(Video above: Originally posted by the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, the video above was emailed to Troy University students last week, setting off an unexpected firestorm from an offended group of atheists.)
A national atheists group is demanding an apology from Troy University chancellor Jack Hawkins, Jr. for sending an email to students that included a video (above) touting religion’s role in a functioning democracy.
Hawkins sent an email to the students and staff of the university on Tuesday, Dec. 30 that read as follows:
Dear Trojans:
As we approach a New Year I am reminded of the blessings we enjoy within a democracy which is the envy of the world.
For your pleasure — and as a reminder — I am sharing with you a 90 second video which speaks to America’s greatness and its vulnerability.
May your New Year be blessed!
Jack Hawkins
Chancellor
At the bottom of his email, Hawkins provided a link to the video.
The 98-second video shows Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen explaining his belief that American democracy works in large part because most people not only believe they are accountable to society, but that they are ultimately accountable to God.
Here’s a text excerpt from the video:
Some time ago I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China. He was coming to the end of a Full Bright fellowship here in Boston, and I asked him if he’d learned anything that was surprising or unexpected. And without any hesitation he said, “Yeah, I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy. The reason why democracy works,” he said, “it is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does, but rather democracy works because most people most of the time voluntarily choose to obey the law. And in your past most Americans attended a church or synagogue every week and they were taught there by people who they respected.”
My friend went on to say that Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe that they were not just accountable to society, they were accountable to God.
After catching wind of Hawkins’ email, American Atheists President David Silverman sent a letter to him on New Year’s Eve urging Hawkins to issue “a public apology to the students, and other atheists whom you have disparaged with the video you included in your email.”
“(W)e demand an apology from you for using the public university email system and your publicly funded position to disparage atheists and minority religious groups as well as perpetuating the discrimination and anti-patriotic sentiment against atheists in the United States,” Silverman wrote.
Andy Ellis, a spokesman for Troy University, provided The Christian Post with a statement from the university regarding Hawkins’ email and Silverman’s subsequent letter.
“The purpose of this email was to spur introspection and encourage thoughtful discussion as we transition from the challenges of 2014 to the opportunities ahead in 2015,” Ellis wrote. “This message and video were shared to provide the university community with information and insights for healthy consideration and debate about our country’s democracy, the role it plays in the world and the challenges America faces going forward.”
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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