Everett Piper Christian Blog and Commentary

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De-Recognition

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Did you realize that some ideas at today's universities have been officially derecognized?

 

Just a little over ten years ago the Tufts University Christian Fellowship (TCF) was charged with bigotry and intolerance and "derecognized" by the University's administration. To be "derecognized" meant that this Christian group could no longer reserve rooms or advertise on campus and could no longer participate in the annual Student Activities Fair.  The offense that lead to such derecognition? A TCF policy that required all its officers to model a biblically moral lifestyle.

 

In the same year, similar groups at Middlebury College, Williams College, Ball State University, Whitman College, and Grinnell College faced discrimination complaints, administrative sanctions, and even outright bans on their respective campuses.  Christian morality and ideas were deemed unworthy of formal recognition or of open discussion and public debate. The students' right to freedom of expression was impeded and the open advocacy of biblical morality was threatened and in some cases even curtailed.

 

Over the past decade similar cases have multiplied several fold.  Just this past year Jennifer Keeton was denied admission to Augusta State University's counseling program because of her Christian ideas. Likewise, in 2006 Julea Ward was denied admission to a graduate program at Eastern Michigan University for almost identical reasons and in that same year at Missouri State University Emily Brooker was accused of violating school policy because she refused to sign a statement endorsing certain behaviors that she found to be unbiblical.

 

Isn't it ironic that the very academics who claim to be the most open minded and liberal are the same folks who then turn around and deny ideological liberty to their students and derecognize anyone who dares to openly express a contrary idea?