Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Assembly Versus Nondiscrimination and All Comers

• In Event: 46.069 - The High Cost of Secularism on the University in the Age of Pluralism

Abstract

According to the latest Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life over 82% of Americans are religious and 4% are atheists (Pew Forum, 2010). Only 52 percent of university faculty members believe in God; 23% report to be atheist/agnostic (Ecklund, 2010; Gross and Simons, 2010). Yet university students are more interested in spirituality and religion than at any time previously measured (Astin, Astin and Lindholm, 2011).
Today we are experiencing secularism in its most extreme form. Particularly hard hit have been Christian student organizations, which offer students a way to grow in their faith while on campus. In a high profile case, the Hastings Law School suspended the Christian Law Student organization, which then sued the Hastings Law School. The Supreme Court upheld Hastings’ decision (Schmidt, 2010).
While anyone can belong to Christian student organizations, these organizations require that those holding leadership positions be living a Christian life-style, which means no drugs, good GPAs, leading worship and Bible studies, and restraining from sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. It is largely the restriction on those living an active homosexual lifestyle that has caused the challenge.
Vanderbilt University has attracted a good deal of media attention. It suspended 14 Christian student organizations for failing to comply with new rules supposed to conform to Title IX Non-discrimination rules. The author will describe the ongoing struggle, which began in the spring of 2011 and has involved current students, alumni, national media, the Tennessee legislature, and other organizations. After months of framing the issue around its ‘non-discrimination’ policy, the University made a sudden switch and began referring to the new policy as an ‘all-comers.’ These efforts have created an atmosphere whereby tolerance is elevated as the highest virtue. One of the toughest conundrums of tolerance is making it a two-way street. Political scientist, Steven Smith uses Max Weber’s metaphor to describe our current state:
Max Weber famously described the change [from religious to secular worldviews] as the ‘disenchantment of the world’, he sometimes spoke of modernity as an ‘iron cage,’ in which life is lived and discourse is conducted according to the stern constraints of secular rationalism. It is that cage – the cage of secular discourse – within which public conversation and especially judicial and academic discourse occurs today.… It may turn out that in our pluralistic society, the sort of thin, desiccated public discourse we have today … is the best we can do. But we will only know if we open up the cage and see what happens. (Smith, 2010, pp. 23, 225).

Author

• Carol Swain, Vanderbilt University