U. of Colorado Appoints ‘Scholar of Conservative Thought’
The appointment clearly has the look of bringing in someone with well-defined op-ed positions, and Hayward has no shortage of those, as evidenced by the archive of his posts in conserva-blog Power Line.
Based on his books alone, which are mostly a compendium of op-ed positions, attacks on twentieth-century progressivism and its presidential exponents (an argument perfected recently by Glenn Beck’s screeds), and some pretty standard hagiographies of Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill, it’s difficult to see why he would land an academic position at the flagship university of the state. But his most serious recent text, Mere Environmentalism, is of most interest here.
The text condemns the environmental movement for emphasizing nature over the supernatural, and thus displacing God and mankind’s role in managing God’s creation. The policy prescriptions, while light, are modest and within the mainstream of current environmental policy discussions (including discussions of a particular form of carbon tax). Of more significance is the inclusion of a Genesis-based Christian viewpoint into a university with one of the leading environmental studies programs in the world.
Hayward himself declares his intention to expose his students to diverse viewpoints, and not to proselytize for his own. No problem there; that is in fact standard practice in most classrooms that I’ve ever seen and most colleagues I have ever known.
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