EDITORS' CORNER
‘Universities have rejected the centrality of God … but nothing has taken its place,’ president says
Higher education “brainwashing” may be to blame for President Donald Trump’s latest assassination attempt and the emerging trend of the “educated assassin,” Cornerstone University President Gerson Moreno-Riaño recently said.
“A troubling trend that appears to be emerging is that of the ‘educated assassin,’ individuals who do not fit the typical profile of people who commit such heinous acts,” Moreno-Riaño said, according to Fox News.
“These individuals are often schooled in some of America’s most elite institutions and act out of a perverted philosophical conviction that sees the killing of others not as evil, but as justified,” he said.
Moreno-Riaño added that he has been concerned for many years that some of the most highly educated people in the country are not merely activists, but violent activists.
He suggested that this behavior could be a result of “brainwashing.”
“When education ceases to educate, when it’s ideological, when it’s brainwashing, when it’s indoctrination, it’s no longer education … It’s something very different,” he said.
The university president also criticized universities for their “crisis of morality.”
“The universities have rejected the centrality of God, a theistic Christian worldview, but nothing has taken its place,” he said.
He added that universities have “no moral compass” and are failing to give students “guidance and moral direction” as a result.
Moreno-Riaño’s concerns are echoed by a 2025 survey that gained widespread attention after the third assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, The College Fix previously reported.
The American political perspectives survey found that “Americans with the highest level of formal education were also the most supportive of political violence.”
“[Thirty-six] percent of those with a graduate or professional degree agreed at least somewhat with the statement ‘If you are protesting something unjust, it is reasonable to damage property,’ while 40 percent agreed that ‘Violence is often necessary to create social change,’” the survey found.
Cole Allen, the man who charged the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with a gun last month, obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, according to Fox News.
He worked as a teacher at the C2 Education test preparation and tutoring service where he was named December 2024’s “Teacher of the Month,” The Fix reported.
Other professors, including an Australian political sociologist, have also offered their insights on the underlying causes of political violence in the wake of the assassination attempt.
Josh Roose of Deakin University claimed the country’s first two amendments to the Constitution are to blame for political violence.
“We’re talking here about a long history of it, but also a willingness to accept it because the constitution won’t allow meaningful reform on gun laws,” he said.
He also said the First Amendment’s right to free speech has enabled “polarising and aggressive” political discourse.
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