The exchanges grew uglier as some accused Dillon’s supporters of being pro-segregation, others mocked Rigell’s struggle with depression, and a host of people ridiculed one another with the Twitter taunt du jour: “ cry more.” Other students, joined by an army of Babylon Bee fans, took Dillon’s part. Some PBA students, along with approximately 200 Twitter users with no apparent connection to the school, joined Rigell’s call, asking the university to move Dillon’s speaking engagement out of the chapel or cancel it altogether. In an all-too familiar scene, the exchange quickly grew into a social media feeding frenzy. Dillon tweeted, “Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization.” Rigell asked the school, “Is this really who you chose to come speak in chapel on campus on family weekend?” He later suggested a speech limited to business students or the campus comedy club would be more appropriate. Prompted by some former students, Rigell drew the school’s attention to a comment Dillon made on a viral video showing protesters surrounding and attacking a car in Los Angeles. Rigell doesn’t deny that his views have grown more liberal over the years, but he maintains it wasn’t hate but concern that prompted him to ask PBA to reconsider hosting Dillon in the chapel two days before the event. Even just the way he talks about the pandemic, dismissing it, is offensive.”ĭillon characterizes Rigell as someone who has grown “increasingly militant toward conservative Christians. “But I think some of the language he uses publicly can be offensive, particularly to students of color, but also to other minorities like LGBT groups. I sat next to him at a Christmas party last year,” Rigell says.
Their divergent paths seem emblematic of the political rancor dividing many Christian institutions. Though not friends, Rigell and Dillon have known each other since their undergraduate days. That was before a group of students alerted Isom Rigell, a former PBA residential director, to Dillon’s impending visit. “They reached out and sounded very excited to bring me to campus,” Dillon told me. When it started searching for notable alumni to give chapel talks, Cueto suggested Dillon. Yet until Cueto mentioned him, the new administration was unaware of its connection to the most popular Christian satire since The Screwtape Letters. He has hired 10 PBA graduates, and the school’s campus pastor, Bernie Cueto, is also the teaching pastor at Dillon’s church. So perhaps the school should have better anticipated the uproar that would unfold when it disinvited one of its highest-profile sons from speaking in the chapel.ĭillon, who graduated in 2004, still has significant ties to the school. Check the “notable alumni” section on its Wikipedia page, and the only name you may recognize is another comedy professional- Saturday Night Live actress Victoria Jackson.
With fewer than 3,000 undergraduates, Dillon’s Christian alma mater, Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA), is smaller than many high schools. The novelist Philip Roth once wrote, “Satire is moral outrage transformed into comic art.” If that’s true, you have to wonder what kind of funny fake news the Babylon Bee is going to mine from a campus debacle last week involving the satirical news website’s CEO, Seth Dillon.
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