Before I came to work at ICR in 1984, I was on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma. There were other Christians on the faculty, but few openly identified with Christ or Christian thinking in a public way. Often there was public ridicule of Christians in the campus newspaper by other faculty members and administrators, so the peer pressure was real and vicious. It escalated whenever creation was raised, however, and since I've never been good at keeping quiet, much of it was aimed at me.
It was in the early 1980s when I first heard the term "politically correct," and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I, as an outspoken Christian/creationist, was quite "politically incorrect." A focal point of the movement was the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Donna Shalala, who was known as "the queen of political correctness." Maybe I was an optimist or maybe just naïve, but I hoped that once this trend was exposed and even named, it would certainly be condemned and shunned by "open-minded" academic freedom advocates. Wrong!
Soon it became openly espoused and defended by leaders in politics, media, religion, and science in addition to academics. Now it's worse than ever, with the former queen, Donna Shalala, ruling from her throne as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Suffice it to say, I'm no longer naïve nor optimistic for a quick turn around.
But why? While many thought systems are labeled "politically incorrect," why is creationism at the top of the list? I think there are several reasons.
One is that evolution undergirds all of the wrong thought systems now deemed politically correct, from humanism to Marxism to New Age to post-modernism. But evolution can never stand the test of open scientific inquiry. Thus, the alternate view of creation must be censored.
A second reason is that, in the name of "tolerance," the politically correct crowd vilifies any person or thought that is not "tolerant," which does not value every view or action as equally valid. Since Christianity insists that absolute truth does exist, in faith and practice as well as science and history, it must not be tolerated. The message of creation, which undergirds Christianity, further implies that there are absolute guidelines for life, and that some choices constitute sin, which must be punished. In the name of "tolerance," this view cannot be tolerated.
The intolerant "politically correct" movement against the truth gathers steam with each passing day, especially in the schools. Unprepared Christian students easily fall prey to its concepts of relativism. Shalala's illogical views have become mainstream during her tenure away from the Washington spotlight. Biblical Christianity remains the only foe standing in the way of complete victory.
My promise to you is that ICR will remain "politically incorrect," intolerant of wrong thinking in science, government, society, and church. Truth means something to us.
*Dr. John Morris is President of ICR.
