This editorial from The New York Times came up in my Facebook timeline this morning, and I just loved it. To summarize, the editorial is a call to those liberals in academia to be more ideologically inclusive, and the piece finally admits that liberals maintain a mildly vindictive oligopoly in our colleges and universities:

Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. We’re fine with people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us.

I have two more things to say about this article before you read it:

1.) I studied journalism at Ferris State University and felt some of what this guy talks about, that my conservative ideas were not welcome. While it was known I was a Christian and a conservative (and I never faced outright discrimination), I often felt I couldn’t add much to discussions because my convictions weren’t up to snuff.

2.) At the same time, studying among progressives was good for me. They helped me see the outrageous bias in conservative media (I’m looking at you Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck) and I realized that while I often disagree with progressives, their hearts are in the right place. They’re not out to destroy America (“they” being the every day people who believe in progressive ideals, not necessarily their political leaders); they just want their version of a better America.

3.) I lied; I have three things. I also learned that many conservatives and Christians can be inept at defending their convictions, which only aggravates the stigma already attached to us, that we’re uneducated and intellectually stunted; that’s why the Apostle Paul admonished “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” I learned that the heart of journalism is finding the truth, which only deepened my passion and conviction to learn the truth of scripture and the world around me.

That being said: check out “A Confession of Liberal Intolerance” by Nicolas Kristoff of the New York Times.