October 3, 2003
AN UNINTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED HIRING:
Unintelligent Designs on Academic Freedom (Hunter Baker, 10/1/2003, The Spectator)
It's been an unusual week in the academy. The academic freedom that so incensed Bill Buckley as a student at Yale decades ago is now acting to protect a conservative scholar under fire.Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute for Church-State Studies hired Francis Beckwith as its Associate Director last summer. Although previously known as a philosopher who had developed powerful critiques of abortion, Beckwith has used the past few years and a research fellowship at Princeton to transform himself into a legal scholar investigating the controversy over public schools and the teaching of human origins. His research culminated in publication of the book, Law, Darwinism, and Public Education.
Here's where the matter gets a little sticky. Beckwith concludes an alternative to evolution that goes by the name Intelligent Design may be constitutionally taught in public schools. Here's where it gets a lot sticky. It turns out the Institute's namesake and founder, J.M. Dawson, was an early proponent of teaching evolution in public schools and an ardent, strict separationist in matters of church and state. Dawson was also instrumental in the formation of the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
After Beckwith testified before the Texas Board of Education as to the constitutionality of teaching Intelligent Design in schools, Dawson's descendants (who do not fund the program) decided the good professor should be reassigned because of the possible divergence of his views with those of the patriarch Dawson. They have since written formal letters requesting Beckwith's removal from the Institute and have vigorously pursued media coverage of their grievance.
He's right, but he should resign his position if his work is antithetical to the intent of the guy who endowed the Institute--that's just good manners. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 3, 2003 8:09 PM
That's true, but he's wrong to imagine that deciding whether to teach biology is a job for lawyers.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 3, 2003 10:38 PMLawyers, hard to believe, are people too and entitled to a say in what's taught in school.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2003 10:57 PMUnusual; the standard problem is conservative bequests being gradually taken over by a liberal bureaucracy.
Posted by: Mike Earl at October 3, 2003 11:00 PMYes, and they don't have class enough to reason, a conservative should.
Posted by: oj at October 3, 2003 11:02 PMJonathan Edwards helped to found Princeton and served as its 3rd President - should the atheists leave immediately?
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 4, 2003 1:09 AMEntitled is not the same as qualified.
We have lots of entitled people doing things they are not qualified for.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 7, 2003 4:15 PMJust a word of correction. Neither Dr. Dawson nor his family endowed the institute. It has named after him because of his contribution to Baptist life in Texas and the U.S. He was an important figure for whom I have great respect. In fact, my entire project assumes the correctness of church-state separation. That is why I argue that intelligent design theory may be taught in public schools because it is not a religion. Granted, not everyone agrees with that conclusion. (I don't, however, argue that it SHOULD be taught; that is another project for another scholar). But it is an argument I offer in a public setting and in academic periodicals including a recent piece in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. The job of my detractors--if they choose to take it up--is to offer counter-arguments not labels.
These issues are highly complex and deserve serious consideration.
Thank you.
Take care,
FJB