On Priests, Diversity and Insanitary Bears
April 5, 2013
It is reported that a campaign is underway to remove from the campus of George Washington University a Roman Catholic priest who has had the temerity to..... uphold his church's teaching on homosexuality and abortion. The saga is recounted here.
It would be relatively easy at this point to rehearse the standard arguments about religious liberty, freedom of speech, universities being places for the exchange of radically differing viewpoints and opinions etc. But I would like to add one further comment/question to the pile: is it not strange that, in this postmodern world where apparently we are so powerful that we can self-create ourselves and be anything we want to be, where even our gender is something which we can decide for ourselves, we are yet so weak and vulnerable as to be incapable of saying no to advice with which we disagree, and of simply walking away? If you do not like the priest's advice, or the rabbi's, or the pastor's, it is a free country, you can ignore them. You can even despise them and ridicule them if you wish. But perhaps the lesson here is not so much about sexual diversity after all. It is odd how power and insecurity so often co-exist in the same groups, is it not?
I guess that's one for the "Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion" to wrestle with in the coming weeks. And once this priest
has been shown the door for being Roman Catholic, I hope the university will move immediately to evict those bears who keep -- would you believe it? -- relieving themselves in the woods.
It would be relatively easy at this point to rehearse the standard arguments about religious liberty, freedom of speech, universities being places for the exchange of radically differing viewpoints and opinions etc. But I would like to add one further comment/question to the pile: is it not strange that, in this postmodern world where apparently we are so powerful that we can self-create ourselves and be anything we want to be, where even our gender is something which we can decide for ourselves, we are yet so weak and vulnerable as to be incapable of saying no to advice with which we disagree, and of simply walking away? If you do not like the priest's advice, or the rabbi's, or the pastor's, it is a free country, you can ignore them. You can even despise them and ridicule them if you wish. But perhaps the lesson here is not so much about sexual diversity after all. It is odd how power and insecurity so often co-exist in the same groups, is it not?
I guess that's one for the "Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion" to wrestle with in the coming weeks. And once this priest
has been shown the door for being Roman Catholic, I hope the university will move immediately to evict those bears who keep -- would you believe it? -- relieving themselves in the woods. 
