| State Sponsored Religion |
My daughter Arynne was very nearly thrown out of Southern Oregon University (SOU), a tax-financed school near here, midway through her first quarter as a college student this past month. After a serious argument with University officials, she is being permitted to complete the academic year - but has been told, in no uncertain terms, not to return as a student next year.
Arynne is a shy 18-year-old girl who enrolled in September and is taking calculus, physics, chemistry (all at the 200, sophomore level) and organ classes. She made the honor roll first quarter with grades of A in calculus, physics, and organ, and B in chemistry. It is true that Arynne lacks the drugs; alcohol; sexual promiscuity; nose, ear, and tongue rings; tattoos; arrogant lack of respect for older adults; dishonesty; and profanity of speech that are characteristic of many of her fellow students. Her demeanor is recognizably different as a result. Arynne's lack of these social graces is not, however, the reason that university officials first demanded that she leave after one quarter -and ultimately agreed to allow her to finish the year (she is taking three-quarter courses) before departing.
Arynne's sin is that she has refused to take the University's three-quarter, four-unit per quarter (out of 15 units in the usual course load) total-immersion indoctrination course in the Oregon State Religion. This course is a mandatory requirement for any student to be on the campus and take courses - regardless of whether or not he seeks a degree. (It is, of course, required for graduation, too.) Arynne's brother Noah attends the same university, but he skipped the course with advanced placement. Arynne entered taking a full load of science and math. An apparent mistake by university officials allowed her to do so without taking the religious indoctrination course.
When a priestess in the "Student ACCESS Center'' discovered this, she initiated an investigation. Arynne was told to drop one of her science or math courses and take the religion course - or else be expelled from the University after one term. Actually, the priestess wanted Arynne to drop calculus and enroll in the religion course in the middle of the first term - at the time Arynne's sin was discovered.
Arynne and Noah are attending this university for two reasons. It is close to home (one and one-half hour drive), and it has an excellent undergraduate science program. The science faculty is devoted to undergraduate education (they do not have a graduate school) and has developed a four-year program that provides first-class courses in all of the necessary subjects. SOU also has an excellent music program. As in most universities today, however, the humanities departments and administrators - not the scientists - control the campus. Imagine the outcry if a tax-financed state university required every student to take, as a condition of being on the campus, a full-year course in Christianity and Biblical studies - that included giving speeches, writing essays, participating in discussion groups, and developing "critical thinking skills'' (SOU's terminology) necessary to understand and appreciate the value of being a Christian.
To be sure, SOU bills this course as a speech, writing, and "critical thinking'' course. SOU does not, however, allow any of its better (and far more value-neutral) courses involving speech and writing to be substituted for it.
The course text for "Colloquium,'' the mandatory course, is a collection of articles chosen by the SOU humanities faculty and printed specially for this course. It is devoted primarily to the teaching of the university's own brand of atheistic secular humanism - including radical feminism, non-absolute morals, situational ethics (if it feels good, do it), and atheistic existentialism.
Aha, you say, just a philosophy course - not a bad idea for students to be familiar with different philosophies. No, the text does not contain a single work by any significant philosopher. Nor does it contain even one article by a significant historian, author, or educator. Several of the essays are about education, but the only immediately recognizable author among them is Malcolm X. Students are asked to write and speak about the educational philosophy of Malcolm X.
Malcolm X qualified for the text, no doubt, because he was a racist, advocate of violence, and felon. Booker T. Washington - a truly great black educator who overcame personal challenges of race that were orders of magnitude more severe than those encountered by Malcolm X - is not mentioned, but then Booker T. Washington was not a racist, did not advocate violence, and was not a felon.
Arynne's real sin, of course, is that she is a Christian. She is quite tolerant of people with all sorts of views, but she is not willing to take a total-immersion, one-year course in atheism and its currently popular, politically correct manifestations. This is not a survey course. In order to receive a passing grade, she would be required - for a full academic year - to read, write, give speeches, engage in indoctrination discussions, and answer "correctly'' examination questions -primarily devoted to religious beliefs entirely opposite to her own.
Moreover, this brew of New-Age, New-Left, politically correct psychobabble is not conducive to her study of science. Speech and writing experience is helpful in many pursuits - but not when it is obtained at the expense of forced pseudo-rational indoctrination.
The Oregon State Religion being promulgated here is indeed different from other religions. A great religion emphasizes the higher human traits. The Oregon religion is based primarily upon the lowest aspects of human nature. (The course text opens with a 13-page article on rape, including detailed descriptions of actual rapes - which sets the stage for teaching feminism - and goes downhill from there.) It is not unusual to have all sorts of courses on a college campus. Increasingly, some particularly objectionable ones are being required for graduation. (Zachary was forced to take, as a graduation requirement at Oregon State University, a "health'' class that was so raw his 45-year-old male chemistry advisor was too embarrassed to discuss its contents with him. Zachary and some of his fellow students simply walked out of some degraded presentations by the woman "professor'' teaching this course.) It is new, however, to require indoctrination courses
as a condition of being physically on the campus at all as a student regardless of the question of receiving a degree.As science, technology, freedom, and the mores of Western civilization are increasingly ripped apart in American society, it is evident that our tax-financed universities are doing their best to participate.