thanks for not being a zombie

A recent New Yorker article ("God and Country," by Hanna Rosin) describes the mission of Patrick Henry College to provide a college education to conservative, home-schooled students and to streamline their path to positions of influence in the federal government.

This morning, we get an article from the Washington Post on the intellectual climate of the school ("Divide on Doctrine Fuels Fight Between Va. College, Ousted Clerk," by Rosalind S. Helderman). Jeremy Hunley works for Patrick Henley College, and he's a Christian who believes that one must be baptized to be saved.

College administrators told Hunley, a member of the Church of Christ, that the belief put him at odds with the school's statement of faith, which he was required to sign before taking the job. According to the 10-point document, salvation is found only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Patrick Henry was founded in 2000 to be an Ivy League-type college aimed at attracting academically gifted home-schoolers. The school's president talks unabashedly of birthing a new generation of conservative leaders who will reclaim the country from years of liberal sway. It is a bold mission that has attracted national attention.

Skeptics, however, suggested that the ouster of a low-level evangelical employee over theological differences could spell trouble for the school, spotlighting an exclusionary attitude that could turn off prospective students and make employers wary of graduates.

Not only did the college force him to resign, they sued him for making these remarks: "No Christian would deny Christ to save his job; certainly no Christian would ask him to do so." Nice.

Cf. Mark Bauerlein's Chronicle of Higher Education essay, "Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual," from November 2004.

Groupthink of any kind--not just liberal groupthink--is anti-intellectual, right? I wonder how (or if) the more strident conservative critics of higher education will respond to this story.