The concept of God has long been discussed and fought over. The impact of this ethereal shadow on humanity is indescribably palpable, whether or not He exists. Still, modern times have paved the way for nonbelievers to flourish, and the Pew Research Center has found that “between 2010 and 2020, religiously unaffiliated people grew more than any group except Muslims.” Another notable statistic is that about a third of adults in the United States now identify as atheist or agnostic, an amount that has been steadily increasing over the past couple of decades. In a world where sin is abundant in its masquerading forms, some individuals champion the good news, spreading it to others and insisting on making the world a better place. Two of these individuals are Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle of New Canaan, Connecticut.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM, students gathered on Ho Plaza ready to bond over their shared love of Christ. I stood to the side and observed as they, initially, chatted amongst themselves, before huddling together into one great circle, closing their eyes and praying together as if they were one big family. As they prayed, I noticed a figure approaching them from the left, from the direction of Sage Chapel, and soon, he joined them in prayer, and the students welcomed him. This was Cliffe Knechtle, and when the prayer was finished, the students lifted their eyes and saw the bastion of e-Christianity himself.
Cliffe and Stuart have become famous online among Christians for their videos which depict them at various college campuses, partaking in earnest discussion with skeptics and believers alike. Cliffe has 293,000 followers on Instagram and Stuart, his son, has over 2 million, with similar numbers on TikTok. On this day, their journey brought them to the Cornell University campus, and I wondered about the tension among students between worshipping God and idolizing these preachers—their status as celebrities of sorts is something that I failed to question them about in my brief discussion with them the following day. Still, despite the occasional misplaced idolatry by some followers, their work is commendable and stirs an ounce of hope into the contemporary world.
On Ho Plaza, Cliffe began to speak to the people surrounding him. He begins by saying that they are simply here “to deal with issues that Cornell students struggle with when it comes to God…[like] Israel/Hamas.” He started off by asking the crowd to ask him tough questions. “How can a dead man rise from the dead?” rings out. So does “Hasn’t the Bible changed?” Of course, someone brings up the big one: “Why do so many good people suffer?” Cliffe and Stuart would soon answer all of these questions, or at least attempt to, and the discussions were vibrant. Cliffe emphasizes the fact that “We are not here to deal with denominational issues.” While he talks, the crowd grows, and they soon decide they need to move a bit further up Ho Plaza in order to have enough room, as well as get a microphone. During this change, multiple students approach him and tell him that he saved them or helped put them on a good path, and he appeared cheery and touched by these sentiments. The event had powerfully positive effects on all of those there; I sensed some heartfelt camaraderie among the students. Jose Toledo, a first-year student in ILR, told me “I know about him—I’ve watched some videos—I thought it would be cool, I wanted to see what the event would be like on campus.” I am sure that, for many who came, this was a moment of curiosity. The event even drew visitors from outside of Ithaca, some students, some much older.
I spent as much time as I could soaking in the conversations that resulted from the event, and wrote down several pages of notes, so I will attempt to distill them as best as I can:
- He speaks with an agnostic, explaining that “The way to show that Christianity is wrong is to show that Christ did not rise from the dead.”
- “You can’t be agnostic about ethics.”
- “Jesus says come to me, not to an ethical or philosophical system.”
- He says to be careful of the cynic or skeptic that says “Divine fireworks! And then I’ll believe.”
- “It’s all just a relative crapshoot, buddy” he says, about the despair of being born in bad circumstances and the tension of this idea with agnosticism and atheism.
- Cliffe admits that he does not know why there is faultless suffering.
- He elaborates that God gave people free will, thus limiting His own powers…God cannot make a square a circle…God cannot make 2+2=5, meaning God can’t do everything.
- He correlates the high Christian demographic with struggle, and says that it’s easier to relate to Jesus dying on the cross than to Siddhartha sitting cross-legged with a smile.
And later that day:
- Discusses not wanting to group Christians with conservatives.
- He quotes Dostoevsky: “If there is no God, everything is permissible.”
- Cliffe says “People worship a God who is simply an idealized version of themselves.”
- He takes the opportunity to clear up some misunderstandings, for example, with Abraham sacrificing his child (that this was not good and God stopping him was God saying that he had to be consistent with justice).
- “How much do I keep for myself and how much do I give away?”
- “You turn downright brilliant when it comes to getting what you want…watch out.”
- Shows a frustration with American students who think the Bible contradicts science: “There is no science in the Bible to contradict.”
- He emphasizes that branches of the philosophy of science contradict the Bible, not science itself.
- “Too many Americans are living off of the fumes of Christianity.”
- “Prayer is not an exercise in getting, prayer is an exercise in intimacy with God.”
When he returned the following day, there was much more heated discussion and disagreement:
- “Scientifically prove to me that unless I can scientifically prove something, it’s not true.”
- “Experience tells you a lot about reality.”
- A bystander, during this heated discussion, shouts “It’s subjective!” with reference to morality.
- I stand amongst the part of the crowd that murmurs amongst themselves about how wrong he is and how right they are, laughing and jeering.
- There is a discussion about how evolution does not urge one to act in compassion to someone unrelated and strange.
- “What’s the difference between a human and a cockroach?” Cliffe asks. A student responds with “Complexity, consciousness, belonging to the same species.”
- “Morality and ethics are an illusion from an evolutionary perspective,” says Stuart.
- “The order and design in the universe points to some type of God.”
- Someone asks if they should still try to convert to religion even though they seem to be living a good life. Cliffe retorts about a sinner doing the occasional good.
At the end of the second day, at 8 PM in Sage Chapel, the crowd once again gathered for a final lecture. People were bustling with energy thirty minutes prior to the Knechtles arriving, loudspeakers blasting contemporary Christian rock music through Sage Chapel, strangers and friends greeted each other, and I had also been greeted by multiple people over the course of the past couple of days. People had come from Ithaca, Cornell, Cortland, Binghamton, and beyond.
- Pastor Buckley starts off by giving his thanks to the organizations that helped this come together.
- Nick Palsor, the student who made all of this possible, thanked Cliffe and Stuart for coming to Cornell.
- They discuss how in the Bible, love is a choice, not a chemical reaction
- Cliffe says that if you’re a self righteous cultural Christian, you miss the whole thing.
- “Religious pride separates me from God.”
- Cliffe asks Stuart, “What do you try to communicate to those people [struggling with depression and anxiety]?”
- Stuart preaches that the gift of life and the promise of eternal life, along with the love of God, combats anxiety and depression.
- Stuart asks Cliffe, “How do you deal with doubt now and how did you deal with doubt back in your college years?”
- Cliffe explains he dealt and deals with doubt through talking at college campuses and speaking to others with different views.
- The Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God love each other and to be created in the image of God is to love.
- Talks about the Bible contradicting evolution, explains that evolution as an origin contradicts the Bible, because it is a philosophy of science which says there is no intelligent power behind evolution (as a response to a student’s question).
- “God is fair, life is unfair…do not get the two mixed up.”
- Stuart wishes that these people who are too materialistic and don’t believe in God have a rock-bottom experience so they can have a moment of clarity with God.
- Cliffe is asked, Jordan or Lebron? He responds: Steph Curry.
- Stuart talks about pride, ego, and the devil as being a sort of trinity of sin.
- Aim at Heaven and you get Earth in there, aim at Earth and you get neither.
At the end of the evening talk, we prayed for God to give us eternal life, for us to trust Him, for Him to help us get rid of our bad habits. One of the final things they told the crowd was this: “You don’t have anything more important to do than to love God.”
After the talks concluded, the people swarmed to see Cliffe and Stuart, grabbing pictures alongside their friends. I had one last task to accomplish, though, and that was to have my own one-on-one moment with Cliffe. I managed to accomplish this as they were walking back towards the Statler for the night, and though I ensured the conversation was succinct as he had requested, it left a certain impression on me.
CP: “What denomination are you?” (I had not been able to previously confirm this.)
CK: “Interdenominational”
CP: “How did you come to tour these colleges?”
CK: “I was invited.”
CP: “Is there anything you’d like to say to the Cornell community that you didn’t get to say in your talk yesterday or today?”
CK: “Nothing, I got to say everything…everyone asked excellent questions…wonderful people…smart people.”
CP: “Is it true that your brother went to Cornell?”
CK: (nodding affirmatively) “My brother went to Cornell Med school in New York City.”
CP: “Nice, thank you very much. You’re a wonderful man.”
CK: “You are.”
And so the Knechtle father and son duo left me with those kind words as they returned to the Statler to rest up for their travels the next day. Their impact on this campus represents the impact that Christ is able to have across the country. Covering this event was not only a period of clarity and wonder in my life, but a time to reflect, and I would hope that others who came to listen would say the same thing.
More photos of Cliffe at Cornell:
