The “intellectual” as a concept is an artifact of the enlightenment project attempting to separate public affairs from metaphysics. It goes without saying that people dedicated to excluding consideration of morality from the public square have an a priori agenda.
One need only examine the careers of academic churchmen like Mendel or Lemaître to see how that agenda trumps pretensions of academic neutrality.
You are soooo right, and thanks for the “enlightenment” /humor not sarcasm