Targeted for Extinction

Think Christians aren’t being targeted for extinction in the US? Think again. Universities are supposed to be places in which learning takes place. They are the institutions in which the free exchange of ideas, as well as the molding of lifelong associations are supposed to occur. In fact, the basic concept of academic freedom is a bedrock foundation of the modern university - on paper. But, we must wonder whether this is truly the case in the US.

Actually, universities around the country are making the answer clear. Students, faculty, and staff alike are free to express whatever ideas they like - as long as they are not supportive of Christianity.

Thin-skinned students and administrators at colleges and universities all over the nation express outrage at perceived sexist or racist comments. To state disagreement with policies regarding homosexuality is to invite scorn.
It has gotten so ridiculous that schools have begun to create “free speech zones” in which ones ideas could be expounded publicly. Isn’t that the basis of the entire higher education system? Here’s one brief report on this idea:

Welcome to the American college campus of the 21st Century. With a flair for Orwellian Newspeak, campus administrators at many schools, beginning in the 1980's and picking up steam in later years, created so-called Free Speech Zones. Lauded by school officials as places where students (and sometimes, but often not, non-students) can speak their minds, hold rallies and demonstrations, distribute literature and engage in unrestricted, robust, open discourse, these censorship-free zones sound like free speech heaven. The problem: students who step outside a marked 60-foot by 60-foot area — or as was the case until recently at Texas Tech University, a 20-foot wide gazebo that could hold about 40 people — to share those same views with students in other parts of the campus risk being silenced or punished. 

While courts have long recognized that schools have the authority to limit speech activities on their campuses so that classes and other normal school activities are not seriously disrupted, critics charge the trend toward campus speech zones has gone way too far. 

"What they have done is turn the First Amendment on its head," Harvey Silverglate, a former Harvard law professor who co-founded the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently told CNN. (see the entire article here).

Reports of the latest outrage in the war against Christianity appeared at numerous (conservative, but not mainstream) media outlets just recently. It was the banning of the InterVarsity group at the University of Michigan. Their crime? They actually want the leaders of their Christian group to be Christians. This is an oft-repeated story at various universities and colleges in the past several decades.

Evidently, Christianity is an affront to the mindset of “educators.” Good. It should be. We are to stand up; stand firm; and show the world the truth. Paul wrote, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." (Philippians 2:14-16).

This is no new phenomenon. Nor is it likely to abate any time soon. Be aware. Stand firm.