COLUMN: An end to moral relativism

From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '98 From Andrew Exum's, "Perilous Orthodoxy," Fall '98Last week, I reread an article in U.S. News & World Report which had first caught my eye the summer after my freshman year. This story has managed to shock me twice, largely because we don't really talk about the right and wrong of things in the academy. When historians discuss the Holocaust, they often reserve moral judgment for theologians and ethicists. Unfortunately, theologians are nowhere to be found in the modern academy. Departments of theology have been replaced by departments of religious studies. What were once seminaries are now divinity schools. Such name changes don't seem like much, but they represent a significant paradigm shift within the American university. Sixty years ago, when discussing human sacrifice in, say, Aztec society -- which is the example U.S. News uses -- such a practice would have been denounced as savage and uncivilized. Admittedly, that's a harsh judgment to levy. The Aztecs were an advanced civilization -- with high levels of scientific and political achievement -- despite practicing ritual sacrifice, just as the United States was and is a highly advanced civilization despite the fact that the end to Jim Crow laws in the American South came just 30 years ago. But just because a society has reached high levels of science and industry does not mean it cannot contain immorality. Nazi Germany was highly civilized, to be sure, but atrocities were an everyday fact of life. While the Hamilton College professor's testament is disturbing, it should surprise no one within the American university system. Multiculturalism, along with its many benefits, has given rise to nonjudgmentalism. Most students in classrooms feel they are not allowed to critique the beliefs of others for fear of encroaching on religious freedom. Theologians are dismissed by the American academy as religious leaders incapable of being true scholars. In a religious studies department, we expect professors to deliver teaching devoid of any real belief. The academy makes it very clear that it wants scholars and not religious zealots. That's fine and good, but it singles out religious studies as the one department in the university where professors aren't allowed to present material from their own point of view. Can you imagine a biologist unable to present a paper in support of evolution? How about a historian halted from stating his views on the Battle of Waterloo? This is the dilemma theologians find themselves in every day. As long as they keep their own views out of the picture, they're considered legitimate. Once they begin to state an opinion, they're ridden out of serious scholarship. Witness the case of C. S. Lewis, who converted to Christianity in the 1930s while teaching Medieval Literature at Oxford. He was derided by his academic colleagues, who winced every time he went to the airwaves during World War II to condemn National Socialism and Adolf Hitler. It wasn't considered the appropriate thing for an academic of his caliber to do, even if he did have strong beliefs. Ethical opinions are unwelcome in the American academy, and if that does not change, graduates of our universities will be on shaky ground when it comes time for making real-life decision with moral and ethical implications. If anything, universities teach their students to make decisions according to what they call "reason." But "reason does not operate in a vacuum," as missionary Lesslie Newbigin wrote. "The power of a human mind to think rationally is only developed in a tradition which itself depends on the experience of previous generations." Any moral decision is based upon some sort of religious or faith-based background. For the academy to deny such religious tradition is impossible and irrational. Having solid faith is important, but it is useless unless you can apply it to everyday life. Whatever religion you profess -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam or some other faith -- it is vital to remember that belief is a dynamic activity. Ethics and morals should not only be things we discuss in seminaries and places of worship. They should be a part of the discussion everywhere, at all times, particularly in the classroom. Whether the subject be history, political science or literature, we need to focus on the moral and ethical lessons the subject teaches us, in addition to the social and cultural ones.