This is wild. Dartmouth College hired and now fired an Episcopal bishop a dean of a foundation at the college because he once said homosexual behavior was a sin. Hilariously, Bishop James Tengatenga of Malawi was bending over backwards to say he didn’t believe that anymore but it was too late. He’d been seen as a Christian at some point and Christians (past or present) need not apply on college campuses.
This snippet from Reuters really tells it all. It’s just priceless:
“The issue is that he has championed the church’s official position against homosexuality,” Dartmouth junior Andrew Longhi wrote in a blog post on The Huffington Post website. “The tendency to discriminate against (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people is so diametrically opposed to how I understand faith and religion that selecting a ‘social conservative’ to this post baffles me.”
Tengatenga said in a statement following the appointment, but before his hiring was blocked, that his views on homosexuality had changed.
“Let me state unequivocally and categorically that I consider all people equal regardless of their sexual orientation,” he wrote. “As is the case with many people, my ideas about homosexuality have evolved over time.”
On Thursday, he reacted to Dartmouth’s decision.
“I am disappointed,” he said by e-mail. “It’s a sad for the liberalism they claim. It is what it is. Life goes on.”
I’ve got to wonder if these same people are this mad at Barack Obama, whose position supposedly evolved over time. Until just two years ago, Obama was supposedly against gay marriage. But we all knew that was a sham. He was just waiting for the political winds to change.
But the thing is, they through Tengatenga actually believed that Christian oogedy boogedy crazy talk. And that can not be tolerated. Because tolerance means not tolerating other people’s points of view, right?
August 19, 2013 at 10:40 pm
Who gives a damn how Andrew Longhi understands faith and religion? If your religion isn't avowedly fake, the only thing that matters is how its god(s) understand it.
Putting religion at the service of human interests is what got us the Spanish Inquisition (which was actually a spy-hunt by the Spanish crown, and carried out against papal orders), the so-called Reformation Wars (where "Catholic" France supported "Protestant" Sweden, because it was actually about the Holy Roman Empire, France's long-time rival in Europe), and Japanese Imperialism (the ideology of "State Shinto" is an outgrowth of the 19th century Sonnô Jôi movement, which was Neo-Confucian, therefore atheist, but like all Neo-Confucianism it propped up a state cult for political reasons).
August 19, 2013 at 11:15 pm
So… He was rightly fired because his beliefs are opposed to Andrew Longhi's? Silencing opposition in the public arena: not exactly in line with classical liberalism. What are they teaching at Dartmouth these days?
August 20, 2013 at 2:55 am
Wow! Lookout thought police. The next wave of criminals is thinking about unapproved things. Want this kind of thing what homosexuals were fighting against. Good thing "gay rights" won't affect anyone but gays.
August 20, 2013 at 11:35 am
This reminds one of Stalin's OGPU or Mao's Red Guard — perhaps now a Rainbow Guard — purging the Party of the people who made the Revolution. A bitter irony for the play-church bishop, who apparently never read much history.
August 21, 2013 at 9:57 pm
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