Fighting Liberalism in Higher Education

Fighting Liberalism in Higher Education

A recent New York Times newsletter (Morning, Feb 17, 2023) noted that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is pushing an agenda for putting more conservatives in institutions of higher education and tilting the overbalanced left-wing agendas of university and college life. He wants to help transform these liberal laced teaching centers. Already, Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI, a Christian conservative higher educational institution, prepares students to interact and intersect with the liberal world around them. The problem and agenda proposed by these conservatives is daunting right from the start.

First, there is agreement on every side that most institutions of higher learning are biased toward a liberal, far-left viewpoint in almost every sector and course that is taught. The chart below provided by the Times following an educational report by the University of California in 2019 (Undergraduate Teaching Faculty: The HERI Faculty Survey 2016–2017) notes that while liberal minded professors grew at universities, conservative minded ones dropped over the years. Some say there is a “leveling off” of such, but the statistics and liberal mood of the country is heavily pronounced in favor of left-wing liberals teaching our kids and helping shape the future of this country and this world.

How can we successfully and pointedly fight liberalism in higher education? Ron DeSantis is right to target the heavily tenured system enjoyed by many liberal educators in our colleges and universities. Less restrictive tenure systems might spell more opportunities to fire liberals and hire conservatives. However, there are not merely liberal faculty at these schools. The hiring boards and placement committees are also highly infected with liberal, far-left tendencies and thinking. They will hire only people who think like themselves and seek to extricate conservatives, especially evangelical conservatives, from their faculty rank and file. Some quite firmly believe that conservatives are also hate-mongers and unopen to ideas and concepts inspired by critical thinking. They believe that conservatives are narrow minded bigots who have no place in centers of higher learning. The Times also believes there are not enough conservative minded professors to tilt the balance in these institutions. That is probably right since Ph.D. conservative candidates often find it hard to overwhelming to get a degree from their liberal minded academic people and boards.

The problem, however, goes much deeper and is much more complex than this Times article suggests. The problem is a seismic shift from conservative value systems to anti-God and anti-Christian thinking, doing and presupposing. This shift has been going on for some time in America. We are way past the years when there was an even slightly biblically minded values system and way of thinking. We have progressed past post-post-modernism to a no-man’s land of ideas and suppositions. Just note all the speakers and authors and writers sponsored by Hillsdale College in their Primis publications outlining the facts about liberal, left-wing thinking and take overs in this country. Actually, many liberal educators think they are doing us a favor helping shed the ancient and “harmful” views of past-conservative America to a much more inclusive and diverse America. They think they are supporting and spawning the free exchange of ideas and actions while destroying antiquated biblically based standards and safeguards.

To challenge liberals in higher education we need to understand the depth and scope of the problem. The issue is far from just conservative versus liberal politically, socially or sociologically. The issue is rooted in a rebellion against God himself and his Word of truth. Liberal educators will not even read conservative-tinged articles or studies or books or go to their seminars. They dismiss them out of hand as “unscholarly” and not worth the time and trouble. The issue is the “heart”– namely the center of our being rooted in our creation, that “God-shaped vacuum” as Augustine said, that needs filled with that which only God can give. The very first challenge then is a change of heart, which only God can give, but which we can facilitate to a degree. The old saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” is true, but you can do a lot of leading and make the horse thirsty enough to want to drink. Conservatives can help liberals want to drink, want to engage in thinking that challenges their preconceived liberal ideas and agendas. Then God can change their hearts and then eventually their mindsets.

The next thing we can do with liberal higher educators is become their friends. Christian conservative thinkers have to work harder at befriending their liberal counterparts. Such a friendship relationship can encourage discussion and dialogue and debate. If we spend all of our time talking only with those who think like we do, then we miss opportunities to engage with liberals around us. Often, many of these men and women have never met an interesting and engaging conservative, only a seemingly angry and frustrated one, wanting to tear down and not build up. Do you, if a conservative, have liberal friends? Do you, if a liberal, know conservatives with whom you can talk? Many of my conservative friends think such friendly interchanges are next to impossible. Really? Have we tried hard enough?