Fig Tree Grows in Brooklyn
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
One of the remarkable little dramas in the ideological wars on campus is the quick and quiet way in which Brooklyn College resolved the matter of the department chairman who belittled believers. Shortly after the Sun, on May 18, issued an editorial about the fact that Timothy Shortell – who had called religious persons “moral retards” and denigrated them in other language, some of it on his personal Web site – had emerged as chairman of the sociology department, the president of Brooklyn College, Christoph Kimmich, sent the editor of the Sun a brief letter.
In it he said that he disagreed sharply with the offensive opinions expressed by Professor Shortell. While the professor’s right to express his views was protected, Mr. Kimmich wrote, “what is not protected is the injection of views like these into the classroom or into any administrative responsibilities” that the professor might assume as chairman of the sociology department. He went on to say he convened a committee of three high-ranking Brooklyn College officials and asked them to investigate “and report back to me.”
A few weeks went by, and the professor sent an e-mail to colleagues saying that he was dropping his bid to become department chairman. Our Jacob Gershman had the story Wednesday. It seems that Mr. Shortell claimed he was a victim of a political attack. “After witnessing the amount of venom directed at me by some members of the department during the last two weeks,” he wrote, “I have come to doubt the possibility of any amicable solution.” The college’s administration, led by the president, Christoph Kimmich, announced that Mr. Shortell declined the appointment but would be consulting on the future leadership of the department.
What a nifty solution and how appropriate the example should be set in Brooklyn, which has been called the borough of churches. What a harsh and offensive tone Mr. Shortell set. The fact is that in its ideological DNA, America has all kinds of room for persons with all kinds of religions or none at all. It is the country where George Washington wrote, in respect of religion, of how “every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” And it’s just terrific to see this fig tree growing in Brooklyn.
