Colorado Christian University, presided over by former
Republican Senator William Armstrong, has declined to renew the
contract for one of its more liberal faculty. More specifically,
Armstrong was apparently concerned about the professor’s critique
of capitalism.
The Rocky Mountain News publicized the termination,
reporting that Andrew Paquin is leaving the
school “amid concerns that his lessons were too radical and
undermined the school’s commitment to the free enterprise
system.”
It is all very frightening, this new trend of termination of
professors not sufficiently supportive of free enterprise!
In fact, the university probably has only greased Paquin’s way
into employment with secular academia, which otherwise would have
shunned almost any applicant from a conservative Christian school.
A martyred victim of the Religious Right like Paquin likely is
already sorting through his new job offers. Not all of them will be
from secular schools. Ostensibly conservative evangelical schools,
increasingly anxious to showcase how different they are from Pat
Robertson, have been filling their social science departments with
liberal evangelicals for years.
Old-time Sojourners activist-leader Jim Wallis, author
of God’s Politics, is rapturously received on evangelical
college campuses. Wallis repeats the slightly burnished mantras of
his 1960s student protest glory years, and he is hailed as a
prophet for the novel idea of equating the Kingdom of God with The
Welfare State.
The Rocky Mountain News reported that Professor Paquin
distressed his superiors by using Wallis’s material in his course.
Also cited were the works of Princeton University’s resident
ethicist Peter Singer, who is renowned for his advocacy of
euthanasia, infanticide, and bestiality.
On Wallis’ Sojourners website, liberal Episcopal priest
Randall Balmer of Columbia University bewailed the new oppression descending on
Christian campuses, with Professor Paquin its latest victim.
According to Balmer, who frequently writes about evangelical
topics, Paquin was fired for the “temerity” of having students read
Jim Wallis and “animal-rights activist” Peter Singer. Balmer
declined to mention that among the “rights” that Singer advocates
are carnal activity between humans and orangutans, among other
“higher” species.
Reportedly the Colorado Christian University’s library maintains
the works of both the dreaded Jim Wallis and the even more dreaded
Peter Singer. So the school is not trying to cocoon its students
from particular authors. The school’s president, the former Senator
Armstrong, presumably thought Paquin’s presentation of Wallis and
Paquin was overly fulsome.
Colorado Christian University aims to “impact our culture in
support of traditional family values, sanctity of life, compassion
for the poor, biblical view of human nature, limited government,
personal freedom, free markets, natural law, original intent of the
Constitution and Western civilization.” To Balmer, all of that
sounds pretty “Religious Right,” and no doubt much of it is. But at
least the school is upfront about its goals. The school also has no
policy of tenure.
Southern Baptist seminaries excepted, the story of Christian
colleges in America is one of almost inevitable liberalization and
secularization. Mainline Protestant universities were shedding the
trappings of Christianity by the late 19th century and most by now
have only nominal church affiliations. Roman Catholic schools have
struggled with similar issues. Purportedly conservative evangelical
schools were among the last hold outs. But the supposedly resurgent
Evangelical Left is largely a phenomenon of evangelical academia,
much of which still oddly craves acceptance by secular academia,
despite the growth and influence of evangelicals.
Balmer himself, author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the
Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An
Evangelical’s Lament, embodies the perpetual discomfort of
evangelical academics. A professor at Columbia University’s Barnard
College and narrator of a PBS documentary on evangelicals, Balmer
is perpetually angry about conservative evangelical influence.
Recently ordained into the now gay-friendly Episcopal Church,
Balmer still professes to be evangelical, but more enlightened than
most.
No doubt Colorado Christian University has in mind “evangelical”
academics like Balmer when it seeks to protect its specifically
conservative Christian perspective. Professor Paquin insists that
he recognizes the strengths of capitalism. His Internet-available
writings are few, but what is available indicates that he is a left
of center evangelical. He faults Africa’s poverty on the legacy of
colonialism rather than failed experiments in socialism. Paquin
believes that extreme poverty in the Global South exists as a
“systemic” sin. Perhaps so, but Paquin seems quick to fault Western
trade policies and globalization more than Third World failures to
guard property rights or encourage investment. Paquin heads a small
non-profit called “10/10” that organizes mico-enterprise loans for
nascent African businesses, which sounds laudable.
The Rocky Mountain News noted that Armstrong, in his
dismissal letter, recognized Paquin’s religious faith. “God may be
calling you to a full-time ministry with 10/10,” Armstrong wrote.
Armstrong admits that Christians can disagree about economics but
explained: “The university exists because the trustees and the
president and our predecessors sought to create an institution in
which we can pass on the knowledge and values and traditions that
we cherish.”
Sarcastically, Balmer wrote about the controversy at Colorado
Christian University: “I guess we suspected it all along, but now
we have proof: Jim Wallis is a left-wing, anti-capitalist.” Of
Armstrong’s behavior, Balmer opined: “Capitalism, in fact, appears
to be Jesus’ preferred economic system.”
Contrary to the methodology of religious leftists, most
conservative religionists do not believe Jesus in His earthly
ministry addressed economics much at all. If conservative
Christians support free markets, it is largely because they believe
experience proves they are most productive in alleviating poverty,
a goal of all Christians. Professor Paquin, with his vague concerns
about “systemic” injustice in the global economy, would probably
qualify as a tame moderate on most secular campuses. But Colorado
Christian University has a specific worldview that is quite
different.
Perhaps Professor Balmer, ensconced at Columbia and now a
visiting professor at Yale, can help Paquin find new work in a
friendlier environment.
