Cal Thomas: Harvard’s conservative conundrum

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: Conservative Roots.

Commentator Cal Thomas says it took federal funding cut threats for Harvard University to get serious about once again pursuing its original religious and conservative foundation.

But are they going about it the right way? Here’s Cal.

CAL THOMAS: The Wall Street Journal reports that leaders of Harvard University are discussing whether to create a center for conservative scholarship. It would mirror the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California. That the discussion is taking place at all is a tacit admission that Harvard has been excluding conservative thought from its curriculum, not to mention most of its professors who toe the liberal line and teach their students to do the same.

Like the other old Ivy League schools, Harvard once had a religious and conservative foundation. Founded by Puritans in 1636, Harvard had its roots in the Puritan worldview and way of life. Its stated purpose was to train ministers and prepare students for community and civic leadership. By the mid-18th century, Harvard had evolved into an increasingly secular institution, broadening its curriculum to include a more liberal arts education and establishing a research branch. While it still has a Divinity School, that too is liberal in its theology and more aligned with a liberal political agenda.

Nathan Pusey was Harvard’s 24th president—serving in that role from 1953 till 1971. He once said: “The finest fruit of serious learning should be the ability to speak the word God without reserve or embarrassment.” Given what we’ve seen in recent months on its campus it would appear that God has become an embarrassment, unless His name is used as a blasphemy.

The idea that there should be a separate institution to “study” conservatism will be an affront to some conservatives. It sounds like a form of “separate but equal.” Are conservatives considered such a rare species at Harvard that their way of thinking must be studied in order to be understood? Are they a life form from another planet that could infect others if not kept away from “normal” people? Will students who study conservatism be required to wear identification badges or arm bands to identify them to liberal students and liberal professors so as to avoid possible “contamination”? Will this new branch of studies produce a conservative commencement speaker instead of the continuing stream of liberal speakers at graduation?

Over the years there have been many conservative intellectuals whose ideas and policies have demonstrated far more positive results than secular liberalism. Such thoughts and history should be incorporated into mainstream learning and not put at the “back of the bus.”

One of the towering conservative intellectuals of the 20th century was the late William F. Buckley Jr. While a Yale man himself, he famously said this about Harvard: “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.” Imagine what he might say now given all that has transpired at the university with its anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

I guess it’s better to have a place where conservative thought can be studied and students exposed to a different way of thinking than to have nothing at all, but even better to have that line of thinking taught alongside liberal thought. That would give conservative thought and conservative thinkers the recognition they deserve, along with examination of why conservative economic, social and foreign policy ideas have produced mostly better results than secular liberalism.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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