In one of his most inane, but less agregious postings (less agregious because it’s not so hurtful as some of their other crusades, just indicative of their “stupidity”) Al Mohler accuses Duke University of hypocrisy in its claim to diversity becuase it has so few Republicans. Hello! Hello! Anybody in there? How ridiculous! IN my experience, conservatives tend not to hang out and insist that they be included in places they wouldn’t feel comfortable, just as I wouldn’t complain much about the Southern Baptist Colleges that are of Mohler’s ilk not representing liberal attititudes (which Mohler is trying his darndest to make less and less likely).

Duke is known for its post graduate options, as well as its many fine undergrad programs. It is often the case, in institutions of higer learning, “unfettered” by insitutions who wish to limit the scope and diversity of teaching, that the faculty, and a majority of the students, are Democrat. And that number goes up dramtaically when we talk about Graduate studies. It’s just a fact that insitutions of higher learning (and the key word there is “HIGHER”), that most people who believe in LEARNING don’t much appreciate the tone and intent of campaigns like what the SBC is carrying out on its educational institutions. It’s enough to make a liberal out of a conservative (which is what it did to many Southern Baptists over the past 20-25 years).

In a ridiulously defensive reaction to a statement by one of the Duke profs, Mohler shows how “logic impaired” he often is:

In a shocking statement, Robert Brandon, chair of the philosophy department, set the issue clearly: “We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.” Did you get that? According to the chairmen of the philosophy department at Duke University, conservative people are generally stupid and stupid people are generally conservative. How’s that for intellectual sophistication, a commitment to diversity, and tolerance for diverse political perspectives?

Mohler suggests that this: stupid people are generally conservative is the same as this: conservative people are generally stupid, whch is WRONG. Of course there are smart conservative people. But I believe it is right that , in general, stupid people are conservative; conservative in the sense that they often have very little independent thought other than the “popular views”; in other words, they tend to be easy prey for propaganda, and conservative in the sense that the “status quo” is “the way it is”, and that it’s inconceivable to question it.

Brandon never said : “conservative people are generally stupid ” , but in Mohler’s usual “stupid” conclusions and leaps of logic, he automatically hears things that he “wants to hear” so that his points can be made.

Aside from the fact that Mohler and his cronies are trying to make Southern Baptist institutions “anti-diversity” and extreemly creedal and “fundamentalist” (including all the usual “stupid” things from conservatism, like “You must believe all of the things that WE say are the “required” beliefs in order to be in the club — and this always includes many things that “The Bible clearly teaches….” which they seem to be unable to separate from the possibility that THEY are reading and interpreting it in a way convenient to THEM……(and on that score, I always plead most likely guily in many areas…..although I ‘m not sure which ones…..I’m still working on that….but I do know that “God’s Word” and My appropriation of that Word are not synonomous. I can only hope andpray that it is and strive to LEARN more about those places where my own biases and faulty learnings and assumptions as a 21st century American middle class guy have led me to depart from the message of the Bible.

Tony Campolo does things with Theology and Sociology that the conservative people of Mohler’s clan seem unable to do: apply sociology to faith. The main ingredient of “Christian Sociology” is to have the ability to critique one’s own appropriation of the Gospel. The apparent inability (or more likely unwillingness, which often turns into inability when allowed to run rampant and unchecked by an ounce of humility) of the Southern Baptist leadership (and many other groups like them represented in other groups) to do Sociology on their theology has imprisoned them within a narrow theological framework, which tends to demonize all viewpoints that step outside of it.