Unfavorable feelings towards ideologies

[Ed Brayton]

Rick Duncan wrote:
 
"If a professor expresses in class his disdain for "homophobes" or for
"fundamentalists" or for persons who base their worldviews on "religious
superstition" as opposed to secular first principles, does the professor
not create a hostile and unwelcoming environment for students who belong
to conservative religious faiths. Is this consistent with all the
rhetoric we hear in Academe about how intellectual diversity is
essential to a rich educational experience for all our students?"
 
But is this not true of any professor expressing virtually any position?
If a professor expresses his disdain for PETA because of their attempts
to stop medical research on animals, does he not create a hostile and
unwelcoming environment for students who belong to PETA? If a professor
expresses his disdain for socialism, does he not create a hostile and
unwelcoming environment for students who may be socialists? 
 
One of the absolutely inevitable realities of going to college, at least
to any college worth going to, is that you're going to run into ideas
you don't like as well as those who don't like your ideas. I would
submit that this is a very good thing, healthy both for society and for
each individual student to have their views challenged. Where it becomes
genuinely discriminatory, it should of course be treated as such. But
the mere expression of disapproval for an idea is no evidence at all of
discrimination. I am an outspoken advocate of equal rights for gays and
lesbians and I routinely criticize many people for their expressions of
homophobia. On the other hand, I'm also an outspoken advocate of freedom
of speech and have routinely defended the right to express anti-gay
views in a variety of cases (Harper v Poway, the Boissoin case in Canada
and many others). There simply is no intrinsic logical link between
criticizing a set of beliefs and discriminating against those who hold
them; one can quite easily criticize someone for their beliefs and
staunchly defend their right to express them.
 
Ed Brayton
 
-----Original Message-----
From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Duncan
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:37 PM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Subject: Re: Unfavorable feelings towards ideologies


I appreciate Eugene's distinction between hating the sin and hating the
sinner, but it is very easy to overlook this distinction when one is
creating a classroom atmosphere or even grading papers.
 
If a professor expresses in class his disdain for "homophobes" or for
"fundamentalists" or for persons who base their worldviews on "religious
superstition" as opposed to secular first principles, does the professor
not create a hostile and unwelcoming environment for students who belong
to conservative religious faiths. Is this consistent with all the
rhetoric we hear in Academe about how intellectual diversity is
essential to a rich educational experience for all our students?
 
Should  support for same-sex marriage or domestic partnerships be a
condition for successful completion of a degree in social work? Should
it be relevant to your grade on a paper that focuses on family policy
and law?
 
My son is a senior in high school (a national merit qualifier), and we
are not even considering "secular" colleges for his education. Why go to
a place where you are hated?
 
But notice this is all the more reason why state scholarship programs
should not exclude religious colleges or "pervasively sectarian"
religious colleges from participating. 
 
Separate and equal is one thing; separate and unequal is another thing
indeed.
 
Rick
 


Rick Duncan 
Welpton Professor of Law 
University of Nebraska College of Law 
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
 

"It's a funny thing about us human beings: not many of us doubt God's
existence and then start sinning. Most of us sin and then start doubting
His existence."  --J. Budziszewski (The Revenge of Conscience)
 
"Once again the ancient maxim is vindicated, that the perversion of the
best is the worst." -- Id.


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