Jul 28, 2010

Public University Attacks Religious Freedom

An even worse judicial atrocity than the injunction of Arizona's immigration law today was the ruling (read it here) of a federal judge upholding the expulsion of a grauduate student from Eastern Michigan University. The student was expelled from the school's counseling program because she believes that homosexuality is morally wrong and therefore refused to counsel homosexual clients.

Critics of the ruling are saying that it will undoubtedly lead to other Christian students who have the moral sanity to oppose homosexuality will also be dismissed from state universities. Is this what the 1st Amendment is all about? Will the political ideologies of left-wing crazies drive Christians completely out of the public square? I dare say that such an outcome would be welcome to many liberals in our society. The student's lawyers intend to appeal the ruling. We should pray for their success.

1 comment:

Erik Esse said...

Whatever you believe about the merits of this case, do you honestly believe that this one incident is really the harbinger of Christians being completely driven from the public square? If that is really the agenda of many liberals, and they have as much power as you seem to think they have, they are doing a simply pathetic job. I mean, they plan to completely silence all Christians, and all they can muster is to get one person kicked out of grad school at Eastern Michigan University? At that rate their evil plan is going to take several million years to complete.

I said “they,” but, of course, I'm one of those “left wing crazies.” Some of my friends would certainly refer to you as a “religious nut-job,” so we have in common that people dismiss us and our ideas by accusing us of being mentally ill. Just like the homosexuals, come to think of it.

I bother to comment because A) This is pretty hysterical language for a college professor, much less a philosopher, whose job it is to elevate public discussion so we can solve problems together, and B) It's the kind of thinking and language that encourages us to see our fellow Americans as mortal enemies out to destroy us and with whom we have nothing in common. This is neither accurate nor helpful. It's the kind of thinking than can lead, in times of trouble, to violence, even civil war. Let us cultivate habits of thought, word and deed that sow concord and find common ground. I know this is hard to do on the Internet, but we owe it to our descendents.