Evangelicals disdained?

And she emerges, still alive, from a finals week caffeine OD coma in order to comment upon the Washington Post!

So, the question as the Post's headline puts it: Is there disdain for Evangelicals in the Classroom?

Okay, let's see here. A college student got hauled before a faculty committee on charges of discriminating against gays because she wouldn't send a letter petitioning the state of Missouri to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Yeah, I got a problem with that. It's her problem if she believes that the government should discriminate against people. College should make her think critically about her position, but not force her to act in a manner contradictory to her beliefs. But then, the professor in question says that there was a massive misunderstanding and she never had to send a letter or sign a petition. Crap happens when dealing college administrations. And let's face it, it is an epidemic that college professors fail to adequately explain an assignment the first time around.

But that's just my commentary on the human interest/ introduction bit of the article. The meat of the article is still coming.

Some bloke did a study and found that while college professors basically only have negative opinions about are Evangelical Christians and Mormons. Students of other religious persuasions -- not an issue. Okay, yes, it's a bias -- newsflash, college professors are humans and have biases. And now, people are crying that higher education in the US is suffering from rampant discrimination against Evangelicals. The fellow who did the poll even compared professorial dislike of evangelicals to bias against students of color.

*begin sarcasm* I can't imagine why a biology professor would be annoyed by a student who insists that the earth is only 6,000 years old or that evolution is a big myth. I can't possibly see how a Religious Studies professors would be bothered by the kid who is quite sure that no Christian could be pro-choice and refuses to consider the existence of different opinions on the subject. Or, the other lovely storm I have witnessed: the girl who freaks out and derails discussion on post-colonial and liberation theology christologies by screaming about how offended she was that someone found it theologically useful to imagine Jesus as a gay man. *end sarcasm* People who are absolutely convinced that they are right and that there is no real substance to any philosophy that does not agree with their personal beliefs are difficult. I've also seen problems with hard-core vegans and hard-core atheists making it difficult to carry on a decent discussion in the classroom. The problem is not the beliefs of evangelicals, per se, the problem is that evangelicals are notoriously bad at accepting the legitimacy of beliefs other than their own.

Dealing with hard-core evangelical Christians in the classroom can be incredibly difficult for me as a fellow student, and I have heard professors express some frustration with such students. But when you have a student who is not simply trying to express his or her opinion, but is refusing to accept that people can hold differing positions -- yeah, it's a problem.

What's worse is that the students raising cain aren't the majority of Evangelical Christians, many of whom are indeed capable of accepting that there are many differing beliefs that people can hold. So, it is unfair that professors, because of the actions of a few, have developed a distaste for all Evangelicals. But it's also hardly the same as professors holding negative opinions of students of color. The color of your skin isn't something you can do anything about. How you respond when someone presents an idea that differs from your beliefs or even calls them into question is something that is under your control. Big difference.