On Monday, The Hustler reported that several campus Christian organizations are at risk, pending the administration’s review of their compliance with Vanderbilt’s “nondiscrimination” policy.
While this new policy regarding religious organizations appears at face value to be unproblematic and appropriate, we ought to consider the real reasons behind it. It amuses me that the administration tries to sell it as “nondiscrimination” and veil their real intentions of secularizing the Christian faith. Ironically, the truth is they are using this “nondiscrimination” guise to discriminate against Christian organizations.
In recent years, it has become clear that the administration is trying to move away from the stereotype cast on Vanderbilt — southern, white, rich and religious. After repeatedly bending over backwards, the university has done quite well in diversifying the student body. Today, with more funding going to “multicultural” and “diversity” efforts than ever before, Vanderbilt is more diverse than it has ever been. But apparently that is not enough.
The administration’s latest ill-advised attempt to change Vanderbilt as we know it is their attack on the Christian faith. In implementing the new “nondiscrimination” policy, Vanderbilt is jockeying to position itself as a trailblazing national leader on “progressive” issues.
While many of you may think I’m grossly overreacting to what may look like a minute policy change, I urge you to look at history. Over the past fifty years, the founding faith of this nation has been chipped away—not all at once, but a little at a time. It began when prayer was ejected from schools in 1962, and hasn’t stopped since. Recent assaults include efforts to remove our national motto “In God We Trust” from our currency, efforts to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, and even our president’s purposeful omission of “endowed by their Creator” from our Declaration of Independence.
By now, most of campus has heard about the university’s assault on Christianity—and soon, the whole nation will know. I spoke with two reporters on Tuesday, one of whom told me that she attempted to reach out to Christian leaders on campus but only one replied. Though I wasn’t surprised, I wonder why we are shying away from controversy.
I know many of my brothers and sisters in the Christian community are oftentimes hesitant to utter anything even remotely political, with fears of alienating both fellow believers and those outside the faith. However, the reality is, we were never called to be politically correct, to conform to society, or to stay silent on controversial issues. Just look at the life of Jesus. We were called to be bold, to stand up for our convictions, and to live radically. In fact, as Christians living in the freest country on earth, it is our duty to stand up unapologetically for our beliefs and rights.
If we continue to shy away from controversial issues and the present culture war, we will soon have far fewer rights—and venues—to spread the good news than before. Had it not been for the efforts of heroes like Jerry Falwell and James Dobson in the past half century, we would likely not even be discussing this today.
We cannot let the university start chipping away the faith that founded this country from our campus. Though it may seem popular to “compromise” nowadays, when it comes to the present assault on our faith, we must stand firm and never compromise. Now is the time for all Christians and conservatives on this campus to stand firm. If we stand on principle and conviction—and stand together—we will win.
Stephen Siao is a junior in the College of Arts and Science, and the president of the College Republicans. He can be reached at .
