Professors Hold Unfavorable View Towards Evangelicals

Nathan Burchifiel a staff writer for CNS News.com has written of a study released a few days ago by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR) The results of polling more than 1200 university faculty members found that 53% of them have "cool" or "unfavorable" feelings toward evangelicals. Evangelicals are about one-third of the American population.

Yet these same faculty members had "warm" or "favorable" feelings towards Muslims. 41 % had good feelings about atheists. Non-evangelical Christians and Catholics earned a 60 % favorable rating from the professors.

This is all very interesting to me. I often hear of faculty that give openly evangelical students lower grades and sometimes tough work assignments. I have to encourage them to be open and forthright about their beliefs.

The study states that, "As it was of Jews on campus two generations ago, maybe evangelical Christians do not want to talk openly about their identities and beliefs. The prejudice against them stands out prominently in institutions dedicated to liberalism, tolerance, and academic freedom."

In the study, more than 70% of the faculty interviewed said that the United States " would be better off if Christian fundamentalists kept their religious beliefs out of politics." Why? So that our "poison" doesn't infect your 1.2 children? Give me a break !

These sort of items help to sanctify me from any expectations of "higher education."