The growing intolerance in the world of academia
By Tom Quiner
Watch your back.
If you are a Christian or a conservative, our schools increasingly provide a hostile environment for your kids.
You read a lot about the bullying of gays. It doesn’t compare to what high school and college kids are being subjected to by academia. They are being aggressively indoctrinated to embrace a new religion, Secular Humanism, which adopts all things liberal in their canon.
The tactics being used are over-the-top.
At Florida Atlantic University, a communications professor, Dr. Deandre Poole, told students to write the name, “Jesus,” on a piece of paper, put it on the floor, and then stomp on it.
Why? According to the prof:
“This exercise is a bit sensitive, but really drives home the point that even though symbols are arbitrary, they take on very strong and emotional meanings. Of the stomping: “most will hesitate. Ask why they can’t step on the paper. Discuss the importance of symbols in culture.”
Just to make small talk, why didn’t he ask them to write Allah’s name instead of Jesus’?
Never mind.
A Mormon student was offended and refused to do it. A local television station reported that this led to the student being suspended, which the university denies. Nonetheless, they initially defended the “stomp Jesus” exercise:
“while at times the topics discussed may be sensitive, a university environment is a venue for such dialogue and debate.”
Subsequently, they backed off and apologized after the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, interceded.
Over in California at the University of Southern Cal, a student recorded some of the rants of his political science professor, Darry Sragow. Here’s a sampling of what he is “teaching” these kids who are paying up to $65,000 a year to attend:
“California Republicans [are] really stupid and racist.”
” … Republicans are 82 percent white. Losers.”
“The Republican Party in California … is the last vestige of angry old white people. ”
“The Republicans are trying to prevent people of color and people of lower income from voting by requiring voter ID.”
“We discovered, and this is generally true, the least flexible voter in America, the person who’s less likely to change their mind about anything is an old white guy. Old white guys are stubborn sons of bitches.”
“There are tens of thousands of people who are now dead because George Bush, even though he got fewer votes, became the president of the United States. That’s a fact. … I think the election got stolen. That’s what I think. … [the Republicans] stole the election. And this happens all the time.”
“Probably the biggest vulnerability that Romney has … [is] that the guy doesn’t understand normal human beings.”
“All campaigns have a message it communicates to the voters:
[The Democratic message is] “Vote for Obama because he’s gonna create jobs and keep the peace and protect social security.”
[The Republican message is] “Vote for Romney because Obama is all f—-ed up … ”
“The Republican Party is increasingly the last refuge of old, angry white people who don’t like what’s going on in this country.”
Did you get the picture? Republicans are bad. White guys are bad.
Is the university upset with the prof’s political proselytizing? Here is the response from USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett:
“The freedom to take unpopular positions and the freedom to express those positions publicly are at the foundation of what it means to be a faculty member of a university.”
She was fine with it. Would she have felt the same if his rants targeted liberals? What do you think?
Shifting to the high school level, the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) hosted an anti-bullying conference. Their featured speaker was a gay activist, Dan Savage, who is vocally anti-Christian.
So what did Mr. Savage do at this anti-bullying event? Why he bullied kids who embrace Christianity.
A teenage girl in attendance said:
“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control,’” he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.”
To their credit, a hundred or so students got up and walked out.
Mr. Savage intensified his bullying by calling them “pansy-asses.”
“You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I’m done beating up the Bible. It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.”
In other words, this wasn’t an anti-bullying conference. It was a bullying conference. Mr. Savage was there to bully Christians.
That is okay to the secular humanists who dominate the power structure of academia.
He continued his assault on students of faith:
“But I have a right to defend myself and to point out the hypocrisy of people who justify anti-gay bigotry by pointing to the Bible and insisting we must live by the code of Leviticus on this one issue and no other.”
Academia demands tolerance for the gay lifestyle, for gay marriage, for abortion, for Planned Parenthood, for contraception and for all the sacraments of Secular Humanism. If you’re a conservative Christian, beware. Their intolerance is vicious.
I am praying that the world of higher education improves before my youngest child gets there. In the meantime, I am preparing her to deal with this should it get even worse once she gets there.
Sad.
Tom-
I have been a public educator for almost 15 years, and I can honestly say that I haven’t seen any real attack on religion from the schools I have been employed with (6 different schools). The one instance I can recall where any religion was held up was that CR Washington had a display about the Muslim religion in a display case right next to the main office (this was in 2008). I almost called the ACLU and made a stink about it, because you know very well they would not put a similar display about Christianity. One of the posters claimed “Islam has advanced the rights of women in the Arab world.” which I found laughable. But again this was the ONLY instance that I saw.
Now, they have removed prayer from most graduation services, football games, etc. But I see this as a Constitutional issue, as no religion should have taxpayer dollars used to promote it. What do you think?
This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Our Founding Fathers saw no problem with the Ten Commandments in pubic buildings. I’d put the Ten Commandments back in a heartbeat. Has the country morally thrived since their removal from public schools, or has morality suffered? Even most liberals would acknowledge the moral erosion of America, although they wouldn’t attribute it to the removal of God from the schools.
Glad to hear that Iowa schools aren’t attacking religion from your experience.
Just knowing what my own children were exposed to in the public school system here, where we life, sickened me. I’ve raised my children to know what was commanded by God. I’ll never forget the day my daughter came home visibly bothered by something. After hours of watching her attempt to work through what ever was bothering her, I asked. “Do you want to talk about it?”
A teacher had told her entire class about her daughter and her same sex relationship. I WAS LIVID! The details this teacher shared was not only appalling they were crossing the line to an X rated film. Then to beat all, this teacher informed the entire class that this was the way of the world and everyone would just have to accept it. When my daughter didn’t agree, and remain silent, (the old, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.) The teacher spit in her face.
I was at the school office everyday for a month, She is no longer teaching at this local school. I wasn’t going to accept any other result. Where I am not a person to use the court system, I think this situation would have been the only one to induce me to move that way.
So sorry to hear that your child was subjected to such treatment. Thank goodness she talked to you. Good for you for the way you followed up. We had a situation when our daughter was in public high school. When 9/11 occurred, her English teacher immediately made an anti-American comment, blaming the U.S. for the carnage, saying we had it coming. Fortunately, my daughter told us. My wife called over to the school and complained. The teacher called a few days later to apologize. After that experience, we made sure our youngest went to a Catholic high school, which was a great experience for him. Thanks for sharing your story.
Good grief. What grade was your daughter in?
I used to think that home schooling was a bit out there. When I was raising my kids, the only people I knew who home schooled seemed to be doing it out of fear, and their kids weren’t very well socialized. If I were starting over today, I would home school if I could.
What is happening in the public schools is appalling. I am all for protecting kids and keeping them innocent as long as possible. The home school kids I encounter these days are happy, well socialized, bright, and best of all, innocent. It is so refreshing.
In defense of public education, and speaking as a Christian, and, hopefully moral role model in today’s schools, I think these instances are few and far between. I think public schools still do a decent job of educating children. I think often times parents have abrogated their parental responsibilities and the children have no place to turn. In a society where 50% or more of marriages end in divorce, even in Christian marriages, kids often have no place to turn for their “moral compass” especially if they are not regular attenders at a Christian church. It often falls to the schools. Sometimes we fail, but knowing the faculty I have worked with over the past 15 years, we are trying to do the best we can. It takes a lot of dedication to be a public school teacher.
Glad to hear this, Shawn. My mom was a teacher and I hold the profession in high regard, but the teachers union less so.
I believe there is a significant left wing bias at many, if not nearly all, U.S. colleges and universities. One way to combat this is to search for schools that focus on scholarship. I mention two that I think deserve consideration: Grove City College and Hillsdale College. Surely there are more.