Witchhunt at RWU

A university named after the effective founder of the Baptist Church in the United States shuts down a conservative student-run newspaper that dared to accuse the school of supporting anti-religious policies.

The story begins in August, when the university sponsored two speakers under the ostensible banner of diversity. As things turned out, the speakers, Judy Shepard, mother of slain homosexual Mathew Shepard, and James Dale, a gay man kicked out of the Boy Scouts, were interested in anything but diversity. Instead, the speakers took the occasion to denounce organized religion and cast aspersion upon President Bush’s demonstrable commitment to civil rights.

“Churches are damaging us as a society,” Shepard explained in a mandatory speech to freshmen during Welcome Week. “They don’t allow us to grow,” she continued. Students expecting a talk focusing exclusively on the evils of homophobia—what we would expect from Shepard—were unpleasantly surprised by Shepard’s tirade against churches.