The following comes from a March 14 column in the Washington Free Beacon.
There are two ways to win an argument. The first is to calmly and rationally argue your position, gathering evidence and presenting it in a reasonable way that considers all the tradeoffs of various policy options.
The other is to stamp your feet and scream and denounce and ban and delegitimize.
We’ve seen a couple examples of the latter option deployed this week. This morning, Rod Dreher noted that Ryan T. Anderson, a friend of mine, has been blacklisted from presenting his calmly argued and thoughtfully reasoned (if not entirely persuasive*) case against gay marriage at Stanford University. Here’s the Stanford Daily:
Last Wednesday evening, the Graduate Student Council denied funding for an event hosted by the Stanford Anscombe Society following community outcry over alleged “anti-LGBT” content. …
Bringing the speakers to Stanford would threaten the safety of campus for the queer population, according to Brianne Huntsman ’15, who started a Facebook event to organize a rally at the meeting on Wednesday night.
“A lot of students who are queer come to Stanford because it’s one of the most LGBT-friendly places in the world,” Huntsman said. “I grew up in Utah, where it was really conservative and a lot of us come from similar backgrounds, and we feel that we every time we go home. Stanford is supposed to be a safe space for us.”
The appearance of Ryan T. Anderson—who, I can assure you, is not a terribly imposing individual—at Stanford University would “threaten the safety of campus for the queer population.” Assuming that they’re not worried about Ryan embarking on a rogue gaybashing campaign—again, he’s not a big dude—all they had to fear was … his speech. An argument. An argument that makes them uncomfortable. Those in favor of gay marriage have won. And instead of relitigating any of these arguments, they have chosen to simply delegitimize those who would oppose them. They are bigots not to be taken seriously, charlatans who should be shunned. This sort of anti-intellectualism taking place on the campus of one of our nation’s most esteemed colleges should shock the conscience….
To read the full posting, click here.
Stanford U. students believe in freedom of speech only as long as it doesn’t conflict with their pro-LGBT agenda. The same rule applies to academic freedom on the campus. They permit no other ideas or opinions to be presented or discussed on campus. These rigid, intolerant zealots are fearful that someone might present a cogent argument against the perverted LGBT lifestyle and cause people to realize that it is contrary to nature and harmful to society.
Whatever happened to freedom of speech at secular Universities ?
Pander or Perish = the Tenure Track in the pathetic farce of Academentia.
Besides the whole purpose of Newspeak is to make Thought Crime impossible, or as one should say: Un-Good.
” thoughtfully reasoned case against gay marriage”. But that’s exactly the issue. There is none – not to mention that the premise fails constitutionally every time. But to the point, would anyone fault Stanford from banning “flat-Earthers” from a discussion on global geography? It would be absurd to include such thinkers in an intellectual debate. Same thing here.
WRONG!
Really! Perhaps another approach might be considered — that marriage have NO LEGAL STATUS whatever except that provided by a written enforceable contract. Now all the fools will claim that “marriage is da backbone of society.” Of what use is an institution of perversion? Catholics may still have the valid Sacrament of Matrimony. But just as any of the other six Sacraments,it should have no legal status. Binding contracts have served humanity for millennia . Marriage in this culture has morphed into in implied contract the terms of which are dictated by government as enforced by a probate judge with an agenda. What fool should accept such an arrangement?
Ok, but how many articles do we have here about decrying a Jesuit university letting some pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-contraception person from speaking?
I might find people here complaining about freedom of speech and tolerance if they believed in it themselves. Stanford is just doing what you WANT Catholic Universities to do with respect to supporting their ideology.
So let’s merge Stanford and Santa Clara and we can let everybody speak!
They talk about tolerance……but with the people in the darkness…..it is a one way street!!!
We must pray for them, respect and love them, but NEVER CONDON!!!
Welcome to the new norm. It’s evil not to embrace evil! Truly, the inmates are running the asylum.
The sodomites have entered the gates, and Rome is about to crash.