At Georgetown/On Faith, Patrick J. Deneen asks whether a liberal commitment to diversity is really an “intolerable form of tolerance that is hostile to actual diversity”:
Earlier this month, Georgetown’s student newspaper, the Hoya, published an editorial excoriating The Catholic University of America for refusing to recognize CUAllies, that university’s LGBTQ student group, as a student organization. The editorial stated that “Catholic identity must, understandably, be affirmed at a Catholic institution—but it is also important to be sensitive to changing social dynamics.” For this reason, the editors’ called for CUA to follow Georgetown’s lead in recognizing an LGBTQ group on campus.
While appearing to recognize and respect the legitimacy of the particular religious identity of CUA, in effect the editorial insists that the substantive beliefs of CUA—which do not include sanctioning homosexuality as a behavior—are trumped by the need to respect diversity. The editorial is explicit that CUA should conform to a new norm (“changing social dynamics”) that is now sweeping our campuses, and thus that it should be indistinguishable from most other institutions of higher education. In effect, one claim to diversity (LGBTQ) is seeking to trump another claim (CUA). In the world of liberal toleration, some forms of diversity are more equal than others. The logic of liberal toleration is not to protect diversity, but to eviscerate it.
Read the full piece here. And note, a version of this post also appeared in yesterday’s edition of “The Hoya,” Georgetown’s student newspaper.