COLLEGE: Matter of forced diversity

I go to a secular university, where — whether I like it or not — my tax dollars support all the organizations on campus. Bible studies and gay pride clubs alike. Already, my tuition is supporting relativism. Call it diversity if you will, but bear in mind that the clubs on campus claim exclusivity.

By forcing me through law (Board v. Southworth) to have no say in whom my tuition supports, the university is requiring me to accept — financially — all these exclusive organizations. I’d like to choose where my money goes, but there are deeper powers at play than simply financial concerns.

Culturally, I am told to honor ideological diversity. Regardless of belief, I am to ideologically support each social organization in the name of tolerance.

In order to ensure ideological tolerance, there is covert threat of social isolation. If you are not “us,” you will be “them.” I speak in abstracts, but if you identify with every ideology, however, you cease to be an ideological individual. It is impossible, logically and practically, to hold all beliefs and remain convicted regarding certain beliefs.

While I am taught to accept every ideology, I am also taught to be an ideological individual. I am threatened with social isolation while the very act of an individual largely requires isolation. I cannot be ideologically tolerant and an ideological individual.

I simply seek a culture which does not ask both of me. I ask, also, that those of society would not ask both of themselves.

DANIELLE CURSON

Dalton Gardens