Approximately 50 students, staff and faculty attended Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at Taylor’s first official club meeting, held Feb. 12 in Nussbaum 102.
Attendees chatted with those nearby over free pizza. Collin Hunt, a junior political science, philosophy and economics major and the club’s secretary, started the meeting with prayer before Lucas Moseley, a senior finance major and the club’s treasurer, discussed current events. These included the stock market, tariffs, the job market, the Epstein files and ICE.
The penultimate topic, while sensitive, was still relevant, Moseley said.
“We have to know whether or not justice is real and whether or not powerful people are going to be held accountable,” he said.
For ICE and immigration, Moseley mentioned a ruling upheld by the Fifth Circuit and explained the term “detain without bond.” Illegal and legal immigration affect crime, public safety, wages, housing, taxes and more, he said. When policies change, enforcement changes, which affect real people and real towns.
After telling the audience politics follows them whether or not they follow it, Moseley handed the microphone to Andrew Roth, sophomore accounting and finance major and the president of TPUSA at Taylor.
Roth spoke on why Christians should be involved in politics. Not all Christians are called to run for office, but he believes all Christians are called to faithfully engage with their country. The TPUSA club would be meaningless if Christians weren’t supposed to engage, he said.
“Political debates are really pretty meaningless if the Christian is to have no place in politics,” Roth said.
For about 25 minutes Roth shared Scripture on government, the history of the American government and gave arguments against objections to Christian engagement with politics. When he was done speaking, the floor opened for questions. Students asked about Christian nationalism, the character versus policies of political candidates and separation of church and state.
Students came to the meeting for various reasons. Some, like Amelia York, a sophomore communications major, had attended other TPUSA events and enjoyed listening to the speakers. Others students, like Kirsten Zimmerman, a sophomore data science major, and Nathan Kolterman, a freshman math education major, attended out of curiosity.
“I was very curious how they were going to integrate, kind of, more and more, like, Christ attributes,” Kolterman said. “And, like, how we should, as Christians, like, take a stance on this but in a healthy sense, not be divisive about it.”
John Crouch, a sophomore political science major and the club’s vice president, closed the meeting by sharing TPUSA at Taylor’s membership statement and inviting attendees to become members. He then closed in prayer. Most attendees signed to become members.
Despite the open houses, intramurals and other events on campus competing with TPUSA that evening, Roth thinks the turnout was solid.
“I felt like it went pretty well,” he said. “There were a good amount of questions, you know, we wrapped up in a good amount of time. So yeah, I don't know. I was happy with it. I'm excited for the future meetings."
