Patrick Henry College

Patrick Henry College (PHC) was incorporated in 1998 and opened September 20, 2000, in Purcellville, Virginia, with 92 students — all from Christian home school backgrounds — and 8 faculty members. It was conceived by Michael Farris as the final stage in a deliberate educational pipeline: students from Christian home-school backgrounds, then trained at the college level for careers in government, law, journalism, and intelligence. PHC's founding mission statement made the political project explicit: to prepare 'Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture.' The curriculum was organized around a classical liberal arts core — rhetoric, logic, philosophy — but rooted in what the college calls 'a biblical worldview,' meaning all academic disciplines were taught through the lens of evangelical Christian presuppositionalism. Students were required to sign a statement of faith and a conduct pledge covering speech, dress, and sexual behavior. The college's results in its early years were remarkable given its size. In spring 2004, when PHC enrolled about 240 students, seven of the nearly 100 White House interns that semester came from the college. In 2004, PHC alumni and interns were working in the Bush-Cheney campaign and in the White House, including for Karl Rove. Congressional offices reported that 22 conservative members of Congress had employed at least one PHC intern in the preceding four years. The Government major — PHC's flagship program — trained students not merely for political careers but for movement careers: advocacy organizations, legal institutions, and Republican legislative staffs. The college's stated ambition was to prepare Christians to lead in government and law; critics saw a plan to advance movement goals from inside the state. Farris used the 'Joshua Generation' framework to describe PHC's purpose: just as Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness but it was Joshua who conquered Canaan, the parents' generation had created the home school movement, and their children — trained at PHC — would take the land. Critics read this as a call to political power over American institutions. PHC has been accredited by the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE). It has remained small by design — enrollment has generally stayed under 500 residential students — as Farris kept the college small by design. The institution's strategic importance to the Religious Right is disproportionate to its size.

Themes this entry appears in

• Christian Nationalism
• Dominionism
• Education
• Political Strategy

Connections to Patrick Henry College

• Michael Farris founded (2000) — Farris incorporated Patrick Henry College in 1998 and opened it in September 2000 as the capstone institution of his educational pipeline — a college primarily for Christian home school graduates aimed at placing movement-formed leaders in government.
• The Christian Home School Movement influenced (2000) — Patrick Henry College was built to receive the graduates of the Christian home school movement — most of its students came from Christian home schools, making it, in Hanna Rosin's account, the terminus of an educational pipeline that began in early childhood and ended with placement in government and legal careers.

Sources

• God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America — Hanna Rosin (2007), pp. 1–280
• The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism — Katherine Stewart (2020), pp. 68–95
• Jesus and John Wayne — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 247–249
• Communicators for Christ: How Homeschool Debate Leagues Shaped the Rising Stars of the Christian Right — Religion Dispatches (2023)