Big Win for Christians in religious profiling case at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. More good news related to the fight against discrimination against Christians in public colleges and universities. As you may remember, I recently wrote about a professor (Dr. Mike Adams) at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington who was denied promotion because of his political and social views after he converted from atheism to Christianity. While an atheist, Dr. Adams received frequent accolades from his colleagues after being hired as an assistant professor. After his conversion to Christianity he was subjected to intrusive investigations, baseless accusations, and the denial of promotion to full professor despite the fact that his scholarly output surpassed that of almost all of his colleagues after becoming a believer. According to his lead attorney, David French, University of North Carolina-Wilmington administrators engaged in the fiercest kind of viewpoint discrimination. It was a process where they applied a made-up promotion standard that contradicted the faculty handbook, passed along false information about his academic record, deceptively edited documents to influence the faculty vote, explicitly discussed his constitutionally protected viewpoint, and allowed a faculty member with an obvious and outrageous conflict of interest to cast a vote against him. At one point, the University even launched an underground investigation (at the request of a transgender group) to determine if the professor was transphobic. Wow! Talk about a workplace that is not “Christian friendly.” Stunned by these revelations, Adams sued, insisting the school had infringed on his free speech rights. After hearing the details, Alliance Defending Freedom agreed to represent him, and together they embarked on a seven year journey to right the Universitys wrong. Last week, after winding through the appeals process, Dr. Adams finally got the news he was waiting for. Although UNCW officials denied that they were retaliating against Adams for his faith -- the court disagreed. After seeing the evidence, a federal jury agreed that Adamss speech was a substantial or motivating factor in denying him a full professorship. When pressed, UNCW officials couldnt prove that they would have made the same decision in the absence of his conservative beliefs. Although the case isnt over (the court hasnt decided what form of relief to grant -- nor has the school decided whether to appeal), the victory is a major one. This is indeed a significant victory for college professors who have over the years been subjected to oppression by the liberal academic elites. This case sends a strong signal that conservative Christian professors can fight back and win in a court of law. As the 4th Circuit Court ruled in this case, “No individual loses his ability to speak as a private citizen by virtue of public employment.” I am in hopes that this big win for the “good guys” will encourage other professors to have the courage to stand up and fight back for their freedom of speech. Despite this big win, I don’t think that the world of public higher education is ready to abandon its intolerant stance related to “anything Christian,” but it is surely a step in the right direction. (Much of the content of this post is taken from an article written by Tony Perkins.)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:37:10 +0000
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