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Training future fascists. How low can
"higher education" go?
Report for October 24, 2003
"I can choose what I want to tolerate, and I
don't want to tolerate your views. Christians have been the intolerant
people for the past several hundred years, and now it's their turn not to
be tolerated."
Conservative Student Stands Up for Christian Worldview,
Protests Pro-Homosexual Bias
By Jim Brown, Agape Press
October 20, 2003
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/202003b.asp
(AgapePress) - A university student in Minnesota says she was silenced and
discriminated against in class for raising objections to the homosexual
lifestyle.
Elizabeth Jenson says she knew her "Intercultural
Communications" class at Metropolitan State University was going to
be controversial. She has come to expect encounters with liberal bias on
campus, and she says as a conservative she is used to being
under-represented.
But Jenson says she never expected to have to sit through a two-hour class
while a lesbian guest lecturer promoted her worldview unchallenged, and
called someone like Jenson "backwards" for not accepting the
homosexual lifestyle.
After enduring the presentation, Jenson asked her professor, Dr. Kathryn
Kelley, to invite an individual to share a conservative viewpoint on
homosexuality for 15 minutes of a future class. But Jenson says it did not
matter to Kelley that 80% of the class wanted both sides of the issue
presented -- and she flatly refused.
According to Jenson, when she asked her communications instructor to offer
a balancing perspective by allowing an alternative view of homosexuality
to be presented to the class, the teacher rejected the idea. Moreover,
Jenson says Kelley justified her refusal as a turning of the tables,
saying [according to the student], "'I can choose what I want to
tolerate, and I don't want to tolerate your views. Christians have been
the intolerant people for the past several hundred years, and now it's
their turn not to be tolerated.'"
Jenson says she left the class angrier than she has ever been before,
rankling at the complete intolerance demonstrated towards her worldview.
She says upon hearing the lesbian speaker condemn her and others who
oppose homosexuality, she had a desire to file a lawsuit.
"I felt like I was so discriminated against, just by the language
that was used against me," she says, noting that, as a believer, she
felt personally disparaged by parts of the presentation.
The student says at one point the class had to watch a video in which
homosexuals made remarks proscribing the comparison of "the blood of
Calvary with the Kool-Aid of homophobia," while another comment
suggested that heterosexuals fear homosexuals but secretly "want to
be homosexuals themselves because the lifestyle is so seductive."
Jenson says her own Christian perspective, as well as any view that was
not pro-homosexual, was effectively silenced in the class. And her
professor's attitude, completely dismissing the idea of presenting an
alternative viewpoint in another session, left the student more frustrated
than ever.
"Whether my beliefs represent a minority or a majority viewpoint,
they deserve to be considered," she says, "just as every other
culture and viewpoint, if we are to present an unbiased assessment. It may
be very challenging to take into account all perspectives, but it is the
balanced thing to do."
Jenson has expressed her objections to the professor in a letter, and
expects to face a long and difficult fight and possibly some backlash.
While she says Dr. Kelley has promised to respond to her objections, the
instructor has yet to do so. Kelley also declined an interview with
AgapePress.
Elizabeth Jenson is working full-time during the day and taking classes at
night to earn her communications degree, after which she plans to go to
law school.
c 2003 AgapePress all rights reserved.
Homo-Fascism
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