It's Working...

Folks who support my alma mater tend to have a great aversion to both the fans who support the University of North Carolina Tarheels and the university itself. OK, let's be frank. NC State fans HATE Carolina. Of course there is no love lost from the other direction either.

Well, in the great tradition of all great rivalries, NC State fans have modified the official words of their fight song, The Red and White, to include a rather spiritually incorrect imperative.

We're the Red and White from State and we know we are the best
With our hands behind our back we can take on all the rest
Go to h*** Caroline!!!
Devils and Deacs stand in line!
The Red and White from NC State. GO STATE!!!

It's actually quite impressive when you hear thousands of screaming fans belting it out...

Anyway...

It seems like the little imperative in our song is working all too well. I received an article via a Newsmax news service that I get by email that described continuing efforts by the University of North Carolina (BOO!!!!) to discriminate against Christians and Christian organizations on the campus.

You may or may not remember the edict that was passed down in 2002 by UNC administration officials requiring all incoming freshmen to read a book that explained muslim doctrine and included excerpts from the koran that put islam in a favorable light. Not only that, but each freshman had to do a book report on the idiotic book. Only after there was an outraged backlash from Christians, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservative civil rights groups did the puddin'-headed administration back down on the requirement to read the book, but they still required a "book report" explaining why the freshman decided not to read the book, if indeed they did not.

A year or two later, the university revoked its recognition of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF or IV) as an official student group on campus, because the organization required all of its officers to be Christians. This standard violated the university's anti-discrimination policy so IV was banned from being able to use university facilities for its meetings, etc. IVCF fought back with the help of an organization called Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). (You can click on the link to see an article regarding Carolina's latest act of persecution.)

Now, once again, the university is back to its old tricks. The target this time is a Christian fraternity called Alpha Iota Omega that was started at a church that I attended in Durham.

According to the article:

The Alpha Iota Omega Christian fraternity (AIO) at UNC contacted FIRE when, according to AIO leaders, the university suspended the group's recognition and froze its university account and Web access without warning.

This occurred after AIO objected to signing an agreement which would have prohibited the use of religious affiliation as a criterion for membership — because following such a policy would defeat the very purpose of having a Christian fraternity.

Unrecognized groups do not have official rights at UNC and may not reserve space on campus, apply for funding from mandatory student fees, or take advantage of a variety of other rights and privileges that all recognized groups enjoy.

Apparently UNC's administration didn't learn anything in its tussle with IVCF. Less than two years after being called on the carpet over repressing Intervarsity they are at it again with a much smaller group. I guess they figured that they could bully them since they have only a couple of chapters and no national alumni organization to support them financially. Oops! Carolina thought wrong. Again.

"A Christian group has a right to be Christian, a Muslim group has a right to be Muslim, and a Jewish group has a right to be Jewish," said David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). "It seems absurd that anyone in a free society would have to make this argument, but time and time again FIRE has had to fight for this constitutional right at universities."

"For more than twenty years, it has been the law that public universities must provide equal access to religious student organizations. These universities cannot condition that access on the adoption of nondiscrimination regulations that strike at the heart of the religious character of the group," said FIRE's French.

In July of 2004, FIRE wrote to UNC Chancellor James Moeser, saying: "UNC simply may not use its nondiscrimination policy to dictate how religious student organizations must deal with matters of faith. If UNC allows expressive organizations to exist at all on its campus, then it must allow religious organizations to exist, to select their own members, and to establish policies and practices in pursuit of their goals. No group can control the content of its message if it is unable to choose its messengers."

I know that I shouldn't be amazed at the audacity of the university, but for some reason I am. Here is an establishment that is supposed to be dedicated to the development of tomorrow's leaders and better citizens and they are resorting to Stalinesque thought control tactics. Where do they think they are? Cuba? Maybe China? Boys, if you hear caterpillar treads outside of the frat house, look out! Chairman Moeser has sent out the tanks to have his own little Tiananmen Square! How dare you actually stand for something! How dare you actually declare that there is an absolute standard!

Obviously, Senator McCarthy got stopped too quickly. All the communists left Hollywood and headed to the universities, where they have been spreading their socialism and communistic crap unimpeded for the past 50 years or so. It is no wonder that Chapel Hill is so messed up! It is no wonder that Senator Jesse Helms mused, "Why do we need a zoo in North Carolina? Just put a fence around Chapel Hill!" (my paraphrase) Truer words were never spoken.

(Sigh.) I guess I’ll have to go back to singing the OFFICIAL words to the fight song. They aren’t as much fun, but the modified words are obviously way too efficacious in allowing the devil to run amuck at North Carolina’s (and the nation's)oldest public university.