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Warning Shot Fired At Christians

University diversity commissars warn Christians not to make one false move
vchal/shutterstock

 

A reader gives me permission to publish this e-mail he sent:

I’ve read your blog for over a year now, and when I first read your blog, I thought you overstated issues in universities, especially with respect to values like “diversity,” and “inclusion.” I went to a small private Christian university in the South and could not imagine why that bubble protected me (or blinded me?) from the way other universities work.

I’m currently working [at a major elite university] with a church (I don’t want to name it), and as a part of my job, I am also working with one of the Christian groups in one of the colleges (also can’t name it). I was recently called to the dean’s office along with two students to talk about “diversity” and “inclusion.” They told us that the university values these things, so they called us in to clarify what we were doing in the Christian group.

Quickly, they told us that they were concerned about harassment of non-Christians, especially the sexual and gender identities of other students. I was shocked and sad because I assumed someone in the Christian group had done something inflammatory, mean, or rude. Maybe a Christian had yelled at an LGBT person and told them they were going to hell.

Actually, nothing like that happened. These administrators were only concerned about the potential harassment of LGBT students by Christians on campus. We had to assure them that we were not planning on harassing anyone because – you know – we would never plan to harass a fellow human being. Instead, we like to invite students to lectures by Christian authors, philosophers, and apologists in order to educate people who may be unfamiliar with the Christian faith or who are disappointed with other ideologies and seeking something else.

To top it all off, they assured us that harassment was defined by the one who felt harassed. Now harassment (sexual or otherwise) is an evil thing, and I am glad about the recent revelations of men abusing their power against women. Those men must face the consequences of their actions. But these administrators wanted to draw a line in the sand for Christians in their midst. If the way you speak so much as makes someone feel harassed, we will punish you.

There were three lessons I realized in this exchange:

1. The fact of the matter is that no pro-LGBT group on campus would ever be called into a dean’s office in order to be lectured on diversity and inclusion.
2. These administrators would never accept the idea that a Christian could or would be harassed by an LGBT person. Harassment goes one way and it’s a feeling that only one side can experience. And if they feel it, it is real.
3. They have never heard of or met a gay or lesbian Christian who has a traditional view of marriage and sexuality. Would they even know what to do with that person? I’m sure these administrators would simply think they’re also bigots who plan on harassing others with Wrong Thoughts.

In other words, you were right all along.

All it will take is one false accusation of harassment against these Christians, and boom. Once again, we see that universities are using the LGBT issue to drive orthodox Christians into the closet, and off campus.

When I asked for permission to publish this, I offered to hide the name of the university if he wanted, for security reasons. He responded:

about the university, you can say it’s one of the most elite universities in the world. That’s the saddest part.

That’s the thing. You can gather the entire student body and faculty of every orthodox Catholic and Evangelical college in the world, and though they may outnumber the student body and faculty of this particular university by 100:1, they can barely hope to have the influence on the world that professors and students at this elite university do. All souls are equal in the eyes of God, certainly, but the graduates of this university, and those like it throughout the West, are going to be the lawyers, judges, politicians, industrial leaders, media giants, and so on. It is they who will decide the kind of world we will live in. And they are heretic hunters to the core. 

You have been warned. This particular warning is coming from someone on the inside (I independently verified his identity and position) who didn’t see it … until it hit him in the face.

UPDATE: A reader writes:

I simply reflect here on what to me appears to be an irony:

The reports keep coming down from American and western universities of a ‘giant wall’ of protection that is being built up around the LGBTQ community to protect them from dangerous and hateful adherents of ‘shithole’ creedal/confessional Christianity and their ‘shithole’ views of sexuality, marriage, and the body.

NOTE: This is NOT to be understood as support for President Trump. I wouldn’t trust him around my wife or children in my presence or absence. As such I did not vote for him. It is simple reflection on what to me is a profound irony.  Walls are being built on both sides. Both sides of the political aisle declare their special ‘shithole’ nations/communities.

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