Friday, Jul 4, 2008
Thrilled to hear David Horowitz's pronouncement that "campus censors are on the run," I try a little free speech of my own -- at Bob Jones U. and other conservative schools.
Apr 27, 2001 | "Three cheers for David Horowitz," I said to myself at the beginning of the Great Reparations Ad Debate. "It's about time conservatives came out squarely in favor of the First Amendment." My joy and admiration grew as the controversy wore on and I saw so much of the conservative punditocracy weigh in as champions of collegiate free speech.
David Orland, writing for Focus on the Family's webzine Boundless, stressed that it is "a fundamental duty of our university system" to foster "free and open debate about matters of national importance." Mona Charen decried "the thick molasses of agitprop that has smothered free speech on America's campuses." Thomas Sowell railed against the censorious pedagogues who were "engaged in a never-ending ideological vendetta against American society and all that it stands for." John Leo reminded us that "being exposed to discomforting ideas is the price of freedom." And Horowitz himself modestly announced that, thanks in no small part to his own heroism, "campus censors are on the run."
Yes, I thought to myself, perhaps times really have changed. Perhaps it really is the liberals who are now the problem, while conservatives have devoted themselves to the unfettered expression and frank discussion of controversial ideas.
A sweet thought, indeed! Something bothered me, however. Horowitz had cleverly and tellingly put liberal college newspapers to the test by provoking the more excitable elements of the campus left. But he had neglected to give conservative campus papers a similar opportunity to prove their free-speech mettle. He had yet to provoke the more volatile minions of the right, say, by ticking off the anti-abortion fanatics.
Surely this was just an oversight. No doubt Horowitz intended to get around to it sooner or later. But he is a busy man these days, what with all that writing and lecturing about how much he is censored.
So I decided I'd save him the trouble and do it myself.
I started by crafting an advertisement designed to challenge one of the cherished orthodoxies of the religious right. Nothing much, really, just an ad proclaiming in bold letters that 1) abortion is not murder and 2) God is an abortionist. The ad supported these claims with what I consider to be irrefutable evidence drawn from the Bible itself.
Next, I e-mailed my ad to newspapers at a dozen conservative campuses, both private and public, religious and secular. Then I sat back and waited, delighted that my ideas would soon be enriching the educational experiences of conservative Christian students at such bastions of free expression as Virginia Military Institute and Bob Jones University.
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