FIRE CHRISTIAN ACADEMICS BAN BOOKS NEXT

Though Professor Kenneth Howell has just been reinstated by the University of Illinois after he was barred from teaching for defending Catholic morality to students, his case has major implications for academic freedom. It is surely optimistic to believe that he will be the last academic in the US or the UK to fall foul of a 'hate speech' complaint.

If universities in the US and UK start firing academics for sins of speech against political correctness, consider what they would have to do with some of the texts that are taught on their courses. Here is an extract from John Le Carre's classic novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, first published in 1963:

'They picked me up this morning. A man called Ashe.' He lit a cigarette. 'A pansy. We're meeting again tomorrow.'

Control listened carefully to Leamas' story, stage by stage, from the day he hit Ford, the grocer, to his encounter that morning with Ashe.

No Christian should use a derogatory term like that or foster a supercilious, Pharisaic attitude towards particular groups in society. We are all fallen creatures and that includes our sexual natures. But the statement by the novel's hero, intelligence agent Alec Leamas, simply reflects the widespread disapproval of homosexuality in the society of the time. The author indicates no disapprobation of, or self-distancing from, Leamas' outlook in this regard. Indeed, if he had done so explicitly or implicitly, he would have been very much out of tune with his readership.

If Christian academics and students can get into trouble with university authorities and student unions for politely stating Christ's teaching in its counter-cultural aspects, whilst refraining from name-calling, then consistency demands that Le Carre's novel and other works of literature expressing politically- incorrect sentiments far less politely should be censored or even banned altogether.

How many novels, plays and poems that were written when English was the language of broadly Christian peoples could end up being banned from university libraries and even from being displayed on the bookshelves of members of the student union?

It would be ironic if Le Carre's masterpiece were subject to Soviet-style ideological censorship because it is a compelling description of the nominally Christian West rapidly losing its spiritual and moral compass.