Anti-Christian Bias in Academia

.

.

By The Rev. Dr. Joe Renfro

There is an anti-Christian bias very much developing in our society.  Attacks come in respect to Christian morality, Christology, and the social influences of Christianity in our society in the educational patterns in our land. I was watching on TV a recent demonstration during a political rally, and I observed what appeared to be college age students with signs flashing condemning things such as “homophobia,” “racism,” and “Islamophobia” among other topics. But this is not just peripheral factor, but rather is being instilled throughout learning in academia.

There is an anti-Christian bias in academia all the way from the primary schools to the colleges and universities.  Common Core Curriculum has much of this in its attacks against Christianity or at least slighting it, as it is taught in our public schools.  But also attacks are against students witnessing to their faith in Christ.  Attacks are increasing against Christian organization on campuses, and attacks are increasingly being experienced by Christian professors to renounce their faith, at least keep quiet about it or be fired. Attacks against Christianity are rampant in our institutions of learning in all types of ways.

The United States of America was founded at least on biblical principles, which sets the stage in Genesis 1:1 that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  In the first part of  the Declaration of Independence it states:  “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights….” God did not just create the human race, but instilled in us the concept of being moral creatures, and the foundation of this nation was that of the Judeo-Christian morality.

Franklin T. Lambert (2003) has examined the religious affiliations and beliefs of the Founders. Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 49 were Protestants, and two were Roman Catholics (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were Church of England (or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), 8 were Presbyterians (one of them a Presbyterian minister), 7 were Congregationalists, 2 were Lutherans, 2 were Dutch Reformed, and 2 were Methodists.

A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical Christians such as Thomas Jefferson who constructed the Jefferson Bible, and Benjamin Franklin.  (“Founding Fathers of the United States,” Wikipedia)  It is interesting the see that   Ben Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac wrote in 1734 that “Sin is not harmful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is harmful.” It was a good observation!

The progressive thinking, dominant in academia totally rejects the idea of original or personal sin, but its concern is with social sin which is they would describe as things like “homophobia,” “racism,” or “Islamophobia.” Human nature for the progressives is good and must be developed by the elites that know how the reject the superstitions of the past and cling to the expanding goal of a classless society.   Hillary Clinton, a leading progressive, said: “I believe the primary role of the state is teach children. Parents have a secondary role.” (Hillary Clinton, It Takes a Village), and one of the goals of this progressive thinking is to attack what they esteem to be social sin.

There is no such thing as human nature for the progressives, and thus there are no universal moral principles that can be read from human nature. If there are no universal moral truths, then religion, positing them, is merely a form of oppression or myth, one from which the progressive thinking must deliver often by education.  The Liberal mind brings liberation in the new progressive world view, and the past Judeo-Christian world-views must be discarded or altered.

In respect to the moral teaching the liberal worldview is very much in conflict with the Biblical prospective.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10  says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Progressives applaud homosexuality.

The progressive attack is on “homophobia.”  Notice I Corinthians 6:9 mentions that the “effeminate, nor homosexual” will not realize the Kingdom of God. However, homosexuality is being promoted by our educational institutions.  An example is a recent bill was passed in California that prohibits teachers, textbooks, instructional materials and all school-sponsored activities (sports, the prom, etc.) from reflecting adversely upon homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals, a pattern followed all over this land. Volumes could be written about this!

Bryan Fischer, however, in an article, “SPLC’s ten “myths” about homosexuality turn out to be ten truths” in the November 26, 2010 publication of Review America deals with ten statements that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation condemned that attacked the “homophobia.”  The SPLC is shown to be in error, for these statements given below are all true, as Fischer well proves.

They statements are: 1.) Homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals.  2.) Same-sex parents harm children. 3.) People become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents.  4.)  Homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.  5.) Homosexuals controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust.  6.) Hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices like bestiality and necrophilia.  7.)  Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces. 8.)  Homosexuals are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol.  9.)  No one is born a homosexual.  10.)  Gay people can choose to leave homosexuality.  All these statements are true, but our society is being educated that they are all false—a type of anti-Christian bias!

There is the term “Racism,” which in progressive thinking has become the most mortal sin of society in America. Racism has become something much worse than taking God’s name in vain, committing adultery, bearing false witness, and almost anything else.  Our nation has shifted from focusing on righteousness in the formation of our laws to being concerned about the rights of some while stomping on the rights of others which they call a privileged class or group.

Illustrations abound, but in one recent happening at the serene University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (February 18, 2016) gives a picture of the readiness to play the card of racism.  Two white female students boorishly posted a picture of themselves in blackface to the campuswide Snapchat account. Within hours the university’s chancellor, Beverley Kopper, emailed the campus community to denounce the post as ‘racist. These two girls had applied some charcoal-based beauty mask goop to their faces. Apparently, they innocently thought the look was humorous, so they snapped a picture to share with others on campus. The two evidently didn’t have a racist thought and saw no harm in it. But they forgot where they were – on an American University campus, where humor regarding a minority is not tolerated – unless the butts of that humor are conservatives, Christians, or Caucasians, which is acceptable to progressive thinking.

The Pandora’s Box of race-baiters was opened, and some said they were hopelessly offended. One Black Student Union member even told peers she missed several days of school because she was too distraught by the blackface picture to attend class.”  Maybe it just a good excuse.  But without any inquiry whatsoever, the University CEO, so racked with political correctness and guilt over her own whiteness, threw these two young women under the proverbial bus, expelled!

I applaud black achievement, but we hear so much about blacks not achieving in academia because of white prejudice, which is not the case. Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason, any preconceived opinion or feeling, especially of a hostile nature, regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group. But the veins of prejudice accompany the arteries of bias, and bias is a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned or a strong bias in favor of a group or idea. Bias is often what one has when he or she refers to another group as being prejudice.  Bias and prejudice are two sides of the same coin. But the message of Christ should enable us to overcome both of these.

The academic achievement of the whites is above the blacks and Hispanics, but no one says much about the fact that the Asians excel all, and one of the basic reasons has nothing to do with bias or prejudice, but rather with the families.  It has been noted that “The share of youth living with one parent more than doubled from 1970 to 2000.  In 1970, less than 10% of white children, and about 30% of the black children lived with a single mother.  By 1998, 18% of the white children, 27% of the Hispanic, and over 50% of the blacks lived with a single mother.”  (Trends in Educational Achievement of Minority Students since Brown v. Board of Education, June 22, 2001).  The Asian families tend to stay united more, and it is any wonder that the children perform so much better?   Could not the differences be explained much better on family influences, rather than on bias or prejudice?   Doesn’t Christian promote family staying together?

Thirdly, there is “Islamophobia.”  It is a fact that the Muslims are the most illiterate people on earth with about 800 million Muslims out of 1.4 billion illiterate, nearly 40% illiterate. (muslimstatistics.wordpress.com/2015/01/5).  Muslims are 22% of the world population and produce less than five percent of global GDP. Even more worrying is the fact of Jihad which destroys any realization of freedom in a land. Why applaud Islam in public education?  Is it any wonder that Europe is very much concerned with the great influx of refugees flooding into their land, and the great problem of educating the Islamic masses. To be concerned about this and all the other Islamic factors is something that they should be concerned about, and we in America should be as well. To be aware of this problem is not ungrounded!

Racism, homophobia, and Islamophobia, are often just straw men, but the anti-Christian bias in academia is not a straw man, and is something very much officially ignored in our time.

.