Twelve years ago, I graduated from California State University Sacramento with a B.A. in philosophy. As a student, I had been involved in the CSUS Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Last month, IV was derecognized by the entire California State University system.
Six years ago, I graduated from a Christian theological seminary, this time with an M.A. in philosophy. Since I was not pursuing a doctorate, I tried to get some teaching experience via an internship at a local community college. Since there were no professors willing to take me under their wing for a semester, however, my internship was rejected.
Contrary to what I had heard as a teenager, the secular state university was not hostile to my Christian faith. One of my favorite professors there was a militant atheist who focused on the arguments, not on mockery. Another professor was so objective that the Christian students wondered if he was one of us. A chance lunch meeting with this professor enabled him to relay to me that becoming a college professor would be more difficult because I was a white Christian male. “There are already too many of us,” he said. Since my ambitions were small, I thought I would be able to avoid the places where those attitudes dominated. I wanted to teach introductory philosophy classes, not stir the pot or proselytize.
When I applied for an internship at a local community college, I never dreamed that I would be denied because of where I went to school. In an “off-the-record” meeting with an administrator, I was told that none of the professors wanted to help me out because I was from a conservative Christian institution. That I had studied philosophy at a secular university was irrelevant. I was from the wrong place. The fact that I agree with Plantinga disqualified me from teaching Plato.
I am finally writing about this not because I want sympathy, but because I want people to know where we are headed. In the “old” community, one needed only to live within a certain area to be considered part of the community. Although people have different religious and political beliefs, these were never thought to disqualify a person from full participation in the community writ large. Some of the teachers at the schools in the suburban community where I grew up went to churches in the community; others didn’t. Nobody checked. If you had studied the subject in question, and had the necessary prerequisites, you were qualified.
In the “new” community, this is not the case. Although I have all the necessary prerequisites, they are no longer sufficient. In the “new” community, I need to also have the right religious and political beliefs.
Mere Wax 