Losing Religion
My Alma Mater, the College of William and Mary, has decided to remove an ancient and beautiful cross from the chapel.
In October, the Assistant Director for William & Mary’s historic campus wrote to Wren Building employees that “in order to make the Wren Chapel less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff and visitors of all faiths, the cross has been removed from the altar area.” On October 27, President Nichol confirmed his cross removal order in an email message to the College.
More welcoming, he says. He wants to make the Wren Chapel a less faith-specific place, he says.
The official website for the Wren Chapel tells something of the history:
The Sir Christopher Wren Building is the oldest college building in the United States and the oldest of the restored public buildings in Williamsburg. It was constructed between 1695 and 1699, before the city was founded, when the capital of the colony of Virginia was still located at Jamestown, and the tract of land which was to become Williamsburg was populated by simple timber buildings …
So the chapel is older than the city, older than the nation. Let us compare and contrast. Gene R. Nichol was inaugurated as the 26 th President of the College of William & Mary in April of 2006. At the time of this writing, that is a grand total of eight months.
But let us not take in account tradition, simple justice, or beauty in the headlong rush to dechristianize society. Let us not keep faith with our ancestors. Why bother keeping any ancient and beautiful things in the world? What, after all, do we owe the dead? What do we owe those not yet born? Only the comfort and hypersensitive political correctness of the present generation matters, right?
As if in a dream, I seem to smell the gunpowder gathered at the base of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan. The Taliban no doubt wanted to make the site less faith-specific, and to make it more welcoming.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
