Professor Jason Hill was condemned by his university, De Paul, for the audacity of applying his moral agency rather than joining in with political correctness and group-think regarding Israel. And that is a big no-no on campus, today. Now he is suing them for defamation and damages.
The Faculty Council at DePaul University passed a resolution condemning professor of philosophy Jason Hill after he wrote an article in The Federalist in support of Israel and condemned Hamas.
Hill wrote that “Israel has the moral right to annex all of the West Bank (even Area C) for a plethora of reasons.” The article offended Muslim students and some faculty, which caused protests and a demand for censure….
Hill told Tucker Carlson on Fox News that no one will silence him. He made it clear that the censure is because he took “a very positive pro-Israeli stance in a very anti-Semitic culture on college campuses that are pushing for BDS movement and divestment against Israel and I’m a conservative independent who speaks his mind very clearly and will not be silenced.”
Hill filed his lawsuit on April 20 in Cook County Court, naming the university, Religious Studies Professor Scott Paeth and Interim Provost Salma Ghanem as defendants.
That resolution allegedly claimed that Hill “expresse[d] positions that are factually inaccurate, advocate war crimes and ethnic cleansing, and give voice to racism” against those who are Palestinian. In addition, the resolution stated that Hill committed “an abuse of academic freedom” because the op-ed was considered to be factually “inaccurate.”
Ahhh, racism against Palestinians; who are not a race. They are Arabs. Some are Muslim and some are Christian. And heaven forbid you do not walk in lock step with the university’s negative views on Israel: that’s an abuse of academic freedom. Sharing a different view, actually based on fact is abuse! What does one say to that?
Professor Hill is a black, gay man born in Jamaica. At the age of ten he knew that America was the light unto the nations for him and in America he could be whomever he chose. At twenty he arrived in America and he succeeded. Not without pain and suffering. But he CHOSE to rise above it because he has moral agency – free will, that came to the world, and in particular, the United State of America by way of the Judeo/Christian ethic, given to the world more than 3500 years ago by the Jews. This ethic states that all people are born with equal intrinsic value, all life is sacred, and we have free will – moral agency; something no other ethic provides.
He admires America, which sadly far too many don’t, because as he wrote, one has “the inviolable freedom to create one’s own conception of the good life for oneself.” Unlike other cultures where you are born into your destiny, in the West you choose your future. It is not chosen for you. All of this comes from the Biblical value that all people have free will – moral agency.
Moral agency has been very important to Professor Hill. In his book We Have Overcome, he has fought against victimhood/victimology for a long time. We choose to be active participants in our lives or we choose to be victims. He writes of the danger of tribal collectivism and groupthink and the danger of herd and horde mentality.He has fought against the philosophical credo regarding being black in America; that black people cannot do well in a “white America,” that they have no moral agency. He wrote that “left-wingers heed the call of black dependence with glee because it places them in a permanent position of power.” And then he compares that teaching to the actions of the Jewish people, who despite so many attempts to destroy them, flourished because “not for one moment did they ever believe that their struggle for liberation lay in the hands other than their own.”
These values of freedom of choice do not fit the left-wing ideology of oppression taught in university.
Professor Hill has spent his time at university fighting against ethical relativism. He is a rare voice on campus fighting against the “profoundly anti-Israel, BDS platform shared by Black Lives Movement.” He excoriates them for their promotion of the big lie of apartheid and their accusations of genocide. He calls out “Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for their charters call for the annihilation of jury and paint Jews as pigs, vermin and an evil phenomenon that must be eradicated.” Echoes of Nazism. He reminds Black America the Jews were the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
His voice is rare. Too many wish to silence him. He wrote “the America professoriat hates America” and called for the shut down of the American humanities and social science department in current universities and a rebuilding of them from scratch.
“I won the moral battle when I accepted the strength that had always resided in me to stand alone and to simultaneously stand with God by my side and inside me. I irresolutely learned to move the arms of my moral conscience.”
For using his God-given moral agency he has suffered censorship, injustice, persecution, and humiliation. His courage must be rewarded.
It’s time for us to stand up to the left’s never ceasing campaign to take away freedom of thought. What better way than to support Professor Jason Hill.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
