GroshLink

Ministry Decision Draws Criticism

Dozens of students circulated petitions in Red Square on Wednesday criticizing the university's recent decision to bar six Protestant ministries from campus, following a week of extensive media coverage and complaints from alumni and students.

Members from three of the organizations manned tables and distributed letters declaring the expulsion of the groups, known as affiliated ministries, "inconsistent with the very ideals that Georgetown seeks to uphold" . . .

Some Affiliates Saw Emerging Split

"I started working with Georgetown in 1996, and I'd say for the first seven years or so, we had a great relationship with the chaplaincy," Offner said. "There were some new hires in the chaplaincy in the past few years and they have tried to move the ministries in a different direction."

Religious "Diversity" at Georgetown (Joseph M. Knippenberg, professor of politics at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta)

. . . Let me state it another way. Georgetown's evangelicals are practical or pragmatic pluralists. They experience and negotiate the intellectual, moral, and religious differences that characterize life on a contemporary university campus. They know that there will be disagreement and that all they can do is share the Word and let their lights shine. They cannot and would not compel anyone to accept even what they regard as a saving truth.

But that's apparently not good enough for the authorities at Georgetown, who seem to want everyone to love pluralism with all their hearts, souls, and minds. Of course, if everyone affirms pluralism in this way, what you really end up with is a kind of deep uniformity, not genuine pluralism at all. Yes, there are differences, but everyone regards them as accidental and superficial, not worth shouting about, let alone (perish the thought!) fighting over.

Perhaps, in the end, Georgetown does have a religious mission that's inconsistent with the goals pursued by the evangelical parachurch groups. Ironically, it's not a traditionally Catholic or Christian mission. It's even hard to distinguish it from those articulated by its moralistic and action-oriented secular counterparts. In its commitment to "deep" (but really shallow) pluralism, Georgetown University looks likes it has become just another school.

Religious schools must be up-front

The issue is whether Georgetown is doing a bait-and-switch routine," he [David French, a Harvard Law School graduate who leads the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom] said. "The school says it has a come-one, come-all approach to religion. But when evangelical students get there, they may discover that they don't have the same rights when it comes to free speech, freedom of association and freedom of religion... . The university has to state its rules clearly and then live by them.

(thank-you for your forwards Miller)