My sin, back in December '98, was confessing my occasional attendance at services of the Unitarian church. The Belmont provost rescinded my hire the day after. A stir of publicity ensued, and students weighed in with letters to the editor of their campus paper offering moral support. But nobody's ever offered to bring me back. They needn't bother.
Yes, I said. I am glad. But I feel bad for my friends on the Belmont faculty, too. As I said back then, Belmont enjoys an undeserved reputation for being an open, accepting, ecumenical institution of higher learning. In the years since, that reputation has grown. It's still false, and my faculty brethren at Belmont deserve much better than to be saddled with the constant threat of meddling ideological intrusion and the violation of their academic freedom.
Charles Darwin (
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“Scott, things arn’t as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness isn’t just for Philosophy majors anymore; USEFUL people are now starting to feel the pinch.”
-Kent Brockman
Reporting live on the consequences of the economic slump
Springfield Evening News
Thanks for a great semester, Dr. Oliver. I, for one, am glad that Belmont is myopic enough to have refused to hire you.
And Brockman’s brand of Pragmatism be damned!
-Harrison
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