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Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Fundamentalist Activism
I
f evangelical school leaders win the right to trump UC Berkeley's academic thresholds, what stops them from insisting there be like-minded fundamentalists on admission committees? Why not demand a dean or two that true believers get to select, perhaps called the dean of faith? Where's the end when the narrowly educated dominate the well-educated?
U
niversity of California at Berkeley didn't become, nor will remain, one of the finest universities in the world by caving to fanaticism or biblical literalism with its own ignorance about the nature of language, history and interpretation.
A
victory by fundamentalists in the United States would take us back more than two centuries, when the declared purpose of top universities (such as Harvard) was to produce ministers of a specific denomination. Thank God top universities have wisely evolved beyond narrow readings of great religious texts.
F
inally, the increasing activism of religious fundamentalists isn't a culture war, but an attempt to undermine our future and our civilization from within.
Posted by fm on December 14, 2005 at 12:09 AM