Dr. Mitchell Simpson, Pastor, University Baptist Church

An Open Letter from a Chapel Hill pastor to his congregation:

If you’re not alarmed over the future of academic freedom at UNC, you’re not paying attention. If you’re not paying attention, you’re forfeiting the spiritual birthright earned at such high cost by our Baptist forebears. If those two sentences don’t make any sense to you, keep reading. If it doesn’t matter to you, then you have no right to an opinion. As pastor of a Baptist congregation located at the corner of Franklin & Columbia Streets in the heart of Chapel Hill, and as a proud alumnus of UNC, it matters very much to me.

Primary among the non-negotiable Baptist tenets shaping our democracy’s formation was a fierce insistence upon religious freedom and its corollary, freedom of speech. A lot of folks have no idea that, were it not for the unabridged defense of religious liberty by Baptist clergy and laity in colonial Virginia, there would have been no Bill of Rights protecting the very freedoms Americans now take so much for granted. The Bill of Rights is there because fearless Baptists insisted upon it … and paid for their courage by being hounded, harassed and jailed by the powers-that-be among the colonial heirs of the Church of England, who ruled the colonies with an iron fist and were simply not amused by their rough-hewn Baptist counterparts. If you want to know the history of Baptists in colonial America, check the court proceedings and jail records.

Fast-forward to the current mischief afoot among UNC’s Board of Governors. First came their ham-fisted dismissal of UNC President Tom Ross, upon whom they heaped expansive praise for his integrity and leadership even as they were escorting him to the gallows.  Now comes news of their displeasure with Gene Nichol, former dean of the UNC Law School whose leadership of the UNC Poverty and Work Institute has fallen out of favor with them and prompted their calls for de-funding.

Mark my words:  These folks are just getting started.  And don’t let anyone tell you this is just politics-as-usual.  There are of course political overtones to all of this, but there’s nothing new about that, nor should  there be any sacred cows held above reproach in the healthy hurly-burly of the democratic process.  But this is less about political affiliation than it is about fear-driven fundamentalism and the long-simmering resentment of those who feel threatened by true academic freedom’s honest discourse.  This is not about Democrats and Republicans.  It’s about old angers and an imbedded inferiority complex, and it is no coincidence that among the first targeted are the poor and those who speak for them.  Make no mistake:  This bunch will not stop until they have stifled dissent and smothered academic freedom.

Sound familiar?  It should, if you know anything about Jesus of Nazareth and his defense of the powerless, voiceless poor.  It should, if you remember anything about Baptist preacher Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his advocacy on behalf of poor people.

Perhaps it’s more than coincidence that two of the giants among UNC’s stalwart defenders of progressive thought in recent years, two whose parting has left a great void just when we so need leaders like them, were also Baptists unafraid of defying the powers that be on behalf of “the least of these.”  Their names?  Bill Friday and Dean Smith. Even if the Baptist tradition means nothing to you, if you love what UNC has stood for on the national academic stage, at the very least find your voice in memory of those two Baptists who gave their best years in service to our beloved “Carolina, priceless gem.”  For heaven’s sake, pay attention and speak up, or we will lose something we cannot soon replace.

Dr. Mitchell Simpson, UNC Class of 1972 (B.A., English Literature)