One evangelist from Florida is hoping to pick up where the Puritans left off in New England.
Tommie Zito, an itinerant preacher who spends much of the year traveling internationally, has reportedly inked a deal with whiskey maven Raj Bhakta, who told CBN News in March he wanted to give away a $200 million college campus in Poultney, Vermont.
The founder of WhistlePig Whiskey had only one catch for his eyebrow-raising offer: the recipient of the sprawling campus — former home to the Methodist-affiliated Green Mountain College — needed to be a Christian who shared Bhakta’s view that biblical principles are vital to America’s flourishing.
“When we forget that there is a God above us who gives us the rules, we don’t make them — forgetting that is what has caused this crazy culture to emerge of hopelessness, and selfishness, and crazy ideas,” he said.
Zito hopes to turn the campus, a 26-building property with dorms, classrooms, athletic facilities, and more than 100 acres of farmland, into a “Christ-centered university” he’s planning to name “Z University,” according to the New York Post.
The Pentecostal preacher shared this video promoting the burgeoning project:
Zito plans for the Vermont campus to be the first of many faith-based educational hubs with additional campuses in Canada, Italy, Dubai, Poland, and Sri Lanka. Ultimately, he told the Post, he wants to add schools in Japan, Ireland, and the U.K., too.
“I’m sure it probably wasn’t their first choice to have a Christian university take over this beautiful campus,” Zito said of the local residents in Poultney, a town of roughly 3,000 people, according to census data from 2020. “Vermont and New England are not pro-church, let’s just say. We want them to know that I’m coming in here — we’re coming in here — to serve.”
As for Bhakta, he purchased the 115-acre property at auction for $4.5 million in 2020, following the Methodist school’s closure the year before.
While the whiskey mogul initially planned to give the property away, Zito said he “purchased it for a legit price,” but said Bhakta gave him a “fair” deal. Both Zito and Bhakta agreed not to disclose the purchase price at this time.
“It was a historic college and all we’re doing is taking it back, rebirthing it back, to its roots,” Zito said of his plans for the campus. “Ultimately, it’s going to be a blessing for Poultney, I really believe, and for the region.”
Calling the forthcoming college “an economic blessing,” he explained, “It’s going to bring life back — and not that there’s not life there right now, but there’s … definitely some areas around that, you know, could use some revitalization,” noting the school will offer education from “a Christ-centered, biblical worldview.”
Eventually, he wants Z University to function as a liberal arts college, offering training in evangelism, leadership, business, government, communication, and digital media that will be “heavy on the digital side … with AI.”
The minister said he plans for tuition to be comparable in price to other Christian colleges, like Grand Canyon University, which has a base tuition of $16,500 per year.
“I don’t do things to make money on it,” he told the Post. “We’re going to make it as affordable as we can. And that will depend on donor base, endowment, and all of that.”
Earlier this year, when asked how he’d define success for the Vermont property, Bhakta told CBN News “revival” is his goal.
“If we can plant a flag and bring a light to this place with an understanding of reorienting ourselves around God, family, and country, we can find purpose and bring the light, which was actually the motto of this campus when it began as a Methodist institution over 200 years ago,” he said.
The slogan Bhakta was referring to was Green Mountain College’s motto, Lux Fiat, which, in English, means “Let There Be Light.”
Bringing faith-based education to New England is far from a new idea — despite its now-post-Christian culture.
Ahead of America’s founding, the Puritan settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Connecticut Colony, respectively, founded Harvard in 1636 and Yale in 1701 with the intention of educating the next generation of religious leaders in the region.
Z University — if it comes to pass — would mark a return of religious training to upper New England.
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