I had lunch this summer with a prospective graduate student at the evangelical college where I teach. I will call him John because that happens to be his name. John has done well academically at a public university. Nevertheless, as often happens, he said that he was looking forward to coming to a Christian university, and then launched into a story of religious discrimination.<\/p>\n
John had been a straight-A student until he enrolled in English writing. The assignment was an \u201copinion\u201d\u009d piece and the required theme was \u201ctraditional marriage.\u201d\u009d John is a Southern Baptist and he felt it was his duty to give his honest opinion and explain how it was grounded in his faith. The professor was annoyed that John claimed the support of the Bible for his views, scribbling in the margin, \u201cWhich Bible would that be?\u201d\u009d On the very same page, John\u2019s phrase, \u201cChristians who read the Bible,\u201d\u009d provoked the same retort, \u201cWould that be the Aramaic Bible, the Greek Bible, or the Hebrew Bible?\u201d\u009d (What could the point of this be? Did the professor want John to imagine that while the Greek text might support his view of traditional marriage, the Aramaic version did not?) The paper was rejected as a \u201csermon,\u201d\u009d and given an F, with the words, \u201cI reject your dogmatism,\u201d\u009d written at the bottom by way of explanation.<\/p>\n