Abstract
There is a battle in our country. One side’s ammunition consists of words like elitist, immoral, and secular; the other’s: simple-minded, extreme, and illogical. This battle forced Barack Obama’s campaign to downplay his professorship at a prestigious law school. It drives conservative Christians away from public universities, pits academics against Evangelicals, and sets liberal college professors against Southern pastors. This Comment discusses the battle between the anti-intellectual religious right and the anti-evangelical academic left. While this Comment attempts to explain this dichotomy in some detail, it focuses on how the dichotomy affects the goals of the liberal left and impedes the progress of American society, and it argues that American universities perpetuate, rather than reduce, evangelical anti-intellectualism.
Part II of this Comment discusses the history of anti-intellectualism and the factors that have led to the current state of anti-intellectualism among Evangelicals. Part III examines the significant role Evangelicals play in modern politics and the curtailing effects of anti-intellectualism on implementing the liberal agenda and on social progress generally. Part IV discusses liberal universities, liberal university faculty, and, by examining Association of Christian Schools International v. Stearns, how liberal political attitudes impede Evangelical access to universities, perpetuating anti-intellectualism. Part V examines the ineffectiveness of constitutional remedies to cure this impeded access to universities and urges a shift in the mindset of university faculty. Finally, Part VI concludes this Comment by arguing that evangelical anti-intellectualism can be curtailed by improving Evangelical access to American universities.
Recommended Citation
Gretchen Ruecker Hoog, The Liberal University and Its Perpetuation of Evangelical Anti-Intellectualism, 33 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 689 (2010).
