My College Succumbed to the Totalitarian Diversity Cult

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Professor Esolen complains that his college has caved in to the cult of diversity. Well, it seems that most academic and government institutions have done that. Once Western Civilization was destroyed, what’s left but diversity? A few excerpts:

“When Catholics come to Mass to pray, they do so as members of one Church, not ten, not fifty, praying the same prayers all over the world, because they give thanks to the one Lord and Savior who died for them on one cross, on the one hill of the Skull, on that one Friday long ago. This was the same Lord who prayed that we would be not ten, not fifty, but one, even as he and the Father are one.” . . .

“Is not that same call for diversity, when Catholics are doing the calling, a surrender of the Church to a political movement which is, for all its talk, a push for homogeneity, so that all the world will look not like the many-cultured Church, but rather like the monotone non-culture of western cities that have lost their faith in the transcendent and unifying God?”

crisismagazine.com/2016/college-succumbed-totalitarian-diversity-cult
 
You can go the the Providence College website and see for yourself how diversity is addressed. On the homepage there is a link to diversity. On that page there is mission statement that says nothing about deviant sexual behavior. Drilling down deeper you can find the Strategic Plan for Diversity. Which is 6-page document, addressing mostly issues of people of color. In all that document, there is only one reference to the issues the author objects to. It is this one sentence:

• Expand and support the network of trained students, faculty, and staff to provide awareness and educational programs that promote respect for, and inclusion of, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (“LGBTQQ”) students, faculty, and staff.

The opposite of this policy would be a policy that actively discourages gay students from attending this college, or fires faculty that are found to be gay. Which of these two policies do you think is most appropriate?
 
LeafByNiggle said:
You can go the the Providence College website and see for yourself how diversity is addressed. On the homepage there is a link to diversity. On that page there is mission statement that says nothing about deviant sexual behavior. Drilling down deeper you can find the Strategic Plan for Diversity. Which is 6-page document, addressing mostly issues of people of color. In all that document, there is only one reference to the issues the author objects to. It is this one sentence:

• Expand and support the network of trained students, faculty, and staff to provide awareness and educational programs that promote respect for, and inclusion of, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (“LGBTQQ”) students, faculty, and staff.

The opposite of this policy would be a policy that actively discourages gay students from attending this college, or fires faculty that are found to be gay. Which of these two policies do you think is most appropriate?
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Why would it be opposite? Opposition could also be benign neglect, mere apathy, or ignoring the issue all together.
 
I don’t think that, with or without a diversity section on their website, the college would discourage any particular individuals from attending. The question is rather, does an emphasis on diversity sufficient that a Catholic college can advocate for Catholic truth? Or would that be too much diversity?

To again quote Prof. Esolen:

"Now, we either affirm, as an institution, that the Church has a real and powerful and urgent message she must bring to the world, a message of harsh truth and genuine healing, or we do not.
. . .
But there is no evidence on our Diversity page that we wish to be what God has called us to be, a committedly and forthrightly Catholic school with life-changing truths to bring to the world. It is as if, deep down, we did not really believe it. So let us suppose that a professor should affirm some aspect of the Church’s teaching as regards the neuralgia of our time, sex. Will his right to do so be confirmed by those who say they are committed to diversity?”
 
As has my school. Several teachers have “Ally Week” signs up.
 
JimG said:
Professor Esolen complains that his college has caved in to the cult of diversity. Well, it seems that most academic and government institutions have done that. Once Western Civilization was destroyed, what’s left but diversity? A few excerpts:

“When Catholics come to Mass to pray, they do so as members of one Church, not ten, not fifty, praying the same prayers all over the world, because they give thanks to the one Lord and Savior who died for them on one cross, on the one hill of the Skull, on that one Friday long ago. This was the same Lord who prayed that we would be not ten, not fifty, but one, even as he and the Father are one.” . . .

“Is not that same call for diversity, when Catholics are doing the calling, a surrender of the Church to a political movement which is, for all its talk, a push for homogeneity, so that all the world will look not like the many-cultured Church, but rather like the monotone non-culture of western cities that have lost their faith in the transcendent and unifying God?”

crisismagazine.com/2016/college-succumbed-totalitarian-diversity-cult
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I don’t understand educators like Prof. Esolen, who on one hand don’t agree with the values of the institution where they teach, but then happily continue to cash their paychecks on the other. If Prof. Esolen has only recently begun to criticize Providence College (and I don’t know either way) then I’d be more lenient.

However, I’m also reminded of examples like Fr. Miscamble of Notre Dame, who complains that Notre Dame lacks orthodox catholic teaching, yet has taught there I think since the 1980s. Or Anne Hendershott, who has complained for what seems like decades about the University of San Diego.

Etc.

I think at some point you cross over from being part of the solution to being part of the problem.
 
JimG said:
I don’t think that, with or without a diversity section on their website, the college would discourage any particular individuals from attending. The question is rather, does an emphasis on diversity sufficient that a Catholic college can advocate for Catholic truth? Or would that be too much diversity?

To again quote Prof. Esolen:

"Now, we either affirm, as an institution, that the Church has a real and powerful and urgent message she must bring to the world, a message of harsh truth and genuine healing, or we do not.
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Prof. Esolen’s argument seems to be a strawman argument. The diversity initiative of the college need not prevent the Church or the college from bringing to the world a real and powerful and urgent message of harsh truth and genuine healing. If he thinks the diversity initiative (which again is directed mostly at racial minorities, not at sexual orientation) does prevent the sending of this message, he did not make a case for that claim. He only implied it without support. Since the Diversity statement is much larger than the one sentence he objects to, why advocate throwing out the whole document as flawed? Why not just advocate for the removal of that one sentence?
But there is no evidence on our Diversity page that we wish to be what God has called us to be, a committedly and forthrightly Catholic school with life-changing truths to bring to the world.
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Well, in a way the Diversity page does affirm a life-changing Catholic truth - and that is the universal dignity of the human person and their right to justice, which can be expressed in terms of equal opportunity for education regardless of race. What Prof. Esolen apparently wanted on the Diversity page was a statement to the effect that any kind of sex outside of marriage is immoral. And that statement is indeed missing from the Diversity page. But is that where you would expect to find such a statement? Also, in the post just before yours, JonNC caught me drawing a false dichotomy. It is my turn call out Prof. Esolen for drawing a very similar false dichotomy. Just because the statement on sex outside of marriage is missing from the Diversity page does not mean the Diversity page is contradicting that statement. Just because the statement is missing does not mean the opposite of that statement is being proclaimed.
 
I came across an earlier posting here] by Prof. Esolen. It concerns a student protest at Providence College seeking to make the college more inclusive. More inclusive apparently, not just with respect to ethnic groups, but with respect to academics and the curiculla. More cultural diversity.

Noting that the matter of curricula diversity was referred to the faculty senate by the college president, Mr. Esolen remarks, “It remains to be seen how far they will go towards dismantling the most culturally diverse program at Providence College, our program in the Development of Western Civilization.”

I doubt that the protesters are interested in the great amount of cultural diversity to be studied in the history of the development of western civilization. What they want is a diversity program which is focused on the here and now. It is the diversity of narcissism.
 
Dave_Noonan said:
I don’t understand educators like Prof. Esolen, who on one hand don’t agree with the values of the institution where they teach, but then happily continue to cash their paychecks on the other. If Prof. Esolen has only recently begun to criticize Providence College (and I don’t know either way) then I’d be more lenient.

However, I’m also reminded of examples like Fr. Miscamble of Notre Dame, who complains that Notre Dame lacks orthodox catholic teaching, yet has taught there I think since the 1980s. Or Anne Hendershott, who has complained for what seems like decades about the University of San Diego.

Etc.

I think at some point you cross over from being part of the solution to being part of the problem.
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I don’t understand why you think that working for an institution requires you to be a yew-man or yes-woman to every fad of its leaders.

Every institution needs vigorous dissenters. That’s part of what real diversity is about.

I disagree with Prof. Esolen on a lot of things. But I would love to have him as a colleague, precisely for that reason. (Though, to be sure, I share his love of classic Western civilization.)
 
Contarini said:
I don’t understand why you think that working for an institution requires you to be a yew-man or yes-woman to every fad of its leaders.

Every institution needs vigorous dissenters. That’s part of what real diversity is about.

I disagree with Prof. Esolen on a lot of things. But I would love to have him as a colleague, precisely for that reason. (Though, to be sure, I share his love of classic Western civilization.)
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I would agree that there’s a line between resisting “every fad” (which may be the case here, admittedly) to other sorts of more wholesale institutional condemnation like Fr. Miscamble’s at Notre Dame, who most don’t view as a valued colleague—for better or worse depending on your point of view. At some point one’s protest becomes somewhat hypocritical, it seems to me. I would simply ask such a person, “If it’s really SO horrible and corrupt, why do you continue to support that kind of institution? Just teach somewhere else.”
 
DaddyGirl said:
Diversity…a cult?

That’s preposterous.

What do you mean those institutions have also caved to the cult of diversity?
Academic and government institutions have often employed and taught and taught about diverse groups of people.

How are you defining the word “diversity”?

.
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I believe that the OP means that the preservation of diverse opinions is being treated as the number one goal, even at the cost of having meaningful dialogue thereabout. Because “my opinion is my opinion and talking about said opinion makes me uncomfortable” or something like that.
 
Also, “Totalitarian Diversity Cult” is the name of my new heavy-metal band.
 
Catholics are the most diverse people on earth, we’re the single largest group of people on earth! All races, genders, ethnicities, even sexual orientations and political spectrums. That does NOT however mean we have to accept behaviours that are antagonistic toward our faith.
 
What Professor Esolen wrote about has now come to pass. He is now under attack by some students and faculty at Providence College.

“Right now, Professor Esolen is under attack at Providence by a group of protesting students and faculty members who seem intent on twisting the meaning of his words and condemning him for the crime of being Catholic. Yes, we’ve got a witch hunt at Providence. All in the name of diversity.

Esolen recently wrote two pieces for which he’s coming under fire and seem prescient in hindsight. The first one for Crisis was titled “My College Succumbed to the Totalitarian Diversity Cult.” The other asked “What will you do when the Persecution Comes?”

Well, check both those boxes. The first thing that happened is that the Totalitarian Diversity Cult grew outraged and began demanding Esolen be fired…you know, because they want diversity and inclusivity. And then the persecution came.”

The article continues here:
Faithful Catholic Professor Anthony Esolen Under Attack at Providence College

It seems to me that the real problems are a) that Esolen is an orthodox Catholic, and b) he teaches a Development of Western Civilization program.

Catholicism and Western Civilization is way too much diversity for the diversity police.

Professor Esolen said in an interview:

“The dirty not-so-secret is that the same people who for many years have loathed our Development of Western Civilization program — the focus of curricular hostility — also despise the Catholic Church and wish to render the Catholic identity of the college merely nominal. They are now also gunning for the DWC program, though they are so encapsulated in their secular monoculture, they have no idea what a tsunami of outrage they will bring on from the alumni if that program were ever to be eliminated.”
 
I think what is being missed by some posters here is that when modern Social Justice Warrior students speak of “diversity” they mean that they should be able to do, say, or feel whatever they like without ever having to hear criticism of any kind.
That also means that those who they think are likely to have attitudes that are “diverse” from their own should not be allowed to exist.

Modern “diversity” is totalitarian control of opinion and expression by those of an extremist liberal bent.

i.e. you can say whatever you want as long as you agree with me
 
Widlast said:
I think what is being missed by some posters here is that when modern Social Justice Warrior students speak of “diversity” they mean that they should be able to do, say, or feel whatever they like without ever having to hear criticism of any kind.
That also means that those who they think are likely to have attitudes that are “diverse” from their own should not be allowed to exist.

Modern “diversity” is totalitarian control of opinion and expression by those of an extremist liberal bent.

i.e. you can say whatever you want as long as you agree with me
Click to expand...
The attitude seems to be: You can say and write whatever you want, but we’ll get you fired if we don’t like it.
 
“I know there are plenty of Catholics who are, in one way or another, looking forward to the relentless institutional persecution that is coming our way unless we surrender the One Thing Needful to the secular left, and that is the family-destroying and state-feeding beast called the Sexual Revolution” Esolen.

He’s about 50 years out of date. He’ll be complaining about the evil of rock and roll and long hair next. What a petulant and annoyingly prim self righteous prude.
 
Bradski- the posterboy for liberal tolerance. 👍

A Catholic is persecuted at a Catholic university. The place is full of secular lecturers who are more than happy to destroy the Catholic identity of the insitution that pays them salary, and are aided by Catholics who like to be on the ideologically correct side. How is this showing respect to diversity of being Catholic? How is this open mided and tolerant? It is obvious to anyone who has a brain that these days diversity means one thing: leftist identity politics. Sickening indeed.

I’m sure Esolen will find a better place to work since he is a big name in a small pond of Catholic academics. Younger academics who dissent will have to shut up and play idiotic games in order to get hired and published, as long as the totalitarian diversity cult has complete power. I am so glad I left it all, I am personally not thick skinned enough for this maddness.
 
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