Politics
Friday March 31, 2006
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
“Brilliant” Pro-Life Professor Denied Tenure at Prominent Baptist College
by Hilary White
WACO, March 31, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Baylor College, a Baptist college in Waco, Texas that some have said aspires to be the Protestant version of prestigious Notre Dame, has refused tenure to a highly respected philosopher and lecturer, Francis J. Beckwith. Some are speculating that the denial is for his support of the Intelligent Design (ID) theory of creation and his facility in defending the pro-life position.
Beckwith argues that, while ID needs development that teaching it in public schools is not unconstitutional. This position puts him at odds with the secular Darwinists that control the schools and are fighting in the courts to keep ID out. Toronto writer and ID supporter, Denyse O’Leary, suggests on the Pearcy Report that Beckwith’s conservative Christianity, including his articlate defence of the pro-life position, has put him at odds with Baylor’s attempts to secularize.
Beckwith, a professor of Church-State Studies at Baylor, has an impeccable publication record. He is the author of several books, including a new volume forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. He was associate director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, associate professor of Church-State Studies, and associate editor of the Journal of Church & State. But it is his support for ID as well as his facility for defending the pro-life position that has made him unwelcome at formerly conservative Baylor.
The refusal has caused a stir among academics concerned with freedom of expression. Joseph Bottum, writing March 27th on the First Things website, has commented that Baylor is responding to a tight academic market by shifting away from its niche as a Christian school dedicated to high-level scholarship.
Bottum writes, “Energetic programs like the Intelligent Design institute have been chased away, and the bright young professors are having their academic careers ruined by a school that lured them to campus... and now is simply embarrassed by them.”
The college, O'Leary says, “cannot both launch itself up there with the really big guys and institutionally maintain, with Peter, ‘Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.’
“For one thing, that declaration pretty much makes the case that intelligent design is right and abortion is wrong. Baylor abruptly backed away from the first in 2000 and will probably back away from the second soon too. Its distinguished faculty members do not need the embarrassment of being thought to be pro-life, as Beckwith is.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05082901.html
Read Bottum’s comments at First Things:
http://www.firstthings.com/
Read O’Leary’s comments:
http://www.pearceyreport.com/archives/2006/03/denyse_oleary_...
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Levant Target of Latest Human Rights Complaint By Homosexual Activist
- Bishop Calls Modern Cultural Changes "Pleasing" to the Devil
- Later Term Abortion on the Rise in France
- Is it True McCain "Got the Message" About not Running a Pro-Abortion VP?
- Petition of 30,000 Canadians Asks Governor General to Rescind Order of Canada to Abortionist
- Australian Woman Dies from Taking Birth Control Pill
- Promote Culture of Life and Catholic Teaching to Combat Rising Crime and Cultural Degradation: Lancaster Bishop
- Success with Re-growing Horse Ligaments Leads to New NIH Adult Stem Cell Centre
- Freedom of Conscience for Ontario Doctors: Public Comment Extended to September 12
- Guatemalan Cardinal on Abortion: "It is just as serious to kill a 10 year-old child"
- Lithuanian Government Bans EU Pro-Homosexual Tour Truck
- Statistics Canada Finds More Abstinence among Teen Girls in the Last Decade
- Exclusive: Retiring UK Bishop Reveals No Consensus among Brother Bishops over Same-sex Adoption
Most Read this Week
- Westminster Exorcist: Promiscuity can Lead to Demonic Possession
- Secret Meeting to Plot Global Abortion Strategy Exposed - UN Personnel Present
- Batman The Dark Knight - Should We Fear Imitation of the Joker?
- Massive Brazilian Vaccination Raises Suspicions of Covert Sterilization Program
- Niece of Martin Luther King Jr. to Lead Prayer Vigil Outside Largest U.S. Abortion Centre - Monday August 25
- Obama Caught Red-Handed in Abortion Lie
- New England Journal of Medicine: 'Brain Death' is not Death - Organ Donors are Alive
- HPV Vaccine Causes 21 Deaths and Counting - CDC Study Launched
- Traditional Fort Worth Episcopal Priests Seek Communion with Catholic Church
- Homeschooling Showdown in Brazil: Children to be Tested by Court in Battle Over Educational Rights of Parents
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.