BANNISTER v. COMMUNIST PROFESSOR

THE INCIDENT?

I mention God during a presentation concerning affirmative action and reparations.

TEACHER'S RESPONSE?

My communist professor (who also admits to being a Sunni Muslim) was livid! He went on to inform me that I had no right to include God in a conversation dealing with law and economics. He insisted that students leave "metaphysics out of the class."

MY REPONSE?

1. Nothing in the class syllabus would deny a student the right to talk about social and economic matters from a theonomic perspective.

2. Nothing in the student handbook would deny a student the right to talk about social and economic matters from a theonomic perspective.

3. His asking me to give my opinion while simultaneously asking me to ignore or deny my most ruling assumptions would make me intellectually schizophrenic.

4. When asked my opinion in the future, I will continue to work from a theonomic worldview.

WHAT WAS THE BACKLASH?

I was docked 10% from my grade for this. He posted my grade, and the reasoning, on Blackboard Suite for all the students to read. He said:

"All discussion and comments must and will remain within the basic framework of the course (see course description on class syllabus). Academic debate and discussion will conform to basic standards of academic discourse. Invoking one's personal religious faith in order to argue a point about affirmative action public policy is anti-intellectual and poor method of argumentation, and there is nothing in the syllabus that would support metaphysics as an acceptable form of argumentation. Please save this for theology classes, not IDS 111, Section 3. Please dis-enroll if you cannot adhere to this basic standard."

DOES HE HAVE A CASE?

I went up the "chain of command." Turns out, the teacher made some serious mistakes. For starters, he is not permitted to put up the grades of students for others to see on Blackboard. Secondly, he is not permitted to talk about students the way he did in his evaluation of my presentation. To make matters worse, his syllabus (which he has students refer to) militates against him! How?

1. There is no "standard" for academic discourse disclosed in the syllabus.

2. He nowhere states, or even implies, that metaphysics is outside of academic discourse.

3. He states that one of the 3 class objectives is to "experiment with various forms of argumentation."

4. He writes, "To reach these ends [learning from one another], we will be discussing a variety of subject matter that will help you reflect and share with others your own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and perspectives. We have much to learn from one another, so please do not rob us of the opportunity to learn from you by failing to participate in class. I realize that not all of you will feel comfortable sharing your personal perspective with a room full of strangers. It is my goal to create a sense of community and trust so that we may build off each other's ideas and experiences."

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

Well, many teachers are Department Heads have sided with me on this issue. Whether or not they personally agree with my worlview is irrelevant. The Department Heads acknowledge that the teacher's comments and remarks are in blatant violation of school policy, that they are in contradiction of his own class syllabus, and that they are at odds with the College's commitment to diversity and tolerance. I am not sure what will happen with the teacher, but I do know that God is still permitted to be involved in the political, economic, and academic affairs of his creation... at least on Olivet Campus.