Friday, October 27, 2006
HONESTY AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL
Blogger John Bambanek takes on the liberal establishments:
The higher education system works largely because of they great diversity of universities in the system. There are plenty of colleges to choose from if you want to be thoroughly immersed in the secular humanist ideal. Why is the system under such great danger if a Catholic institution wants to be actually Catholic?
If a university is honest about its perspective and disposition with new students and new faculty, there is nothing wrong is being true to its claimed identity. Professors who wish to thoroughly investigate why the Catholic teaching on abortion is wrong will find a home at a near infinite number of religious studies departments across the country. Yet, when a Catholic college wants its faculty to be actually Catholic (or at a minimum take Church teaching seriously) then they are waging a war against academic freedom. Whatever happened to academic honesty? If you don't really believe it, don't teach in an environment that claims to.
These fights have started and grown in intensity because the university system has largely banned conservative lines of questioning. Far from trying to take over the university systems to indoctrinate, it's time to really have the free exchange of ideas. If this can't take place in the context of a campus, at least allow universities to exist that allow for those lines of questions.
No ideology grows and thrives when it seeks to eliminate any and all criticisms of it.
Amen, John. Truth in advertising demands of colleges that claim to be Catholic on their websites that they actually are in their classrooms. Time to eliminate the dishonesty at the highest Catholic academic levels.
