Be careful what you do in college, because you never know when you'll run for Senate. It's the kind of warning that parents give their kids all the time, but one that Rand Paul may not have taken to heart, considering recent reports that the Kentucky GOP Senate candidate's college secret society was actually one that was banished from campus because of it's anti-Christian views.
Politico reports on the controversial history of the Baylor University organization:
The NoZe Brotherhood, as the group was called, was formally banned by Baylor two years before Paul arrived on the grounds of "sacrilege," the university president said at the time. "They had 'made fun of not only the Baptist religion, but Christianity and Christ,' " President Herbert Reynolds told the student newspaper, The Lariat.
According to Politico's report on the material put out by NoZe in it's publication, The Rope, most of the writing was anti-religious satire that often mocked the university's Christian roots.
Politico dug up one article, entitled "Fishy Bibles," that claimed an 83-year-old Californian man was actually the true wordsmith behind the bible. The falsely proclaimed author of the religious text, the piece claimed, was the result of that man providing the name of a friend, Mr. Jesus Gonzales.
It's not the first time that supposed college-era indiscretions have plagued Paul. In August, GQ reported that Paul had kidnapped a woman in a marijuana-induced prank and forced her to "bow down and worship" their god, "Aqua Buddha." Paul denied the charge, and the woman has since admitted that she willingly took part in the stunt.
GQ also covered NoZe at the time, which it described as a group that "especially enjoyed tweaking the school's religiosity." John Green, one of Paul's former brothers, then told GQ that the group "aspired to blasphemy."
Jesse Benton, a spokesman for the Paul campaign, responded to the latest dispatch on the candidate's college years.
"So now the Democrats are shopping stories about 30-year-old college articles that aren't even attributed to Rand?" he said, according to Politico. "They must see how badly Jack Conway's liberal agenda of Obamacare, Government bailouts and tax hikes are playing in Kentucky and are getting truly desperate."
As for the attribution part, Benton appears to be mostly correct.
Paul's former brother, John Green, who Politico got a hold of for this piece, reportedly said, "I don't remember him participating much in writing."
Yet the nature of the group is certainly not likely to mesh well with the voters of Kentucky and the platform that Paul has chosen to run on. The Tea Party-backed Rand Paul has adopted a hardline stance against abortion and same-sex marriage, and has done so while actively touting his Christian faith.