During Liberty University’s annual Baccalaureate Service Friday, May 13, Purple Heart Veteran and evangelist Tim Lee challenged the Class of 2016 to bring the “pulpit” to the nation.

In his speech, Lee said that in his opinion there has been no one like Liberty’s founder, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, in the last 100 years.

“Jerry Falwell made the church the central voice, the leading voice in America’s moral and ethical issues,” Lee said. “Along the way, we (professing Christians) have lost something. … ‘We’ who are politically conservative Christians, ‘we’ who still believe in the historic American principles we learned about in our homes, our churches, and in our Christian schools; ‘we’ have lost an identity.”

Lee charged graduates to recapture the same “spirit of determination” Dr. Jerry Falwell had.

Lee praised Liberty President, Jerry Falwell, Jr. for boldly taking stands on controversial issues and said the younger Falwell was “cut from the same cloth” as his father. Lee added that if pastors were no longer willing to take a stand, then maybe that mantle has passed to (Christian university) presidents.

Lee told graduates that America needs a new generation of journalists, lawyers, doctors, coaches, athletes, teachers, and scientists that can skillfully use biblical truth and constitutional government to educate people.

“In all of the public debates and confrontations over moral and civic issues going on today in hundreds of cities and towns in America, the one great thing that is missing is the pulpit,” he said. “If we had 10,000 pulpits aflame with the righteousness of God and with the revolutionary fervor for morality and patriotism, we could turn this nation around in one generation.”

Lee noted that there is no one else in the world that he would rather share his message with than Liberty graduates.

“I believe the potential response here is of the highest caliber,” he said. “We are in one of the most amazing academic learning centers in the world. Tomorrow is going to be one of the greatest highlights and the greatest days of your life.”