I hate to see the competition getting promoted this way


I teach at a small public liberal arts college in Minnesota. We’ve got a lot of similar liberal arts institutions around the state, including Gustavus Adolphus, a private college with a Lutheran affiliation. We’re secular (we don’t sponsor church services) and public (much lower tuition, also much smaller endowment), which we consider our advantages, but the Illinois Family Institute is trying to undermine that. They are outraged at the licentiousness at Gustavus.

The climate at Gustavus was predominantly secular in the classroom, in dorm life, and on sports teams with only the empty trappings of Christian tradition hanging on in the form of daily chapel services led by a chaplain who affirmed sexual deviance and other such “spiritual” activities.

The IFI, by the way, is one of those fanatical conservative organizations that has a primary mission of opposing gay rights and promoting general prudery everywhere. What triggered the killjoys this time is the appearance of a video showing parts of Gustavus’s freshman orientation, which includes a frank and amusing discussion of student sexual behavior.

(Youtube comments on that video are predictably inane, too)

Dang. That was awesome. IFI may be pissed off, but I predict an uptick in enrollment applications at Gustavus next year.