{"id":17206,"date":"2015-01-24T12:35:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T19:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=17206"},"modified":"2015-01-24T12:35:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T19:35:50","slug":"the-war-continues-now-against-christian-colleges-and-the-boy-scouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/01\/the-war-continues-now-against-christian-colleges-and-the-boy-scouts.html","title":{"rendered":"The war continues, now against Christian colleges and the Boy Scouts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Gordon<\/a>
The chapel on the campus of Gordon College, in Wenham, Massachusetts, twenty-five miles from Boston
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

David French<\/a> has published a troubling article \u2014 it\u2019s fully accessible to me, and I hope it will be to you, as well \u2014 about the besieged Boston-area Evangelical school, Gordon College:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/live-redesign.nationalreview.com\/nrd\/articles\/395969\/persecution-gordon-college<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s\u00a0offense, which may prove lethal to it, is that its code for students and faculty frowns upon\u00a0sexual relations outside of marriage and upon homosexual relations altogether.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

French believes that Gordon College is especially vulnerable because, owing to its location outside of (and far from) traditionally Evangelical areas, it\u2019s relatively marginal and lacks a powerful group of supporters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My concern is that Brigham Young University could also be especially vulnerable, in an analogous way. \u00a0Not because of geographical isolation but because of being on the denominational and theological margin. \u00a0Would Evangelicals rally around BYU, should it come under heavy pressure of the kind that David French describes in the case of Gordon College? \u00a0Maybe. \u00a0But maybe not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alert and astute Evangelicals (and Jews and Catholics) would see the danger and would understand the principle, and would probably come to BYU\u2019s defense. \u00a0But not a few\u00a0Evangelicals, I suspect, would actually take a certain degree of satisfaction in seeing the \u201cMormon cult\u201d embroiled in difficulties. \u00a0Which puts me in mind of the very famous comment from Pastor Martin Niem\u00f6ller (d. 1984), who spent seven years in labor camps for his outspoken public opposition to Hitler and the Nazis:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out\u2014
\nBecause I was not a Socialist.<\/i><\/p>\n

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out\u2014<\/i>
\nBecause I was not a Trade Unionist.<\/i><\/p>\n

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out\u2014<\/i>
\nBecause I was not a Jew.<\/i><\/p>\n

Then they came for me\u2014and there was no one left to speak for me.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The principle implied in Pastor Niem\u00f6ller\u2019s statement is one of the reasons that I\u2019m concerned about the fate of Gordon College and other such schools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t mention it in my account yesterday<\/a>, but, speaking Friday on the BYU campus about current threats to American religious liberty, the Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia cited Benjamin Franklin\u2019s admonition to his fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence: \u00a0\u201cWe must all hang together,\u201d he said, \u201cor assuredly we shall all hang separately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In related news, California\u2019s Supreme Court decreed on Friday that the state\u2019s judges may not be affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, because that organization discriminates against homosexuals:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/article\/765667022\/California-bars-judges-from-Boy-Scouts-membership.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can easily imagine a progression by which, eventually, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and Mormons<\/a> may be banned from serving as judges in California (and, not long thereafter, everywhere) for precisely that reason. \u00a0In fact, I think that such a rule is virtually inevitable, if current trends continue. \u00a0Certainly, calls<\/em> for it can be confidently expected. \u00a0The ban may be formal and explicit (de jure<\/em>) or, even sooner, informal and unstated but effectively equivalent (de facto<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 David French has published a troubling article \u2014 it\u2019s fully accessible to me, and I hope it will be to you, as well \u2014 about the besieged Boston-area Evangelical school, Gordon College: \u00a0 https:\/\/live-redesign.nationalreview.com\/nrd\/articles\/395969\/persecution-gordon-college \u00a0 Gordon\u2019s\u00a0offense, which may prove lethal to it, is that its code for students and faculty frowns upon\u00a0sexual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe war continues, now against Christian colleges and the Boy Scouts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"      David French has published a troubling article -- it's fully accessible to me, 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