Cambridge, Mass.
April 10, 2011
Marco Chan ’11 is a Romance Languages and Literatures concentrator in Quincy House. He is the co-chair of the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies. Levi Roth ’14 is a freshman in Wigglesworth Hall.
THINGS LEFT UNSAID
To the editors:
After reading Rachel Wagley ’11’s April 11 column, “Faith as a Lifestyle,” I had to run to the computer to double-check my facts. Was Dr. Lance Wallnau really the preacher who has equated Islam, gay people, and abortion with America’s financial melt-down? Was Os Hillman really a supporter of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, so named for its intent to make homosexuality punishable by death? After reassuring myself that, yes, these were the same people, I wondered why Ms. Wagley did not mention any of these facts in her column, which goes into great length describing the “hyperbolic sentiment” of the protestors at the recent Social Transformation conference, in which Wallnau and Hillman were featured speakers.
The central argument of Ms. Wagley’s column, that people should not equate secularism with pluralism, is fair enough. For evidence, however, she offers only one woman’s rhetorical flourish, “We don’t believe in God, we believe in the People,” and another student’s comments indicating that he didn’t think the conference should have been hosted at Harvard. From these remarks arises Ms. Wagley’s concern that we too often “attempt to solve human problems without the enlightenment of faith,” a conclusion that cannot be so casually inferred from such isolated statements.
But this is not what I find most troubling about Ms. Wagley’s argument. Rather, it is her unwillingness to point out that the protestors may have been present for reasons beyond a mere exercise in vocal secularism. The protestors did not oppose the actual theme of the conference, but rather the presence of speakers who have expressed hateful comments aimed at ethnic and sexual minorities, including statements made during similarly themed events in the past. For Ms. Wagley to dismiss the protestors’ comments as “concerns about abortion and homosexuality” is disingenuous and unfair. Similarly, her concession that Wallnau and Hillman are “not the greatest examples of tolerance or pluralism” is insufficient to convey the gravity of the vitriolic comments espoused by these two figures. Given the hefty criticism Ms. Wagley levied upon the sentiments of the protestors, it seems incongruous for her to underplay the offense people have taken to the incendiary comments of the event’s speaker. Ms. Wagley may strongly disagree with the spirit of the protest, but to skim over the protestors’ concerns is to do them an injustice.
James Tager
Cambridge, Mass.
April 12, 2011
James Tager is a first year law student at Harvard Law School.