Labels and St. Thomas

Jason Adkins at The Seventh Age takes Greg Sisk and others at St. Thomas to task for eschewing the "conservative" label:

UST Law's Greg Sisk has a posting at MOJ proclaiming that UST is not "conservative" but instead "Catholic." OK, fine, but the point is that the school was lumped in with the others (and how much of this controversy relates to not wanting to be associated with those other schools?), because UST Law is a religiously conservative (at least theoretically, or hopefully) institution. To secular folks that might mean UST is backward-looking, narrow, or close-minded, but to others, religious "conservatism" or orthodoxy means radical dynamism, a faith powerful enough to transform the world. The label should be embraced, not rejected, because young idealistic Christians are looking for a place where they can be formed in the law within the orthodox Christian, particularly Catholic, tradition. There are a zillion "Catholic" law schools out there, but they are largely indistinguishable (as previous MOJ posts have pointed out) from their secular counterparts. . . . By needlessly rejecting the label "conservative" and removing itself from a list that includes Regent and Ave Maria, St. Thomas says in effect . . . that it is just like every other Catholic school. You can come here and not be "oppressed" or "imposed" upon. This is dismaying to folks who want to engage the tradition heartily, and it is later dismaying to folks who want to avoid the faith, but have bought the misleading advertising and then are stuck in a jurisprudence course or with a professor who likes to raise philosophical or religious views in the classroom.

First, emphasizing the inclusiveness of the academic environment should not be read as pretending to be like every other Catholic law school. It seems clear from the other posts in this ongoing conversation that inclusiveness is not an obstacle to forming a more robust Catholic identity (and more likely is a prerequisite). But in my view, the more fundamental problem with Jason's criticism is his equation of "conservative" with "orthodox." The NPR piece posted by Michael labeled St. Thomas a "conservative Christian law school." Today that label has a fixed meaning, thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of many politically conservative Christians to define the entire spectrum of their chosen causes as emanating directly from the tenets of Christianity. As has been well said by others, orthodox Christianity will have some implications perceived as conservative within the political culture, but it will also have many implications that are perceived as radically progressive. Needless to say, if St. Thomas embraced the "conservative Christian" label as it is understood today, I would not currently be packing for a cross-country trip.

Rob