We have seen this coming for several years. This has been occurring at coastal universities for a long time. Though without question, the intensity has been rising. It has now appeared in the heartland and on the campus of one of our leading universities.
Members of an LGBTQ group affiliated with the Women’s Research Center/BGLTQ+ Student Center at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) have successfully silenced the Christian worldview on the UCO campus. Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, the Ark Encounter, and CEO of the Christian creation apologetics organization Answers in Genesis, had been invited through a partnership with student group Valid World Views and the UCO student government organization. Student body president, Stockton Duvall, revealed to the Oklahoman that he and other student government leaders have been bullied and his personality maligned because of this invitation.
The group opposed Ham speaking on campus because he believes marriage should be exclusively between a man and a woman. Duvall, who I think was trying to find a way to move the speaking engagement forward, asked Ham to sign an agreement that he would not speak about marriage, and if asked questions on the subject he would decline to answer. Ham stated, “I was not prepared to do so because I believe there should be freedom of speech and that’s what the university should allow. I don’t attack those people. I don’t hate them.”
Surprising? A little. Surprising that it happened in Oklahoma on one of our university campuses? Somewhat. Although recent history tells us that to hold a Christian worldview and to express that view in public is to invite the furor of the left and liberal, these proponents of tolerance have been, and remain, the most intolerant in our culture. They want their view to be given priority, and if any oppose, they need to be silenced.
If this were an LGBTQ private school, funded by them, then one could accept and understand the decision. The same is true of a Christian university that does not allow, nor propagate, the LGBTQ view for biblical reasons. If you fund the school, you should have the ability to dictate the message, but this is a university that is supported by the citizens of this state. This is a university where all people and all worldviews are present and supposedly valued. Liberal activists seem always to make an exception, and thereby show their own intolerance, when it comes to tolerating the conservative Christian worldview or views contrary to their ideology.
Let it be clear that the university administration did not participate in this decision. Also, at least from the article, the student government was open and supportive of allowing the conservative worldview to be presented in the midst of other competing views.
This will not be the first nor last time this occurs. The intolerance of the Christian worldview on university campuses has become more the norm, and the opposition is getting louder.
Biblical Christianity is countercultural—it always has been. The world rejected our Savior, and we need not expect they will love us. Christians in America know little of the intolerance and meanness of those who oppose our view. We are beginning to experience what Christians around the world have experienced, to a greater degree, for centuries.
What should we do? Stand! Stand on the truth of Scripture whatever the cost. The Bible is immutable. We could not change our position if we wanted to because our God has spoken on these matters. It is God’s Word and, therefore, infallible and inerrant. Here we stand; we can do nothing less.
