Chi Alpha student group kicked off California State University campus
for requiring religious leaders to share its faith. Photo: Beckett Fund
Not if we go by this story:
Unlike other non-religious student groups such as the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance or Greek fraternities, the Cal State system now refuses to recognize any religious group that requires that its leaders share the group’s mission and beliefs.
Before we proceed further, let’s ask ourselves a simple question: Would a Muslim student group or a pro-choice/abortion student group be treated the same way?
Why even ask?
Did you know that in the upcoming Canadian federal election, all candidates for the historic Liberal Party of Canada must support the “pro-choice” (pro-abortion) position? Not a choice?
I recently saw off my front walk (politely but firmly) a shill for a local Liberal, by pointing out that his fave either believed in killing babies or else she was a liar.
He just sneered at me.
Because he knew. Most of my neighbours do not support me.
This is what the surviving Christian community in Western countries must confront. Most fellow citizens neither go to churches nor care about the Christian tradition, nor about any civil liberties issue.
Unless by “civil liberties” we mean a claque in favour of a minority sex choice like polygamy, having daughters sexually mutilated. and ending the lives of girls generally.
I suspect my neighbours support these horrors for women, in order to be “fair” to “minorities,” because that is how they have been taught, in the current new atheist culture, to feel good about themselves.
(It doesn’t matter that new atheism isn’t working intellectually. What matters is that it is enforced at universities, which most young people believe they need to attend to have a good job. So let’s ask honestly. What went wrong?
We could spend decades arguing about it, but let’s start with two headline facts that relate to the stories I mentioned above.
1. Jews and Christians fled to North American or other continents for the specific purpose of obtaining religious freedom. Their purposes were not antithetical to women’s rights, for example, because their scriptures do not say that women do not have rights. Some might. Then what? Possibly as a result, members of such traditions tend to assume that members of other religions, welcomed in large numbers, care about religious freedom, and understand it as they do. Maybe most do, but it is hardly obvious that all agree.
2. Many people who are indifferent to religious freedom currently belong to not-for-profit religious corporations that own tax-exempt properties in the West. They care little for the beliefs of their forebears. They certainly do not care what happens to people who take the risk of supporting traditional Christianity or Judaism. Their voices are neither heard nor expected to be heard in religious freedom issues that involve Christians or Jews.
Much to think about, in the years ahead.
See also: Should we or someone we love go into debt for university? Let’s look at some decision factors.
Denyse O’Leary is a Canadian journalist, author, and blogger.
