Sunday, March 1, 2020
The Liberal Atheist and the Conservative Christian Agree: No to Identity Politics
We descended on Utah to speak at four universities. It was surreal, as if sworn enemies had jumped into a foxhole together to unite against a common foe.
Peter Boghossian is a popular atheist philosophy professor. I lead a national Christian campus ministry on 125 campuses. He’s spent the last decade or so attacking religious faith, calling it a virus. I seek to reclaim the intellectual voice of Christ in the universities and to show that faith is a virtue.
But something more threatening than each other is afoot. We rallied together to fight it. Thus we visited four Utah campuses in early February. Together we taught a perspective that might be even more controversial on campus today than either atheism or Christianity.
Feelings of Allure and Suspicion
For many, this “band of (unlikely) brothers” itself was alluring and contentious. For others it was the topic that drew them in. Our events centered on “The Death of Intellectual Diversity in the University: How Social Justice and Identity Politics are Destroying the University and Culture.”
But isn’t the campus already the most diverse place on earth? Universities emphasize diversity, it seems, more than knowledge itself, right? And isn’t social justice good? From the left to the right, it seems to be all the rage these days.
Our events centered on “The Death of Intellectual Diversity in the University: How Social Justice and Identity Politics are Destroying the University and Culture.”
Our answers to that may surprise you. Apparently they did more than that with some of the students and staff at these schools, though. Our answers threatened them.
You’d think a global Christian ministry president team-teaching with a leading atheist would make for enough diversity for schools to get excited about. No such luck. If you haven’t been on campus in the last five years, you would scarcely recognize what you see there today.
Not Your Grandma’s University
The university was intended for people to gain knowledge in the pursuit of truth through open, reasoned discussion. More and more now, though, the options are limited to “hating or celebrating” certain politically orthodox viewpoints. Universities once honored free speech and the free exchange of ideas. Times have changed.
Michael Bloomberg spoke at a Harvard University commencement address. He pointed out there that 96% of all Ivy League faculty are liberal. He concluded that “conservative professors are a dying breed.” Ivy League universities do well to practice diversity of sex, race, class, and gender. That makes them good, he said. To be great, though, they require something the Ivy League is lacking, viewpoint diversity.
Liberal atheist and best-selling author Jonathan Haidt, a professor at New York University, agrees. He worries that universities are becoming echo chambers. They’re “social justice universities” teaching Critical Theory (which I’ll return to in Part 2 of this series) rather than “truth universities” teaching critical thinking.
For those ages 65 and older moving toward retirement, the ratio of left to right leaning professors is 12 to 1. For younger scholars under age 40 it is 23 to 1. (In New England is it 28 to 1!) In Religion departments it is a whopping...
Conservatives Cheer as Trump Celebrates Achievements Under Fire
Speaking before a celebratory crowd of conservative activists Saturday, President Donald Trump gave thanks to God for being able to accomplish so much in three years despite incoming fire from the left.
Trump referred to both the lengthy Russia investigation and House Democrats’ hasty impeachment move during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference just weeks after the Senate found him not guilty in a historic impeachment trial.
“Can you imagine with all of that—going through all of that with a cloud over your head like nobody has ever had—for us to have seriously done more than any other administration?” Trump said to the cheering crowd.
Trump, in a freewheeling speech delivered without a script in just under an hour and a half, pondered other options before settling on divine help.
“It’s sort of a miracle when you think about it,” Trump said. “It’s sort of a miracle, or a toughness or something.”
Then, pointing up, Trump said: “Maybe it’s right there. Thank you. Thank you, God. How did we do that? How did we do it?”
In mentioning the impeachment trial, the president referred to Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the lone Senate Republican who voted to convict him for abuse of power.
“You know the Republicans stuck together, except Romney, of course,” Trump said, provoking boos from the crowd at the mention of Romney’s name. “Low-life, low-life. Except Romney, they stuck together.”
Earlier Saturday, the United States and the Taliban signed a peace agreement for Afghanistan that could mean U.S. troops finally depart that country after 19 years.
The historic deal, Trump said, may end “the longest war in U.S. history, not even close.”
“I’ll say this for the Taliban, they’re great fighters,” he said. “You can ask the Soviet Union. But they’re tired also.”
The U.S. and allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 because the Taliban was providing shelter and resources there for the al-Qaeda terrorist group that planned the 9/11 attacks on America that killed nearly 3,000.
The United States can’t get caught up in building democracies, Trump said.
“American forces cannot be the policemen for the world,” he said. “We’re all over the world and a lot of times, we’re not appreciated. It’s taken for granted.”
“After years of rebuilding foreign nations,” he added to huge applause, “we are finally rebuilding our nation and taking care of our own American citizens.”
Trump, echoing his State of the Union address Feb. 4, cited record low unemployment amid what he called...
REPORT: No Modern-Era President Has Done More For Women And Families Than President Trump
Earlier this year far-left feminist organizations held their annual women’s march in Washington D.C.
Hardly anyone showed up.
The reason is clear – since becoming president, Donald Trump has overseen a dramatic improvement in the lives of tens of millions of women all across America. Where these women and their families so often suffered under the centralized authority that was the hallmark of the Obama years, they are now thriving under the America-First, pro-growth-for-all policies of President Trump.
Read on to learn the facts behind this remarkable shift that is now helping so many:
Via Real Clear Politics:
“…Our nation has created more than 7 million jobs since the 2016 election — and women have filled over half, or more than 4 million, of those vacancies. The unemployment rate for women stands at a minuscule 3.2%, and last September reached its lowest level since 1953. And as the unemployment rate has declined, so too did the number of women in poverty, decreasing by 1.5 million in President Trump’s first two years in office.
Likewise, President Trump and his administration continue to work to improve our health care system. As the mother of two young daughters, one of whom suffers from cystic fibrosis, I know that Donald Trump is fighting to help the sickest among us. That’s why the administration recently released a series of regulations that could lead to 28,000 new organ transplants every year, not only saving lives but also, saving up to $13 billion in taxpayer funds over five years.
Efforts like the organ donation rules don’t win much press, but they show how the president is committed to reform health care. His administration has approved record numbers of generic drugs, making once costly prescriptions more affordable for patients. Individuals also have new ways to achieve portable health insurance coverage, providing them with additional and better...
Somali Migrant Walks Free After Allegedly Breaking the Nose of a Missouri Woman in Violent Struggle
This is how multiculturalism works.
A St. Louis woman feels cheated by the justice system, claiming that she was brutally attacked by a Somali migrant teenager who was then let free.
Victim Alicia Clarke said that after she went on a brief run outside of her home, she noticed that her phone had been stolen. After she used Find My iPhone to locate her phone, she realized it was in the possession of a local neighbor who has been known to commit petty crimes.
She then hopped a fence to grab her phone. After she obtained it, she jumped back to her yard to return home. Another neighbor yelled at her: “Hey, I told him, ‘I know you did this and I’m calling the police!'” That is when the violent struggle allegedly began.
Clarke said that the 6-foot-tall teenage Somali attacked her, and she was soon in a fight for her life.
“He knocked me down, pulling my hair, kicking,” she recalled.
After brutally attacking her, he allegedly stole her cell phone yet again. Clarke then called police on her work phone to report the vicious incident.
“I am on the phone with St. Louis police dispatch, making my way to my backdoor, when he comes back with a weapon. He is on top of me. There was blood everywhere. I was literally fighting for my life at that point,” she said to 5 On Your Side.
Clarke claims that he returned and beat her senseless with a metal rod. He allegedly stabbed her in the head and face with the rod, leaving her a bloody mess, before she could wrestle the rod out of his hand, and he fled the scene.
The Somali teenager was charged with first-degree robbery as a result of his alleged actions, but the charges were ultimately dropped in juvenile court because the third-world refugee was determined to have too low of an IQ to be able to stand trial.
“The most hurtful thing of all of this, is the dropped charges. That was much more hurtful than the physical assault,” Clarke said.
A spokeswoman explained to 5 On Your Side how Somalis incredibly bereft of basic intelligence are essentially being given a free pass to commit vicious crimes after they are imported into the country on the taxpayer dole.
“In those instances, we work with child guardian and agencies to help with services outside the court system,” 5 On Your Side was told.
“It’s not feeling safe and honestly feeling like I’ve been failed by the system,” Clarke said about how the case was mishandled.
“This is going to happen again, and that’s my number one priority that it doesn’t,” she added.
A different neighbor has come forward and claimed that the Somali has barged into their house too and feels the African youth should be punished criminally before he...
Border Security Key to Curbing Coronavirus, Cuccinelli SaysBorder Security Key to Curbing Coronavirus, Cuccinelli Says
Defending the southern border is a key part of protecting the United States from the coronavirus, a top U.S. immigration official said Friday.
A border crisis could exacerbate a pandemic, said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of homeland security and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force. But the disease doesn’t currently pose a major threat in the U.S., he added.
“When you are talking about a pandemic, and you have a border crisis … we do not have facilities that can quarantine tens, scores, hundreds or thousands of people,” Cuccinelli said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
“I’m not prepared to put my folks at risk, any more than any of you are,” he said of Department of Homeland Security personnel. “So, to prioritize their safety and health when we don’t have tools to necessarily deal with this, it limits our options rather dramatically.”
In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>
Joining Cuccinelli on the CPAC stage was Rich Valdes, host of the “This Is America” podcast and an associate producer of Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated talk-radio show.
The Brooklyn-born Valdes noted that he is Hispanic but stressed the need to look out for the interests of the U.S.
“We have to defend America,” Valdes said. “With the coronavirus, it is so important that we have a firm grip on our borders.”
Cuccinelli, former attorney general of Virginia, said Trump has pushed the task force on the virus to act decisively.
“The president has been very aggressive about this. Only this week, he formally spoke about it, but has been whipping us with wet noodles for weeks now,” Cuccinelli quipped.
“Make no mistake about it, whether it’s border security or the coronavirus, President Trump has made your safety and the safety of America his No. 1 priority,” he said.
Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke Thursday at CPAC, is Trump’s point man on the coronavirus. The president is scheduled to appear Saturday at the conference.
Cuccinelli said the threat of the virus is low now in the U.S., but that could change.
“We have concerns as it spreads outside of China, it becomes much harder to control in the United States,” he said. “We do need to err, as the president said, as a society on the [side of the] possibility this could get worse. He has had us preparing for...
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