German pastor. He also has referred to it in his speeches and tweets as well as his book on Miracles and a study edition of the Bonhoeffer bio. However, it cannot be found in Bonhoeffer’s works. I have contacted Metaxas and publisher Thomas Nelson but have yet to receive the courtesy of a reply.

There is no disgrace in getting a quote wrong. Scholars do it frequently. The mark of a scholar is to correct the record quickly. To me, this seems especially important since Metaxas has lately taken to advancing Bonhoeffer in the cause of presidential politics. Despite our differences, I urge Metaxas to do the right thing and either provide his primary source for the quote or acknowledge the quote doesn’t come from Bonhoeffer.

Even though David Barton has gone quiet about his claim to have an earned doctorate, his Wallbuilders Facebook page still refers readers to his work under the byline Dr. David Barton.

On the newly revamped Wallbuilders Live bio of Barton, reference to his BA at Oral Roberts University has been removed.
On September 7, Barton claimed in a video posted on his Facebook and You Tube accounts that he had an earned doctorate. However, the next day Barton removed the video and Facebook post without explanation. While Barton did not mention Life Christian University as the source of the degree on the original video, it appeared to be a LCU diploma. Later, LCU president Douglas Wingate confirmed that Barton’s doctorate came from LCU.
LCU awards what president Wingate calls earned degrees to famous Christians who never attend or graduate from the school.  Wingate examines their written works and other materials to award a doctorate based on life experience. Despite the face that awarding a degree solely based on life experience is one of the marks of a diploma mill, Wingate defiantly defends the practice.
Other LCU “distinguished degree holders” who did not attend or graduate from LCU include Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, and Kenneth Copeland. Meyer prominently touts her “earned PhD in theology” on her website.
 

If it hasn’t happened already, this may be Eric Metaxas jumping the shark.

The fascistic globalism of HRC/Obama is similar to the threat that German fascist nationalism was in Bonhoeffer's day. Both are anti-God.

— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) October 19, 2016

I can’t respond any better than the numerous commenters who are really taking him to task. Click the tweet and read the comments.
Before a couple of months ago, I did not follow Mr. Metaxas and so I can’t tell if this was coming or has recently shown up perhaps in relationship to Trumpism. In any case, I hope it is a curable condition.
On the term “fascistic globalism,” my impression is that it is a far right term with a less than admirable pedigree. It often is written “fascist globalism” and appears on numerous alt-right and far right websites. One has to wonder what well Metaxas is drinking from.
Here is on example of a use of “fascist globalism from the conspiratorial Centre for Globalization Research.

The NATO Treaty, therefore, is, from its inception, a Treaty against Russia. It is not really – and never was – a treaty against communism. The alliance’s ideological excuse doesn’t hold, and never was anything more than propaganda for a military alliance of America and its allies, against Russia and its allies. Consequently, the Warsaw Pact had to be created, on 14 May 1955, as an authentic defensive measure by Russia and its allies. This had really nothing to do with ideology. Ideology was and is only an excuse for war – in that case, for the Cold War. For example, a stunningly honest documentary managed to be broadcast in 1992 by the BBC, and showed that the US OSS-CIA had begun America’s war against «communism» even at the very moments while WW II was ending in 1945, by recruiting in Europe ‘former’ supporters of Hitler and Mussolini, who organized «false flag» (designed-to-be-blamed-against-the-enemy) terrorist attacks in their countries, which very successfully terrified Europeans against ‘communism’ (i.e., against Russia and its allies). As one of the testifiers in that video noted (at 6:45), «In 1945 the Second World War ended and the Third World War started».
The ‘former’ fascists took up the cause against «communism» but actually against Russia; it wasn’t democracy-versus-communism; it was fascists continuing – but now under the ‘democratic’ banner – their war against Russia. This operation was, until as late as 1990, entirely unknown to almost all democratically elected government officials. The key mastermind behind it, the brilliant double-agent Allen Dulles, managed to become officially appointed, by US President Eisenhower in 1953, to lead the CIA. Originally, that subversive-against-democracy element within the CIA had been only a minority faction. Dulles had no qualms even about infiltrating outright Nazis into his operation, and his operation gradually took over not only the US but its allies. His key point man on that anti-democracy operation was James Angleton – a rabid hater of Russians, who was as psychopathic an agent for America’s aristocracy as was Dulles himself. But the CIA was only one of the broader operation’s many tentacles, others soon were formed such as the Bilderberg group. Then, the CIA financed the start of the European Union, which was backed strongly by the Bilderbergers. This was sold as democratic globalism, but it’s actually fascist globalism, which is dictatorial in a much more intelligent way than Hitler and Mussolini had tried to impose merely by armed force. It relies much more on the force of deception – force against the mind, instead of against the body.

Are we to understand that Obama and Clinton are dictatorial in a much more intelligent way than Hitler and Mussolini?
Now think about Trump’s glowing words about Russia and his halting support for NATO and then remember that Metaxas has become quite the Trump apologist of late. It appears that Metaxas may be moving toward the conspiratorial far right in more than just his support for Trump.

Recently, Christian Today posted an article about mega-evangelist Joyce Meyer’s and self-styled historian David Barton’s PhD degree from Life Christian University. In it, LCU’s president Douglas Wingate was quoted in support of his school’s work. I have obtained the entire statement and am posting it here.
I began looking into LCU when David Barton posted a video boasting about having an earned doctorate. The next day he removed the video and has not mentioned his PhD since. Although Barton points to the diploma while on camera, the identity of the school is hidden by one of his honorary degrees. Through enlarging the screen, I was able to determine that the source of the degree is LCU. In this statement, Wingate confirms the source of the degree. Given the statement Wingate provided, the description of the degree as being earned doesn’t seem accurate.
For background on the issue click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Life Christian University’s position on earned, matriculated and honorary degree’s (sic)
Life Christian University is a ministry education institution that is designed to provide training for future ministers who desire to “rightly divide the word of truth” as described in the original doctrines of the New Testament. Though many professing Christians assume that their positions reflect what the Bible teaches, if they alter the operation of the Church and it’s theology in any fashion that does not resemble the miracle power and glory of the first century church, they are missing much of what is available to the born again believer.
Because of this disconnect with much of modern Christendom, LCU receives criticism from parts of the Church, and certainly from the unsaved people of the world system who criticize Christian academics altogether. Life Christian University is not moved for a moment by any criticism from those who simply do not qualify to comment on our beliefs and practices due to their spiritual ignorance, but we validate every position we teach through deep study of the Word of God, without religious influence.
For those who question the legal status of our operation, Life Christian University is exempt from licensure in the state of Florida, but does submit to the laws governing religious institutions with annual verification of compliance with the Commission for Independent Education, a division of the Florida Department of Education. Within this structure LCU provides ministry education in various spiritual disciplines for earned degrees at its main campus in Tampa, Florida and through licensing its curriculum to educationally qualified remote locations in various churches throughout the US and many foreign countries. LCU also offers an online program delivered from the main campus faculty, and available to anyone through the cyber-world who can access our web site and study in English. Our first course is free and available for anyone to view and listen to the lectures and read the free online textbook. Enrollment is not required in order to study the first course.
It seems that questions have arisen concerning various well-known ministers of the Gospel who we refer to as Distinguished Degree holders. These ministers are not graduates of LCU but are those for whom we recognize the comparable academic work in their published teaching materials, many of which we use as texts in our university, and we have matriculated degrees for their work. As with any regularly enrolled student, when we do an assessment on the former education that a student desires to transfer into LCU, we consider any former Bible School credit, liberal arts school credit, Bible School teaching credit and Published Works credit. It is a common practice for even secular liberal arts institutions to offer Life Experience credit.
When a minister has enough credit beyond their customary transfer credit, LCU is able to matriculate degrees for each of the various levels of credit. The first degree is the Bachelors degree, then the Masters degree, then the Doctor of Ministry degree and finally the Ph.D. The necessary credit hours of study that match these degrees is 120 credits of undergraduate study for the Bachelors degree, 36 credit hours of graduate study for the Masters degree, 15 hours of post-graduate study plus a 30 credit dissertation for the D.Min. and 15 hours of post-graduate study plus a 30 credit dissertation for the Ph.D. Again, these degrees may consist of transfer credit, and previously published works. This work, of course, must be for that which falls into the disciplines traditionally offered by the university, but an exception can be made for some work that is outside of, but related to those disciplines. One such discipline would be in Christian American History, which falls into the category of Modern Church History. All of the candidates work is thoroughly examined before credit is awarded and it is clearly identified on their transcript. That is certainly the case with Dr. David Barton, whose work in comparison to the revisionist historians, make them look completely foolish.
Some unsaved liberal academics are drastically opposed to our methods of assessment for earned degree credit, but they need only to concern themselves with their own anti-Christian and often Anti-Christ secular schools, which LCU has nothing in common with. Unfortunately in America, many of these institutions were founded as colonial seminaries, and early American seminaries. It is a tremendous blight on our nation that these secular education institutions have fallen so far from the grace of God, and are now tools of the enemies of God. The pendulum seems to have swung from godliness all the way to demon possession.
When critics complain about the independent, non-government accreditation that we have obtained, as opposed to secular government accreditation, my question is, “Why should the ministry education institutions subject themselves to unbelievers for academic oversight about education that they are absolutely ignorant of?” You wouldn’t ask a prostitute for their opinion on whether or not a virgin should remain pure until she is married. Neither should we subject ourselves to the scrutiny of the spiritually ignorant.
We do not offer any liberal arts in our programs, nor are we in competition with any liberal arts institutions, and therefore do not receive any government monies for our educational programs. In a way you could say we also believe in the separation of church and state. We simply believe that the state should not be involved in the church’s ministry education. In reality, since the first institutions of higher learning in America originated in the church, it seems that the liberal arts institutions should have to come to the church for accreditation. It would certainly change things if they had to meet our standards of spirituality and morality.
Finally, LCU does offer Honorary Degrees to some highly experienced ministers who do not have the formal education, but certainly have the equivalent ministry education, obtained on their own in a non-formal setting. A few of our distinguished degree holders fall into this category. The degrees that they have received are customarily the Doctor of Divinity degree, or Doctor of Sacred Music degree.
In answer to the question about whether we should change the status of our matriculated degrees to honorary degrees, the answer is emphatically, no. It is simply imprudent to compare apples to oranges, and the function of ministry education institutions do not compare to the lower forms of education offered in the secular liberal arts institutions. Those institutions should simply continue doing what they do, and we will simply continue doing what we do.
One day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be face to face with Jesus himself. Believers will stand before him to receive our rewards for faithfulness to His call on our lives, and unbelievers will face him as Judge, jury and executioner. Then all of these questions will be eternally put to rest.
In his service for a quality, spiritual education,
Dr. Douglas J. Wingate
President and Founder

Wingate claims that Barton’s work in “Christian American History” falls under the category of “Modern Church History.” Wingate has to do this because LCU is only allowed to give degrees which have a religious word in the name and train people for work in the church. I would like to see Barton’s LCU transcript to see what experiences and books were counted as credits. Was The Jefferson Lies counted? How about Original Intent? Barton means these books to make authoritative claims about American history without any reference to religious vocation.
One reason religious schools are exempt from licensing as post-secondary schools is because they are training people to perform religious functions. The state rightly allows churches to determine what training is needed to perform religious duties. However, Barton claims he has an earned degree while purporting to do the work of a historian. If he claims his degree is in some kind of history, a strong case can be made that LCU has gone beyond what it is allowed to do.
In any case, religious or not, the claim that the “Distinguished Degree Holders” have earned degrees is preposterous and misleading. Wingate isn’t fooling anyone. It is time to stop the charade.