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Study: Professors View Evangelicals as 'Unfavorable'
This article was written by Nathan Burchfiel, staff writer at CNSNews.com A majority of American university faculty members view evangelical Christians unfavorably and would like to see the influence of "Christian fundamentalists" on American politics lessened, according to a study released Monday by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR). The survey, which polled more than 1,200 university faculty members, found that 53 percent of them have "cool" or "unfavorable" feelings toward evangelicals, a group that may account for one-third of the American population. The study also found that one-third of faculty members had a negative view of Mormons. Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the IJCR and a co-author of the study, told Cybercast News Service he hopes the research will encourage university administrators and faculty to examine their own prejudices.
Story Continues Below "This is an opportunity for reflection and honest debate and improvement," he said. "It's an issue about the heart and soul of the academy. Universities should not be [places] that tolerate prejudices of any kind, even if it's a prejudice against America's largest religious group." Jonathan Knight, director of the Academic Freedom Program at the American Association of University Professors, said he doesn't see "any connection between what those views are and what happens in the classroom." "It would certainly be interesting to try to understand why individuals have certain views about others, whether positive or negative," Knight said. But he declined to comment on the report's accuracy because he had not read it. Tobin doubts that the negative views on evangelicals or Mormons translate into lower grades or tougher requirements for students who identify with those religious persuasions, but he said the data "calls for serious inquiry into what is the status of evangelical Christians and Mormons on campus." "It's unlikely that faculty would give students poor grades because of their religious beliefs, but that's the least of it," Tobin said. "It is likely to play out in subtle ways in treating students as intellectually strong or not intellectually strong, encouraging them to participate or not encouraging them to participate." The study suggests that faculty disdain for evangelicals leads to a chilling effect on students who would like to share their beliefs. "As it was for Jews on campus two generations ago," the study states, "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." More than one-third of faculty reported having "warm" or "favorable" feelings toward Muslims. Forty-one percent had good feelings about atheists and more than 60 percent had positive views of non-evangelical Christians and Catholics. Neil Gross, an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University who researched university faculty views on religion, told Cybercast News Service that he has "not seen any systematic evidence of bias against religious believers in the classroom." "It is true that evangelicals are not well represented in the academe," Gross said, noting that they are "certainly" much rarer than in the general population. But he noted that "professors are quite a bit more religious than is usually believed - in fact a majority are religious, even at elite institutions." Gross said he was skeptical of the IJCR questions regarding professors' views of other religions because they "confound[ed] professor's views about a religious group with their views about a political group." "It's not so vastly different . . . than asking what professors' views are of conservative Republicans," he said. "It wouldn't be really much of a surprise to anyone ... [that] many professors didn't have warm views toward conservative Republicans, and I think this question is very similar to a question that would be worded in that respect." In the IJCR study, more than 70 percent of faculty said the United States "would be better off if Christian fundamentalists kept their religious beliefs out of politics." An IJCR poll gauging the general population's sentiment found that 54 percent of Americans agreed with that statement. While faculty members voiced their opposition to "Christian fundamentalist" influence on American politics, more than one-third said increased participation in politics by Muslims would be good for the country. The survey found that 25 percent of faculty members identify as non-evangelical Christians; 18 percent identify as Catholics; 14 percent identify as having no religion; 11 percent identify as evangelical Christians; and eight percent identify as atheists. Jews, Unitarians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and others accounted for less than five percent each. Among the general population, 33 percent identify as evangelical; 24 percent identify as Catholic and 22 percent identify as non-evangelical Christians.
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