April
29, 2016
Monday evening, April 25, was a very special
occasion for the Virginia Wesleyan College community. We recognized and honored
Robert C. Nusbaum for his founding vision in establishing and supporting our
Center for the Study of Religious Freedom.
I presented Bob with a special citation honoring
him as the Center's Founding Fellow, prior to the Justine L. Nusbaum
Lecture which is named for his mother. The excellent lecture this year, “Spirit
Voices of an Emerging African-American Community in 18th-Century
America," was delivered by Dr. Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander, Professor of
History and Director of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for African Diaspora
Studies at Norfolk State University.
In November 1995, Bob Nusbaum wrote to the
President of the College and proposed the idea for a Center for the Study of
Religious Freedom. In his letter, he wrote, “I venture to guess that more
persons have been slaughtered in the name of religion than from any other
cause… in this continuing saga of man’s inhumanity to man, the one bright light
that goes beyond mere tolerance is Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom.
It laid the foundation for the First Amendment, and has served as a beacon for
all enlightened constitutions ever since.”
That letter led to the creation of a center to
promote religious freedom and understanding of different faiths. The
establishment of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at Virginia
Wesleyan College was announced in September 1996.
Bob Nusbaum and his brother, V.H. “Pooch” Nusbaum,
later established the Justine L. Nusbaum Endowed Lectureship in honor of their
mother, who was well known for her lifelong volunteer service and dedication to
humanitarian causes.
More recently, Bob has established an endowment to
enable the Center to hold an annual student essay contest. Beginning in the
fall, during the 20th anniversary of the Center’s founding, we will
launch an essay contest for VWC students to write about issues of religious
freedom. Prize money will be awarded to the authors of winning essays.
Bob is concerned that many young people do not
understand the heritage of religious freedom. His dream – and our dream, too –
would be for every VWC student to graduate with an understanding of the
challenges and obstacles that humanity has overcome in attaining religious
freedom. Moreover, it is important for our students to have an appreciation of
the need to be ever vigilant to maintain those rights.
The founding of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, the establishment of the Justine L. Nusbaum Lectureship, and now the Student Religious Freedom Essay Contest—Bob is the driving force behind all of these. It was a pleasure to welcome him, his family and friends to campus and to express our gratitude for his commitment to Virginia Wesleyan College in this vital way.
Congratulations to the Center's coordinators, Dr. Craig Wansink and Kelly Jackson, for hosting a full schedule of enlightening, informative events this year, and for fulfilling so well Bob Nusbaum's founding vision for understanding and promoting religious freedom.
