The Dictatorship of Relativism

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), a leftist union of university professors, is conducting a witch hunt to exclude Christian universities from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). It wants to ban them, exclude them or force them to become just like all the other universities in Canada and it wants to do it in the name of tolerance, diversity and freedom. Sometimes it is hard to remember whether one is reading an George Orwell novel or the daily newspaper these days. Apparently some of the animals in the AUCC are more equal than the others, according to CAUT. See the story in MacLean's here.

Adrian McNair, writing in an article entitled "Clamping Down on Canadian Christians" in yesterday's National Post, comments:

"According to an article in Maclean’s Magazine’s “on campus” website, an organization called the Canadian Association of University Teachers [CAUT] is alleging that Trinity Western University, a Christian University, violated academic freedom. The reason? Because TWU describes itself as a “a faith-based institution, one inspired by Christ’s life and guided by his teachings.” More than that, it requires faculty to sign a “Statement of Faith” annually, in a document that outlines the “philosophical framework to which all faculty, staff and administration are committed without reservation.”

At first glance, one might conclude that CAUT is correct. The concept of forcing faculty to submit to a series of absolutist statements [belief in the bible, in one infinitely perfect god, that Jesus Christ was a real man, and in “the bodily resurrection of the dead; of the believer to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord, of the unbeliever to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment.”] seems at odds with the premise of a learning institution as being one of an open-ended perspective on the Universe.

CAUT says that this statement violates the standard definition of academic freedom, since it ensures a religiously homogeneous staff. Of course, it wouldn’t make sense not to have a religiously homogeneous staff of Christians in a Christian University. So what is at stake here isn’t just the question of pluralism and diversity in ideology, but whether faith-based institutions have a right to exist at all. That question, according to CAUT, isn’t behind the designation of TWU. But how could one construe it in any other way?

There is, I think you will accept, some irony in a diverse association claiming to represent the entire spectrum of University Teachers in Canada, representing a unified opinion on TWU. CAUT argues that TWU’s statement of Christian affirmation rejects relativism, the basis for pluralism, and indeed, for multiculturalism."

Read the rest here. There certainly is irony in the CAUT arguing that the only unified position Canadian university professors must hold is that a Christian university is inadmissible. But it is more than ironic; it is downright logically contradictory.

Examine that statement made by the CAUT person in Mclean's and quoted by McNair: "TWU's statement of Christian affirmation rejects relativism, the basis for pluralism, and indeed, for multiculturalism." Notice the appeal to two Canadian sacred cows: pluralism and mulitculturalism. We are supposed to bow down before these idols and beat our breasts in repentance for daring to offend them. Why? Because we are relativists. Huh? How is that again? We all have to worship pluralism and multiculturalism because of relativism? Multiculturalism is my name and thou shall have no other gods beside me. That is relativism, CAUT style.

So who decided that relativism is the 'absolute truth' and who was his logic professor? If relativism is true then pluralism and multiculturalism are only relatively true, that is, true for UBC but not necessarily true for TWU. On the other hand, if relativism is false, then the logical possibility exists that the CAUT is wrong on this issue and the AUCC and TWU are right. Which seems pretty likely to me.

Actually, it gets worse. If relativism is true, then nothing is true - even the pontifications of leftist members of university professor unions. This would meant that the one thing we do know is that the CAUT position is not absolutely true. But if relativism is false, then one thing we know for sure is that the CAUT position is false. So it is false either way; why are these people bothering us?

And it gets worse. The stance that TWU takes on objective truth and morality is the very foundation of Western civilization's tradition of freedom and tolerance. One of the objective truths TWU believes in is that all human beings have dignity by virtue of being created in the image of God and so their free speech and right to be wrong must be respected. In a relativistic universe there would be no particular reason, other than the whim of the moment, for human beings to be respected in this way. And, indeed, we see the contemporary left sliding down into fascism and intolerance as we speak. And this witch hunt is a prime example.

The CAUT has no basis for taking away TWU's right to exist except its prejudices and self-referentially incoherent sophistry. It poses as the voice of tolerance and in intolerant in doing so. This should warn off the person of common sense and cause us to refuse to listen to their anti-Christian prejudice masquerading as "tolerance" and "freedom." Truly, it is academic freedom for me but not for thee.

At the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) referred to the growing "dictatorship of relativism" and the need to oppose it in the name of democracy, freedom and the dignity of the human person. This is an example of what he was talking about and it demonstrates how important it is for a society like Canada to have universities like TWU if we wish to avoid fascism and totalitarianism and remain free societies.