James Madison Program Hosts Conversation on Censorship Concerns
An openness to differing viewpoints is increasingly becoming a missing component of higher education. Though university is meant to be a time of challenging assumptions, learning how to consider different perspectives and why they are valid, and ultimately becoming a more well-rounded individual who respects worldviews that are different from their own, these basic functions of education are eroding away.
Princeton University statue of Rev. John Witherspoon, who served as president of the college during the Revolutionary war and was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The James Madison Program at Princeton University recently hosted a conversation that addressed the rising concerns around free speech on campus. Partipcants included Robert George, Princeton University's McCormick Chair in Jurisprudence; Flora Champy, Assistant Professor of French and Italian at Princeton University; Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, and Stuart Taylor, Jr., President of Princetonians for Free Speech.
Pointing to cancel culture as a method of eliminating unpopular views, George and his colleagues discuss how protecting free speech has swung from a traditionally liberal idea to becoming more entrenched in conservative ideals. On campus, this means that professors are fighting censorship battles or find themselves avoiding conversations or topics of discussion out of fear of “triggering” students with historic events, language around race, or traumatic events and issues.
As a Christian leadership development ministry, Christian Union sees not only the value of viewpoint diversity on campus, but the critical reality for our students and all believers to be able to hold their biblical worldview without fear of “cancelation” or punishment. Christian Union equips students and professionals to articulate their faith and understand difficult biblical topics that are unpopular in our culture today and will likely only become more so.
