It seems that college campuses across the country treat references to God as an offense, unless of course, those references are blasphemous, heavily politicized with a Marxist skew, or simply meet the criteria of the PC police. Whether at a secular school or a divinity school, God is not safe from the unstoppable forces that are radical leftism and PC mania at institutes of higher education.
For example, Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College, originally founded by Quakers, is offering a religion class this semester entitled “Is God a White Supremacist?” The school’s 2017 catalog explains that the class will explore the relationship between race and religion, with a focus on “the interpretive practices that are foundational to the process of ‘whiteness-making’ and the construction of white identity.”
In that course, students will learn about “white supremacist ‘Christian identity’ churches,” the Nation of Islam, and “religious theories justifying racial domination,” as well as “the influence of religious thought both past and present on comparative global racisms and transnational whiteness,” according to the course description.
Swarthmore College also offers a class called “Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology,” in which students are asked to explore God’s sexuality. The course description reads, “This course examines feminist and queer writings about God, explores the tensions between feminist and queer theology, and seeks to stretch the limits of gendering — and sexing — the divine.”
And yet another course offered at Swarthmore is called “Queering the Bible,” which asks students to approach the Bible “with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches.”
For just over $60,000 a year, students at Swarthmore College get to enjoy all the delights of a radical college education, including an annual symposium named for a gay alumnus that promotes homosexuality and defying gender standards, as well as an annual “Crunkfest” that features the “American Masturbatory Theater Company.”
Swarthmore College has surely come a long way since its original humble Quaker beginnings.
Sadly, even divinity schools have succumbed to the pressures of this increasingly secularized and radical culture, albeit not to the same extremity as Swarthmore. Still, officials at the divinity schools at Vanderbilt and Duke Universities have asked professors to use gender neutral pronouns in reference to God in order to “mitigate sexism.”
Vanderbilt’s course catalog is asking that any references to God use “inclusive language.” The catalog states that the school “commits continuously and explicitly to include gender as an analyzed category and to mitigate sexism…. This includes consistent attention to the use of inclusive language, especially in relation to the Divine.”
That document recommends “exploration of fresh language for God,” and states that “masculine titles, pronouns, and imagery for God have served as a cornerstone for the patriarchy.”
According to the associate dean for academic affairs at its divinity school, Melissa Snarr, the guidelines are derived from a policy dating back to 1999, but are merely suggestions and not mandates. “It is up to the individual professor’s interpretation for their classes and is suggestive rather than mandatory,” she said.
Meanwhile, Duke University’s divinity school released “Guidelines for Inclusive Language,” said to be “the beginning point for developing a more inclusive language about God,” and encourages using the words “God” and “Godself” in lieu of gender-specific pronouns.
What’s more, professors are asked to consider avoiding gender specific metaphors for God, such as “God the father,” preferring “God is a parent to us all.” Combining gender metaphors is another option, such as “God is the father who welcomes his son, but she is also the woman searching for the lost coin.”
“Referring to God in gender-neutral language can sound clumsy. But this is largely due to the fact that we are in a transitional period with our use of language,” Duke’s guidelines said. “Imagination, patience, and diligence are required in order to use language that expands and enriches our understanding of God.”
According to CNS News, other divinity schools have contemplated “inclusive language” for references to God. For example, Harvard’s Theological Review issued a statement observing that “it is not always appropriate to employ inclusive language when referring to God or divine beings.”
Notre Dame’s Theology Department asked its departmental community to “adopt respectful and gender-inclusive language in the conduct of their work and their social life both within and outside the Notre Dame community,” but ultimately left it to the discretion of the professors.
The thing is that the Bible leaves very little room for debate on the subject of God’s gender, a point noted by CNS News:
In both the Old and New Testaments, God is referred to as male, the “father.” Jesus Christ frequently spoke about God the Father. A few examples: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” — 6:26. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” — John 14:1-2
Then, when asked how to pray, Jesus told the apostles, “When you pray, say ‘Father, hallowed be thy name.'”
Similarly, the National Review’s Katherine Timpf opined that when talking about the Christian God, “It’s just plain inaccurate to refer to Him as anything but ‘Him.’”
“There is a point where an obsession over political correctness can blind people from basic of facts, and call me archaic, but I really do feel like facts are still the way to go,” she continued. “It would be like teaching Hamlet and calling Hamlet ‘she.’”
Aye, there’s the rub. Facts are often the enemy of political correctness and radicalism. Unfortunately, college campuses have embraced the latter.
