We hear a lot about diversity these days. Those pressing this movement want diversity in our government, our education system, our media, our religious institutions and our culture.
And while this diversity we hear so much about seeks to link many ideas and attitudes into a single national mindset, one key cultural group is consistently ignored, and sometimes punished, for not fitting into what has become an inflexible diversity mold – conservative people of faith.
Tragically, this fixed diversity mindset is even creeping into our legal system. The U.S. Constitution doesn't seem to matter nearly as much as our nation's fickle social mores for an increasing number of judges.
This was clearly seen this week when a federal judge ruled that the University of California (a 10-campus system) can reject credit to applicants whose schools utilize textbooks that determine the Bible to be the infallible Word of God and subsequently counter Darwinian evolution – the basis of belief in our diversity culture. (Yeah, I know – if it's so diverse, why is there only one way to think?)
As a result of this ruling, says Advocates for Faith & Freedom, the nonprofit law firm representing the Christian schools bringing the lawsuit, "high school students from Christian schools may be unable to attend schools within the university system, despite qualifying grade point averages and standardized test scores, if the high schools they attend are not able to get their courses approved as college prep courses."
In dismissing the discrimination lawsuit, U.S. District Judge James Otero insisted that he was not intending to stifle free expression, even though his ruling does just that.
In fact, Dr. David DeWitt, professor of biology at Liberty University and director of the Center for Creation Studies, says, "This is religious viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple, and a violation of academic freedom."
The author of "Unraveling the Origins Controversy," Dr. DeWitt said the ruling supports the rejection of students, based solely on the religious content of their textbooks. He says this ruling falsely, and without evidence, implies that students who use such textbooks are scientifically inadequate.
Dr. DeWitt said, "A majority of Americans believe that God made the heavens and the earth. Many scientists also believe this and virtually all the great scientist of the past did, as well. Unfortunately, we have a handful of people with an atheistic agenda that have found another way to suppress those who believe in creation by barring them admission to college."
He concluded, "Just because you believe God made the universe and you reject evolution does not mean that you don't understand science."
UC educators need look no further than Dr. DeWitt himself to see that a Christian scientist and professor (one with more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles in science journals) can function in the scientific community. Further, his research has been funded by an Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Institutes of Health.
This diversity craze becomes blatantly unfair when people are prevented from pursuing the right to what our Declaration of Independence described as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Also note that this great document boldly observed that these "inalienable rights" are endowed by our Creator – the Creator, I might add, that most of our founders would have told you fashioned this earth.
I join with these California students in never apologizing for taking God at His word – that He created this world and worlds we can never hope to imagine in six short days. And that opinion should not keep me or anyone else from pursuing our hopes and dreams in this "land of the free."
NOTE: The group of Christian schools and Christian education organizations has appealed this ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Also, Dr. DeWitt's "Unraveling the Origins Controversy" can be purchased at www.creationcurriculum.com. Thomas Road Baptist Church will be co-hosting a creation conference with Answers in Genesis in February 2009. I will keep readers posted on this exciting conference's developments.