BOB ABERNETHY: Missionaries of a different sort are training at the new college in Virginia -- Patrick Henry College. ... The students are Christians who aspire to careers in politics and public service. The college was founded especially for Christians who have been schooled at home. For its students, as Betty Rollin reports, Patrick Henry is an answered prayer.

BETTY ROLLIN: This is a big day for Jennifer Deems. She's leaving home for the first time to go to college. Her mother is weepy -- all the more because, Jennifer, along with her brother and sister, have been home schooled.

MRS. DEEMS: I've had all three of them under my wings.

ROLLIN: Like many families who home-school their children, the Deems are Evangelical Christians and were thrilled to find the perfect college for their daughter. Patrick Henry is a private Christian college in Purcellville, Virginia, which opened last October with about 90 students.

The college is adamant about not accepting federal funding. Everyone is a Government major -- consistent with the college's special mission. Former Virginia legislator and lawyer Michael Farris is president.

MICHAEL FARRIS (president, Patrick Henry College): We are trying to raise a generation of leadership, of Christian leadership. People who are out in public life making a difference. We want to raise winners, and people who know how to do what's right and really lead the country.

JENNIFER DEEMS: That's the most important thing for me -- weaving my Christian values into what I believe about government. And going out after that and using that foundation when I get a job.

ROLLIN: Every student and every professor and every member of the staff, including the kitchen help, must be Christian and all must sign a Statement of Faith -- a kind of contract of religious intent.

MR. FARRIS: I don't want to give someone that doesn't hold my philosophical views the best training on how to be a leader in the country. I might be raising up, you know, the captain of the wrong team.

ROLLIN: Daily chapel is compulsory. Tobacco and alcohol are banned. Dating is permissible only if both sets of parents approve. All courses are taught from a traditional, Evangelical Christian perspective.

MR. FARRIS: Every one of the professors in every one of the courses is expected to integrate the Christian world view, wherever the Christian world view speaks to that course.

ROLLIN: Which is to say that God is the Creator of all things, Jesus, God's Son, is the source of salvation, and that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

At Patrick Henry that world view embraces the politics of the Religious Right.

For example, in American Government courses, if the subject of abortion comes up, the pro-choice point of view is discussed, but endorsed by no one. Evolution is mentioned as just a theory -- an unproven theory.

Unidentified Professor: How would a feminist counsel Frances?

ROLLIN: Even in a literature class about Hemmingway, the Christian world view of feminism is introduced.

NICK HIGGINS (student): I would say a modern feminist would tell her to be more like Brett, just go off and trade a new guy every few months. It's the hedonistic immediate fulfillment versus a lifetime of fulfillment.

ROLLIN: In this class at Patrick Henry, no one contradicts that view of feminists.

AUDREY JONES (student): The Christian world view is believing in Jesus as your savior; that people are sinners and naturally bad. We're all born with a sinful nature, which has to be controlled.

ROLLIN: Since nearly everyone here has been Christian-based home schooled, the religious and political perspective in college sits well with them, as does the fact that the student body is exclusively Christian..

JENNIFER HOWARD (student): It's incredibly uplifting to be around Christians. It's encouraging. It's enforcing what I believe.

ROLLIN: In fact, students who tried secular colleges found them distasteful.