Supreme Court In 1957: Academic Freedom Is Self-Evident

The State Supreme Court thus conceded without extended discussion that petitioner’s right to lecture and his right to associate with others were constitutionally protected freedoms which had been abridged through this investigation. These conclusions could not be seriously debated. Merely to summon . . . Continue reading →

A Rational Alternative To “Safe Spaces” On Campus

The promise of a liberal arts education is to provide challenging, unpredictable, and even uncomfortable intellectual and interpersonal encounters in order to produce the capacity for critical thinking, open-mindedness, and critical self-examination in graduates who are less dogmatic and prejudiced than when . . . Continue reading →

College Administrators Are Not Kings

One of America’s worst problems today is that people in official positions (university presidents, police officers, and others) think they are above the law and never accountable when they act illegally. The decision in Barnes puts college officials on notice that qualified . . . Continue reading →

Bloom Was More Right Than He Knew

In 1987, who could have envisioned the two-year nadir of 2009‒10, when not only the Democrats, but indeed, the very caricatured and politically correct academia of Bloom’s nightmares, would come to control the entire government of the United States: both houses of . . . Continue reading →

The Affective Revolution In Higher Education

…I have intentionally adjusted my teaching materials as the political winds have shifted. (I also make sure all my remotely offensive or challenging opinions, such as this article, are expressed either anonymously or pseudonymously). Most of my colleagues who still have jobs . . . Continue reading →

The Root Of Silencing Campaigns

The root of nearly every free-speech infringement on campuses across the country is that someone—almost always a liberal—has been offended or has sniffed out a potential offense in the making. Then, the silencing campaign begins. The offender must be punished, not just . . . Continue reading →

How Science Should Operate

Science is not about “consensus” but facts. Not only were some physicists not initially convinced by Einstein’s theory of relativity, Einstein himself said that it should not be accepted until empirical evidence could test it. That test came during an eclipse, when . . . Continue reading →

The Intoxicating Power Of Victimhood

“If this is feminism, it’s feminism hijacked by melodrama,” she writes. “The melodramatic imagination’s obsession with helpless victims and powerful predators is what’s shaping the conversation of the moment, to the detriment of those whose interests are supposedly being protected, namely students. . . . Continue reading →

I’m Shocked That You’re Shocked

Erskine College is in the news this morning for articulating the biblical and historic Christian position on human sexuality: “We believe the Bible teaches that monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is God’s intended design for humanity and that sexual . . . Continue reading →

Science Versus Groupthink

It’s become clear to me that it is not possible to undertake independent research in any area that touches upon climate change if you have to make your living as a professional scientist on government grant money or have to rely on . . . Continue reading →

A Growing Cloud

With the ongoing stramash surrounding Gordon College and its accreditation, the pressure is building on institutions of higher education with religious affiliations. The only question now seems to be: how many will stand firm? If an institution as prestigious and powerful as . . . Continue reading →

Dark Thoughts About The Future

Viewed objectively, these two recent controversies represent skirmishes rather than major invasions of religious freedom. But all of us view them with dark thoughts about the future. Our foreboding is justified. Progressives have long dominated an important American subculture: the university. It’s . . . Continue reading →

20th Anniversary Of Exiles From Eden

Readers and others sometimes ask which books have influenced the way I look at this or that. Sometimes I can answer, sometimes I can’t. One influential book that I read early in my academic career, while I was a graduate student, was . . . Continue reading →

The Ninth Commandment And The New Media (UPDATED)

The ninth commandment is still a part of the moral law of God. It requires that all humans tell the truth. It says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” As my dear friend Don Treick always says, “It’s in . . . Continue reading →

The Illiberalism of The Late Modern Academy

In the conventional story of the 1925 Scopes Trial, popularized in the 1960 play and film, Inherit the Wind, William Jennings Bryan is the midwestern rube unable and more importantly unwilling to account for and afraid of new learning. WJB is portrayed . . . Continue reading →