The Foxy Essayist

Below is my letter to Conor Friedersdorf in response to his petition for feedback from Hillsdale students, alumni, and faculty on the apparent moral relativism demonstrated by its President, Dr. Larry Arnn.  --   Dear Conor, Thank you for raising these important questions about Hillsdale College. They are ones that have troubled me over the eleven years since I graduated from there. I agree with your analysis of the Orwellian doublespeak in Pence’s address at Hillsdale’s commencement and the implicit utilitarian moral relativism in his defense of Pence during the interview with Hugh Hewitt. I would like to provide some larger context for this by answering your final question: “How does his at-least-partly transactional alliance with movement conservatism and its donor base affect Hillsdale College, for better or worse?” You correctly identify a real tension between the public face of Hillsdale College, which drives its fundraising with striking succes...

Below is an e-mail that I sent to then director of marketing Bill Gray and to Provost David Whalen on March 10, 2012. They did not reply. I also published it as a note on facebook that was open to Hillsdale College students and alumni, where there was a (generally positive) reaction and a constructive conversation. Connor Friedersdorf has opened a conversation concerning the tensions between Hillsdale College's advocacy for virtue and the Western Tradition, and its current support for the Trump Administration. I am posting it as a piece of evidence concerning the long-standing tensions between the marketing position of Hillsdale and the actual values inculcated by the college and championed by its alumni.  -- Dear Bill Gray, As an alumni (Class of 2007) of Hillsdale College, I was a bit surprised when the College began advertising on Rush Limbaugh's show. Nevertheless, I understood that there are some points of contact between his form of conservatism and the mission...

A few years ago I read The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It tells the story of an aging British butler named Stevens reminiscing about his life in service to a fictional English nobleman named Lord Darlington. As the story unfolds, the reader gradually discovers several important dimensions to his life in the tense period of the 1930s. First, Stevens was so dedicated to his idealized vision of proper service that he neglected his father in his final illness. At the same time, Stevens' ideals led him to drive away the one woman who could put up with him, cutting off the possibility of a romantic relationship because of his self-imposed sense of duty. Stevens' sense of duty and insistence on the superiority of the English aristocracy drive his choices, but they also prevent him from serious reflection on the choices of his patron. The reader comes to realize that Stevens' many personal sacrifices for Lord Darlington centered on Darlington's quest to preserve th...

This is a guest post by Marcella. Over the past few months, there has been a lot ink spilled over the so-called "immigration crisis" As sensational news coverage whips up concerns over who should be granted refugee status and employment opportunities, I have noticed an increase in another kind of reporting.  These stories describe white-bystanders calling the local authorities to report that people around them are speaking Spanish. In one incident , a lawyer called ICE because a Starbucks employee was speaking Spanish to several customers. The lawyer assumed that the people were in the United States illegally and said that he should not have to be subjected to hearing Spanish since his hard-earned money was allowing them to live in his country for free. As the journalist pointed out, even if the Spanish speakers had been undocumented, (their immigration status remained unconfirmed) taxes are still withheld on their paychecks. In another story , a border patrol agent detaine...

For centuries the various states of Europe were often collectively referred to as Christendom. Despite their many differences, the term Christendom was used to indicate that the Christian states of Europe together represented the extent of the Kingdom of Christ through their political institutions. The Reformation complicated this notion, yet the idea of Christendom continued for centuries despite the theological differences among the confessional states of Europe. When Christendom is invoked nowadays, it is done either as a model of something to reject, or with a nostalgic wistfulness for an era in which Christianity had a greater role in directing domestic and foreign policy. For those who think back to it fondly, Christendom conjures up an image of a unified vision of a Christian society in which there is a consensus around what constitutes sin and a government committed to oppose it through the use of legal force. Some evangelicals, frustrated at the apparent relativism and ...