The Guardian – Dr. Anthea Butler

Academics are under attack. Conservatives are trying to undermine free speech.

ProfB — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 10:13:01 +0000

The release of the professor watchlist, purporting to expose professors who discriminate against conservative students, is anything but that. I should know: I’m on it.

As one of a handful of religion professors in the US who study, write and teach about conservative Christianity and politics, I am all too aware of the real meaning of the list, and of its purpose. Promoted by Turning Point USA, the list is not simply designed to expose professors who discriminate; it is designed to silence and smear. And it helps feed information and screeds to similar sites like the College Fix and Campus Reform, which states that they are “a watchdog to the nation’s higher education system” to “expose bias and abuse on the nations college campuses”.

T‘For professors on the tenure track, or lecturers who are trying to keep a contract job, being named on the Professor Watchlist could mean diminished opportunities.’

Charles Kirk, a young leader in conservative politics, who is the publisher of the list and co founder of Turning Point USA, stated that he hopes that the professor watchlist will change campus culture by highlighting previously reported incidences and statements. It very well might. Turning Point USA has chapters on over 300 college campuses across the United States, and even more on high school campuses.

For a group claiming to be a watchdog to higher education, the organization is training students from high school in how to not engage their education critically, but to combat anything or anyone that does not promote or teach with a conservative viewpoint. It is an all-out bid to control not only academic freedom in the university setting, but to create a hostile climate for free speech and academic freedom.

Rightwing organizations like Turning Point USA or Leadership Institute spend considerable amounts of money and time to train students with conservative values how to “fight back”. Their efforts on campuses not only promote conservative values but also feed the large right-wing media complex – sites like Town Hall and Breitbart. Many of the articles that are published by College Reform end up being reported by other outlets within hours, and in some cases, picked up by Fox News. Professors targeted remain blissfully unaware until their inbox fills with hate mail, and the administration has to field calls from media outlets and disgruntled conservatives.

Many professors and university officials do not know that these organizations, populated by their own students, exist. They are left flatfooted when lists like the Professor Watchlist appear, because these organizations are not only about promoting the idea that university education is hostile to conservatism, but also to get the maximum amount of exposure for their beliefs.

For tenured professors like myself, the Professor Watchlist is an annoyance that takes away from research, teaching and time with students. For professors on the tenure track, or lecturers who are trying to keep a contract job, being named on the professor watchlist could mean diminished opportunities for their careers if colleges and universities do not understand the purpose and nature of these groups.

These types of attempts to influence campus culture and teaching are disturbing. It creates an environment where the very idea and understanding of academic freedom and first amendment rights are called into question – not only by students, but also by well-funded outsiders with agendas.

It also creates an environment of distrust. Students are being trained not only to report on professors, but on student events as well. At the University of Pennsylvania, a campus event the day after the presidential election in a dorm to provide a “breathing space” was reported on by a student who mocked the presence of coloring books, cats and dogs.

This type of “reporting” is Orwellian. Yet there are students in our midst on campuses who feel that that they need to report on, rather than engage with, other perspectives.

The irony of all of this is that while I am on the Professor Watchlist, I am probably one of the few professors in America who encourages the students who take my Religious Right in America course to attend conferences like CPAC and Values Voters Summit. No one censors my class when I ask students to watch clips of Ronald Reagan, Phyllis Schalfly or William F Buckley. I can teach a course like Religious Right in America at the University of Pennsylvania because of the institution’s commitment to academic freedom and discourse.

So when groups like Turning Point USA say that I should be watched because I am advancing a radical agenda in the lecture hall, maybe I should. I’m teaching about their organizations, and how conservatives think. Radical indeed.

The Guardian

Why White Evangelicals want Trump to win.

ProfB — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:34:40 +0000

There has been much hand wringing in the “Never Trump” camp about whether evangelicals will vote for Trump. Many will. And the reasons why are power, preference and prejudice. Trump has said: “Evangelicals understand me better than anybody.” Perhaps they do. They know he’s pandering to them, and they are happy to be pandered to – as long as their political interests and power remain viable.

Trump, despite his divorces and “worldly lifestyle”, appeals to evangelicals because he is wealthy, powerful and pays them lip service. They support him because they are tired of losing the culture wars, and are addicted to the perks of power.

While evangelicals have not had their choice in the White House for the last seven years, they have had a Republican Congress, Senate and a rightward-leaning supreme court. Recent decisions by the court on same-sex marriage, abortion restrictions and religious freedom have eroded conservatives’ ability to maintain these restrictive laws legislated by their political operatives on the state level.

Evangelicals, in other words, are losing their political positioning. Backing Trump is their best chance to influence a nomination for a supreme court justice who will support their religious beliefs, and to help the down ticket races with Republican incumbents and candidates who will continue to support evangelical political causes.

Trump also speaks the language of apocalypse, coupled with the language of preference. Evangelicals’ views resonate with both. Trump, despite his shallow depth of biblical knowledge, plays into both the apocalyptic end-time fears of evangelicals, and their nostalgia for a “small town” America.

Trump skillfully pushes these buttons by his laments about the decline of America, Islamic terror and Isis taking over. At the same time, Trump also promises to take care of terrorists through torture, and to make America strong again.

These depictions play into the ‘crusade’ language that George W Bush deployed after 9/11 to support the Iraq war. Trump may be scary, but he can also protect them through strength. He may not be their best choice, but is a pragmatic choice. Voting for Trump will either hasten the return of Jesus, according to evangelical belief, or to allow evangelicals to regain political power in the White House. Either way, it is a win-win situation.

Trump’s blatant racism and demonization of Muslims, Mexicans and immigrants also serves as a foil for white evangelicals. By othering these groups, Trump allows evangelicals to persist in their belief that white Anglo-saxon protestantism, is the default for true American Christianity and is best suited to lead America as a “Christian Nation”.

While Ted Cruz tried to become the choice for evangelicals by touting a theocratic vision of government, Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” is a dog whistle that evangelicals understand: Making America Great by allowing a white man to lead it again.

The recent twists and turns of James Dobson, the prominent conservative Christian leader, to prove Trump is a “born again Christian” is also in the service of convincing evangelicals to vote for him. Leaders like Ben Carson, Jerry Falwell Jr, Michelle Bachmann and others who have signed on in various ways to support Trump on his evangelical advisory board are engaged in a political calculus. They believe supporting Trump, rather than opposing him, with bring them the relevance and power they hope to maintain, while shoring up their evangelical belief system.

Trump speaks to the core of what many American evangelicals really want: to win. If evangelicals were consistent about privileging their beliefs over politics, then perhaps the Billy Graham evangelistic association would not have removed Mormonism from the list of cults in October 2012. That was done so that evangelicals, who had been taught Mormons were not really Christians, could coalesce around Republican Presidential candidate and Mormon Mitt Romney. Now, Romney stands as one of the lone Republicans willing to repudiate Trump, and withhold his support.

Trump promises over and over that Americans are going to be “so proud” of their country and that they are going to win “so much, you may even get tired of winning”. For evangelicals who have recently lost many big battles at the supreme court, winning, even with Trump, is preferable to losing the White House to Democrats once again.

Supporting Trump however, may create a permanent split among evangelicals who dislike Trump’s lifestyle and politics. Those who have sided with Trump, however, will make up the solid core of voters that the Republican Party has pandered to and exploited since the 1970’s, with success. Evangelicals who really believe in Jesus rather than the Republican party may be the ones who are truly “Left Behind”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/06/evangelicals-voters-donald-trump-political-issues