A DePaul University professor gave a September lecture in which he claimed that Jesus condemned the rich.

DePaul political science Professor David Lay Williams substantiated, in a Mess Hall series lecture, Pope Francis’ claim that “inequality is the root of all social evil.”

"A Jesus intent on...condemning those with great fortunes as unworthy inhabitants for the kingdom of God"

Williams “investigates the predatory lending practices and extremes of economic inequality in Jesus’ Roman Palestine” and ties it to the “development of economic inequality in Western political thought,” according to the event flier.

The university says that Williams found “a Jesus intent on reducing the corrosive effects of wealth, greed, and inequality and condemning those with great fortunes as unworthy inhabitants for the kingdom of God.”

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Williams contrasts Jesus with “Paul’s attitude toward pious Christians with wealth.” The professor did not respond to Campus Reform’s requests for comment in time for press.

“As our name suggests, our purpose is to support, encourage, and disseminate faculty in their research projects,” DePaul’s Faculty Scholarship Support Center (FSSC), which hosted the lecture, told Campus Reform. The email also explained that any interested graduate students, faculty, or staff are allowed to present their research to gain practice in front of an audience for feedback.

The FSSC provided Campus Reform with fliers of past presentations, including one entitled “Acknowledging the Unacknowledged Leninist Roots of Realism in E.H. Carr,” a lecture described as author E.H. Carr’s “foundational text of political realism,” which describes “Carr’s advocacy of appeasement and his complicated Bolshevik sympathies are often passed over in embarrassed silence.”

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Another past presentation included “Seasons of Violence: Weather Patterns in Homicide Mortality Rates in the 100 Largest U.S. Cities, 2009–2012,” in which scholars were “to reconsider the impact of weather trends on homicide mortality patterns in the U.S.”

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