A Christian speaker was disinvited from defending the pro-life position in a debate at Cornell University after it was discovered that she holds the historic Christian view on sexuality and marriage.
Organizers of the debate at the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, likened her views to support of slavery and the Holocaust.
Jannique Stewart, who is African American and a pro-life speaker with Life Training Institute was invited earlier this year to participate in a debate next month at Cornell University's Political Union "regarding the fact that abortion is a moral wrong", she said in a Saturday Facebook post.
The group withdrew the invitation upon finding out that she was an outspoken defender of marriage as between one man and one woman and biblical sexuality. Her presence and participation had been officially approved and was on track to proceed until she was asked to submit a bio and those who invited her started researching her background.
"It was explained to me that having someone on campus who believed the way I did was tantamount to allowing a racist to speak who held pro-slavery and pro-holocaust views!" Stewart explained, outraged.
"I was also told that their concern was that many of the students would be offended by my beliefs and would not be able to focus or listen to my speech."
She elaborated that when they were asked to reconsider because they were overtly discriminating and disinviting her over her conservative perspective, they reconsidered and decided that they would not rescind their invitation. They, however, suggested that it would be better for another speaker to come in her stead who did not share her views about marriage.
But then the CPU did disinvite her a second time, after she told them she would plan on showing up and speaking after they said they would not disinvite her. This time, however, their decision to disinvite her was final, she was informed.
"They made it again clear that because of my outspoken beliefs, and how it would be perceived by the students. More and more Universities are censoring Conservative Christian voices in an effort to silence dissent and spare any possible offense. Unbelievable! The First Amendment supports Freedom of Speech not Freedom From Speech," Stewart wrote on Facebook.
Stewart explained in a statement to PJ Media Saturday that her ministry, Love Protects, focuses on a range of issues related to sexuality, including sexual abstinence until marriage and opposition to adult content, and a pro-life stance, among other things.
Robert P. George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, has risen to Stewart's defense.
"So here we are. Evidently, no Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, Eastern Orthodox Christian, Orthodox Jew, or Muslim, who believes what his or her tradition of faith teaches about sex and marriage is permitted to engage in debate at the Cornell Political Union," George wrote on his Facebook page Saturday.
"Even someone who, following thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Musonius Rufus, Xenophanes, and Plutarch, holds to traditional morality on philosophical grounds without the benefit of scriptural revelation, is ineligible to be a debater. If Plato or Aristotle were around today, they would be barred. Think about that for a second."
He added: "Among the most appalling practices of the contemporary left is its attempt to secure its position on sex and marriage by stigmatizing anyone who dissents from it as a 'bigot' or 'hater' — the equivalent of a racist — and thus excluding them and shutting down all debate. We're seeing this all over the country. It is a sin against the House of Intellect. The bullies who commit it need to be stood up to. Their victims need to refuse to be intimidated. And all men and women of goodwill need to stand with them.
"Where oh where are the old fashioned, honorable liberals?"
