Of mice and Moeser

TownHall.com ^ | Thursday, June 26, 2003 | Mike S. Adams

[JohnHuang2]

After several weeks of silence, Chancellor James Moeser has now responded to my recent charge (see “The Campus Crusade Against Christ (revisited)”) that university administrators have been involved in an “unconstitutional assault on religious organizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” His form response to Townhall.com readers follows:

Thanks for sharing your views as a result of a recent Internet commentary about the university and an issue involving student organizations with religious affiliations that is some six months old and has been satisfactorily resolved. Permit me to provide some additional background information.

I think you will be pleased to learn that no religiously affiliated student organizations have lost their status as being officially recognized by the university. And, in fact, the university and the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship reached a mutually satisfactory agreement in January after I reversed a previous action in order to ensure that the IVCF would continue to operate as an officially recognized student organization.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide additional context regarding the issue.

Moeser’s response seems to suggest that 1) the issue was fully resolved in January, 2) the issue was resolved amicably, and 3) the issue was limited to chapters of IVCF. All three of these assertions are demonstrably false.

My rebuttal to Chancellor Moeser will take the form of a brief true/false examination. I expect that many readers of this editorial will want to write the chancellor immediately (james_moeser@unc.edu) demanding a direct answer to each of the following questions (although Townhall.com readers will be provided with an answer key below):

1. True or False. UNC Chapel Hill’s recent diversity compliance initiative began in December of 2002 by targeting 17 student organizations. 2. True or False. Thirteen of those organizations were religiously affiliated and twelve were Christian. 3. True or False. On December 2, Jonathan Curtis threatened the Alpha Epsilon Omega Christian organization with a letter of termination if they did not alter their constitution to conform to the university’s diversity mission. 4. True or False. Curtis told the above organization to “slice and dice (their constitution) as the spirit moves you.” 5. True or False. On January 28, 2003, Curtis thanked the president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Christian fraternity for modifying their constitution so that it no longer described the group as one that “believes in God.” 6. True or False. In February, Young Life was told to remove the language “community of adult Christians” from their constitution. 7. True or False. In February, a UNC-CH professor complained to Curtis concerning the “unconstitutional” harassment of yet another UNC-CH Christian organization (Carolina Hope). 8. True or False. In a February letter to University Counsel Glenn George, the above professor accused the university of engaging in “petty,” “demeaning,” and “bullying” behavior towards student organizations. 9. True or False. In February, a member of the Phi Beta Chi Christian sorority communicated their refusal to allow women of all religions to join their sorority that they described as a “social sorority with Christian ideals.” Jonathan Curtis informed them that he “very much regret(ed) hearing their decision.” He then passed the matter on to the Office of University Counsel. 10. True or False. The President of Chi Alpha Omega Christian Fraternity wrote Chancellor Moeser in February to inform him that they had been threatened with de-recognition. This was after the “reversal” of the threat against IVCF. 11. True or False. The above-stated letter to Moeser complained that Chi Alpha Omega had not been given the same reprieve as Inter-Varsity. 12. True or False. On February 11, Chi Alpha Omega threatened James Moeser with a lawsuit for interfering with their “first amendment (sic) rights to freedom of religious exercise and freedom to peaceably assemble.” 13. True or False. On February 10, the president of Phi Beta Chi wrote to Jonathan Curtis pleading for advice on how their Christian sorority could satisfy UNC’s non-discrimination policy without “giving up what we stand for as a Christian group of women.”

Answer Key: 1) True 2) True 3) True 4) True 5) True 6) True 7) True 8) True 9) True 10) True 11) True 12) True 13) True.

I hope that readers won’t mind if I add the following multiple-choice question to the exam: Chancellor James Moeser a) does not understand that the First Amendment trumps the diversity policies of UNC-CH; b) does not know that student religious groups were harassed at UNC-CH after his January “reversal” of the threats issued against IVCF; c) does not mind lying to the public in order to promote “diversity” at UNC-CH; or d) none of the above.

I won’t provide a key for that one. We already know the answer.

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Quote of the Day by thoughtomator

[JudgemAll]

Crusades against Christ is the work of idiots. There is nothing less forgiving and less productive about.