CounterCurrent: Week of 12/09/24
CounterCurrent: anti-Semitism Edition is a monthly newsletter of the National Association of Scholars’ newsletter, which will document, expose, and explain the anti-Semitism on today’s college campuses.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” While the last four years have sometimes felt like the world of George Orwell’s 1984 with better technology, this quote from Animal Farm applies to American higher education because it is just as Orwellian. Best known for his fiction and unnerving satire of authoritarianism, Orwell’s postwar fame overshadows his prewar essays. In 1939, Orwell famously coined the idea of a “Judeo-Christian scheme of morals” when such morals were threatened by statism. Over the last four years, the Biden administration not only turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism on college campuses but refocused its efforts on persecuting Christian universities.
The October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel brought a wave of anti-Semitism to American colleges and universities not seen in generations. From 2022 to 2023, anti-Semitic incidents on campus rose by 700 percent. One report by the American Jewish committee discovered that 44 percent of students were found to have experienced anti-Semitism. In the face of the resurgent anti-Semitism, the disastrous testimony of the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania before Congress offered a glimmer of hope that higher education would be held accountable for its assault on Judeo-Christian values. In the midst of universities becoming synonymous with epicenters of contemporary Jew-hatred, the Biden administration’s Department of Education failed to take action and targeted Christian colleges.
A recent report released by the American Principles Project found that 70 percent of penalties imposed by the “Office of Enforcement” within the Biden administration’s Department of Education targeted Christian or career colleges. This targeting is not random, and the numbers highlight this discrimination. Of the 3,893 degree-granting institutions in American higher education, 849 are religiously affiliated. Of those, approximately 600 institutions are Christian. While not a precise statistic, these numbers indicate that 70 percent of penalties targeted roughly 20 percent of colleges and universities.
Americans rightly harbor a mistrust of the country’s schools and universities. In 2023, a study from Gallup found that only 36 percent of Americans carried a “great deal” of trust in universities, this trust declined 20 percent in only eight years. Academia’s public perception is in shambles. Efforts to enshrine social theories of intersectionality with a hyperfocus on racial and sexual identities and a penchant for delegitimizing America’s founding ideals haven’t helped. Rabid anti-Semitism added to the decline, as a Congressional report by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce found universities skirted civil rights law and turned a blind eye to violent intimidation of Jewish students and faculty.
For Jews and Americans of all stripes seeking solace from academia’s “woke” ideas, Christian universities became a refuge. From 1980-2020, faith-based colleges outpaced their secular counterparts in enrollment by 25 percent. When anti-Semitic hate mobs began making Jewish families think twice about leaving for college, Colorado Christian University and Indiana Wesleyan University issued a joint letter offering a safe haven for learning. Catholic universities threw their doors open, too. Greg Weiner, the Jewish president of Assumption University, stated that the “lamp” of quality education not only remains lit at Catholic colleges, but that Jewish students are welcome. This is not the academia of medieval Europe; rather, this Christian welcome of Jewish students highlights America’s exceptionalism.
The Biden administration’s targeting of Christian institutions used a revived and arcane agency called the “Office of Enforcement” (OoE) nestled within the Department of Education. Formed by Obama in 2017, the OoE targeted at least 12 separate Christian colleges with either excessive fines or bans that cut off Federal student aid. Grand Canyon University (GCU), the largest in the United States, was fined $37.7 million over allegations that it misled students about the cost of doctoral programs. Liberty University was fined $14 million over alleged compliance failures. The American Principles Project found that these fines amounted to more than the combined penalties of other universities over the past seven years. Upon closer look, political motivations behind the governmental attack are not difficult to find.
In 2021, while universities still reeled from the COVID-19 pandemic and leftwing riots, GCU’s administration censured two dance instructors over their behavior at a “racial reconciliation workshop” that asserted Christianity amounted to white supremacy. In response to the workshop, GCU restated its Christian values and argued for the universal notion of human equality in the image of God as outlined by Genesis. For its part, Liberty University has branded itself as a quintessentially non-woke institution of higher education, hosting campus speakers such as Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence. Liberty’s Standing for Freedom Center makes it clear that it stands for Christian values in the public square, regardless of how hostile the public square has become for “America’s history, traditions, and Christian underpinnings.” GCU and Liberty University were two of at least twelve Christian institutions targeted with excessive penalties. Alongside the aggressive and selective enforcement against Christian universities, the Department of Education levied no enforcement actions against Ivy League institutions.
The Biden administration’s pursuit of Christian universities stands in stark contrast to what has transpired with anti-Semitism. Congress found that as college campuses became hellscapes for Jews and anyone supporting Israel, the Department of Education was negligent in acting on a multitude of likely Title VI violations. Notably, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights explicitly argues against anti-Semitism. The special attention the Biden administration paid to Christian universities and the special neglect that it paid to anti-Semitism on campus brings to mind Orwell’s idea of a “Judeo-Christian scheme of morals” and statism’s antipathy to it. As the month rolls on and Christmas trees and menorahs become a common sight across the country, the Biden administration’s decisions should send a December chill down the spine of anyone who adheres to Judeo-Christian values.
Until next week.
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, written by the NAS Staff. To subscribe, update your email preferences here.
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