WTF? Ashland University will now only hire Christian/Jewish professors!

[liberalhistorian]

Here we go, and big-time! I just now get the chance to read today's Cleveland Plain Dealer (which I'm completely disgusted with for backing out of making any presidential endorsement, btw; apparently, the editorial board wanted Kerry but the publisher was demanding Bush-and Cleveland is the poorest city in the country)!

On the front page is an article about how Ashland University in Ashland Ohio will now only hire Christian and Jewish professors, since it's a Christian college that was founded on "Judeo-Christian" values! They claim they won't make it retroactive and that it will only apply to new hires. They also claim that they won't demand any kind of "written oath" that the new hire is a Christian or a Jew (and I'll give you ten guesses as to which religion will be preferred, and the first nine don't count). To which I say YEAH, RIGHT! SURE YOU WON'T! Unfortunately, it's a private university so they can get away with this theocratic bullshit. And I'm sorry that I'm a complete techno-dummy, or I'd post a link to the article. But it might just be too depressing to read, anyway.

Get ready, people. This is just the first in what will assuredly be a very long line of this kind of bullshit. And it makes this Christian more than a little sick. I'm already on the verge of leaving my church of ten years before they make me leave, because they're purging Kerry voters and Dems left and right and the pastor is even refusing membership to those who didn't vote and don't support God's Own Great Leader. Suddenly, I feel cold, very cold, indeed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. So when are teh Nuremberg laws gonna be passed?

GOOD LORD!

[NYC]

2. Link:

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041109-122536-2778r.htm

Trustees at Ashland University in Ohio have decided full-time faculty members must be Christian or Jewish, and only a Christian can be the school's president.

Edit:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1099996374314540.xml

They also determined that only Christians can be among the seven or eight administrators who serve in the president's cabinet and that the president must be "a person of Christian faith and life."

[liberalhistorian]

5. Thanks for posting,

I was hoping someone would do that, since I can't yet. And "only a Christian can be president." Golly gee, I wonder where we've heard THAT before!:eyes: :puke:

[NYC]

11. How to post a link:

When you are on the page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, highlight the URL in the address bar. Select "edit", then "copy".

Then, when you are typing in the box at DU, select "edit", then "paste".

If that doesn't work, feel free to ask more questions, and I'll try to explain better.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Check here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2654383&mesg_id=2654383

(from a few hours ago).

:)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

3. My mom suggested I start saving money for when my husband and I

might need to move to Israel for religious freedom someday if we continue in the direction we're going (I'm Jewish, obviously). I'm serious.

[virgdem]

12. This sort of thing should give all U. S. Jews pause...

I have always felt safe in this country, as I believed that I was "protected" by the basic tolerance of our democracy. I no longer feel that way. If the fundies take over and start persecuting minorities, I'm so out of here. I have always maintained that if anything even faintly resembling what happened in Europe happened here, that I would not go gently into that Concentration Camp, or anything of the like.

When the religious institutions of this country begin to institute religious intolerance, something that is counter to the teachings of the Bible, we are starting down that slippery slope to complete fascism in this country. I can only hope that this one instance is an anomaly.

[AgadorSparticus]

15. as should to all U.S. buddhists, hindus, taoists, wiccans, agnostics, etc.

this is bigotry wrapped in god. makes me ill. i agree with you. i never thought the day would come where such religious intolerance would be so front and center of an organization.

i feel bad for the REAL christians who have to bear the cross of this misguided moral cult. Real christians should start their own national campaign of tolerance and inclusion. wouldn't that just flip out the religious right?

[bloom]

4. There is a university around here where you are required to be "saved"

in order to qualify to teach at it.

Indiana Wesleyan.

[liberalhistorian]

9. And the sad thing is,

as a Christian, I've known many non-Christians who were far more decent, humane, and loving than those who claimed to be Christians!

[AgadorSparticus]

16. who would WANT to even work there?? that is some scary stuff.

[Massacure]

6. Can't they be sued for religious discrimination?

[liberalhistorian]

10. Unfortunately, I don't think

so, since it's a private university. There might be a loophole, though, if they receive any kind of federal funding or grants, which they very well might. OTOH, given the present administration, and its total contempt for and disregard of laws that don't agree with what they want................

[Logansquare]

7. Ahhh..I'm pretty sure they can lose *all* of their federal funding

At least until we are a true theocracy. I grew up near Ashland University and often went to their library to do research. They were conservative, but this is a new wrinkle...I hope alumnus come out against it!

[eleny]

8. I wonder if they get public money?

Oh - never mind. :(

[Logansquare]

13. Another Bush admin target: funding and religious colleges & universities

This may be a litmus test case; let's see if there's a move to strike down federal funding rules concerning religious-based institutions of higher learning. Ex Corde Ecclesiae, issued by the Vatican in order to ensure "proper" Catholic instruction in Catholic universities didn't fly for this very reason. U.S. Catholic universities would have been financially ruined by the loss of govt. funding.

[bobbieinok]

14. many Christian colleges have this policy...it's upfront--a Christian

college, the faculty is Christian; the students and parents know exactly what they are paying for

they know they will get every subject presented from a 'Christian world view'.....they know if they attend the school and are not Christian, they will be heavily prosletized

it's upfront and clear from the beginning ..... if they don't want this type of education, they don't enroll and pay

I do not see the problem......IF, however, it were NOT a Christian school, then yes gigantic problem

[Ms. Toad]

17. Their restriction is probably not tight enough

to withstand a legal challenge. If they were a Catholic school, restricting full time profs to members of the Catholic church is permitted (although they probably cannot restrict manual labor employees - since that task is not reasonably related to the religious qualification).

This school restricted it to all Christians (not a particular denomination) and all Jews (not a particular denomination ). That is probably too broad a range of beliefs and doctrines for the requirement to be related to the religious mission of the school.

[pop goes the weasel]

19. it sucks but

it isn't unusual. There have been several academic openings I haven't been able to pursue because I am an atheist. There may be work places that aren't the most comfortable for a conservative Christian to work in, but I have yet to hear of any that come straight out and say that they won't be hired. This sort of ostracism and exclusion is practiced all the time against non-Christians, thought sometimes, like at this college, there will be limited exceptions for religious Jews.

I keep wanting there to be a private college for atheists. No theists will be accepted as permanent faculty. I mostly want it to exist just to hear Christians whine about the one damned thing that they don't get to control. And yes, this time I mean Christians as a whole, and not just the right wing. Of course, at the rate the public schools are being torn asunder, we atheists may need to start by creating atheist grammar schools. And maybe atheist social services that refuse to hire religious people and only provide services in a framework that pressures clients to reject religion. And maybe, if we were to do all that, maybe religious people would come to understand how exclusionary and divisive these practices of theirs are.

[knight_of_the_star]

20. I would flip if this was a public college

Or accepted public funding, but this is a PRIVATE CHRISTIAN college so it hardly surprises me.