Essay Database

Last month, members of the Appropriations Committee of the North Carolina House of Representatives voted to use the power of the state budget to block the assignment of a book to all freshmen and transfer students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations (White Cloud Press, 1999), by Michael Sells, a professor of religion at Haverford College. Denying public funds to the reading program unless "all other known …

…he reaffirmed the value of academic freedom in a world of moral crises: "I asked myself whether it still makes sense to strive for a peaceful society based on reason and understanding. Then the answer came to me clearly, and it is summarized by the Hebrew word davka -- despite everything." The North Carolina, Minnesota, and Missouri legislatures -- and, indeed, legislatures, boards, and those of us on campuses everywhere -- should be so bold.