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October 17, 2005 University of Mobile's 1st Scholarship Banquet Raises $146,000; Newt
Gingrich
The event raised $146,000 for scholarships, according to UM President Dr. Mark Foley. The university president shared his vision for the future of the Baptist-affiliated school that has a goal of “changing lives to change the world.” Foley outlined plans to build a university center that will serve as a central core for a growing residential population, establish RamKids mentoring program for inner-city youth, and create The Center for Christian Worldview, Public Policy, and the Law in partnership with The Alabama Policy Institute conservative think tank. The evening featured performances by students from the university’s Center for Performing Arts, including RamCorps drum and bugle corps and Voices of Mobile select vocal ensemble. The students’ performance of “You Raised Me Up” brought the audience at the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center in downtown Mobile to its feet. Gingrich, who was greeted with a standing ovation both before and after his address, stressed the importance of religion in America and the role the University of Mobile plays in shaping the nation’s future. Gingrich said he was impressed by UM students at a press conference held earlier in the day on the university campus, where he hinted at a possible presidential bid in 2008.
Referring to the future of America, Gingrich said, “There are, I think, several great questions that we’re faced with that the University of Mobile will play a role in helping us define in the right direction.” He said he believes the university’s mission of changing the world by the process of changing individual lives is an important mission. Gingrich discussed the political history of the United States, focusing on the Declaration of Independence. “The key phrase in the document on which all America is built is ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ “Now my challenge to the secular world that surrounds us is to explain to me how you’re going to explain to a 7-, 8-, 9- or 10-year-old what it means to be an American if you do not explain the term ‘Creator.’ And that’s impossible. It’s why, for the last 42 years, the Supreme Court has been consistently wrong – simply historically wrong. And I regard such efforts as President Foley’s great leadership here, at the University of Mobile, as efforts to replant the seeds that are at the very heart of America,” he said. He added, “A secular America would not be America. It could be a country. It could still have our flag. But it would not in fact represent the historic experience which, since 1776, has said something very basic, which is that power comes from God to each of you.” Related Links: |
The University of Mobile will play a role in helping define the right
direction of America, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Newt Gingrich told an audience of more than 700 at the university’s
first annual scholarship banquet on Oct. 13.
“I had a chance to chat with a number of them beforehand, and
the energy, the enthusiasm, the excitement that they had was something
that, for somebody who used to be a college teacher, brought back all
my adrenaline and all my excitement at knowing that in the right campus,
at the right moment, with the right class, you can have an amazing impact
that can last for a lifetime,” Gingrich said. “And I really
think that is the mission of the University of Mobile. Not just a place
to process people through to give them a diploma so they can go on and
do whatever they’re going to do, but a place where they have an
opportunity to come into contact with greater truths, with more profound
realities, with a structure of thought which is over 2000 years old.
And I think this is terribly important – more important than you
can possibly imagine.”