Colleges and universities are hypersensitive to the slightest indication of discrimination against racial minorities and women, they're sharply attuned to the faintest sign that Muslims are being offended, but do they ever try to discover if their Christian students or scholars experience discrimination?
Larsen issues the call for just such an effort:
This could be done through surveys, or focus group discussions, or even just by inviting people to tell their experiences and following up on them, seeing if certain patterns emerge. If these are not the best methods, just think of what you would do in response to reports that a university or academic society was marked by institutional racism or sexism and then apply those same strategies of listening, investigation, and response.
This sounds like fun. I hope the idea catches on.
One of the anecdotes Larsen recounts is this:
John had been a straight-A student until he enrolled in English writing. The assignment was an "opinion" piece and the required theme was "traditional marriage." John is a Southern Baptist and he felt it was his duty to give his honest opinion and explain how it was grounded in his faith. The professor was annoyed that John claimed the support of the Bible for his views, scribbling in the margin, "Which Bible would that be?" On the very same page, John's phrase, "Christians who read the Bible," provoked the same retort, "Would that be the Aramaic Bible, the Greek Bible, or the Hebrew Bible?" (What could the point of this be? Did the professor want John to imagine that while the Greek text might support his view of traditional marriage, the Aramaic version did not?) The paper was rejected as a "sermon," and given an F, with the words, "I reject your dogmatism," written at the bottom by way of explanation.
Thereafter, John could never get better than a C for papers without any marked errors or corrections. When he asked for a reason why yet another grade was so poor he was told that it was inappropriate to quote C. S. Lewis in work for an English class because he was "a pastor." (Lewis, of course, was actually an English professor at Cambridge University. Perhaps it was wrong to quote Lewis simply because he had said something recognizably Christian.)
It's unfortunate that the halls of academe are populated by narrow-minded ignoramuses like this pompous English prof who use their power to intimidate young students and to impose upon them an ideological and religious conformity. Even so, the silver lining is that even students who might be inclined to agree with such professor's beliefs are often repelled by their coercion and bullying when they see it applied to their fellow students.
At any rate, Larsen's piece is interesting and reinforces the opinion of many others who've reported similar reactions to student or faculty Christians at their own schools. The comments to this article are worth reading as well. Check it out.
RLC
