What happens in Israel will not stay in Israel

OPINION:

This past week, as images of hundreds of mutilated Israeli bodies flooded the news, talking heads in the media repeatedly asked, “How could this happen?”

For the answer, look no further than America’s ivory tower.

At Harvard University, for example, more than 30 pro-Palestinian groups released a statement blaming the Jewish people for “all unfolding violence.”

Students at the University of California, Berkeley, followed suit. “We invariably reject Israel’s framing [itself] as a victim,” they said.

Not to be outdone, 18-year-olds at George Mason University shouted their support for “all forms of resistance” against the Jews, which presumably includes the “moral good” of raping Israeli women and beheading their babies.

This sad display of moral nihilism should surprise no one. It’s been coming for decades and is a sobering reminder of how far our educational system has fallen.

It may be a surprise to the elites in the media, but American higher education, from its inception in the 1600s until the end of the 19th century, operated within the context of a Christian ethos. The guiding philosophy was to propagate knowledge and to prepare upright leadership within a Christian society.

The academy’s mission at that time was to promote moral development and civic responsibility. Theoretically and ideally, higher education was considered critical in maintaining our country’s moral order.

Proof of this rich heritage can easily be seen in the original mottos of many of our nation’s seminal institutions. Harvard’s, for example, was Christo et Ecclesiae, “For Christ and the Church.” The Crimson went even further to state that its mission was to “let every Student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

Seven of the eight Ivy League institutions were founded in like manner. Dartmouth’s purpose was to “Christianize” the American Indian tribes, and its motto, even to this day, is Vox clamantis in deserto: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.” The University of Pennsylvania’s motto was Leges Sine Moribus Vanae: “Laws without morals are useless.”

Brown University was founded under the banner of “In God We Hope.” Columbia University’s motto was taken directly from Psalm 36:9, In lumine Tuo videbi mus lumen: “In Thy light shall we see light.” And Princeton’s mission could not have been clearer: “Cursed is all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.”

The list could go on and literally cover coast to coast. Amherst College, Terras Irradient: “Let them enlighten the lands.” Wellesley College, Non Ministrari sed Ministrare: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Northwestern University, Quaecumque Sunt Vera: “Whatsoever things are true.”

Kenyon College, Magnanimiter Crucem Sustine: “Valiantly bear the cross.” Ohio University, Religio Doctrina Civilitas, Prae Omnibus Virtus: “Religion, Learning, Civility; Above All, Virtue.” Indiana University, Lux et Veritas: “Light and Truth.”

Emory University, Cor prudentis possidebit scientiam: “The wise heart seeks knowledge.” Valparaiso University, In luce tua videmus lucem: “In Thy light we see light.” The University of California, Fiat Lux: “Let there be light.”

The above institutions are among hundreds of American colleges that explicitly cite a Judeo-Christian ethic and even specific biblical passages as their guiding ethos and their very reason for existence. Our country’s higher educational inheritance is rich with the assumption that the highest goal of the academy should be to teach personal integrity, the value of morality, and biblical wisdom.

But this is obviously no longer the case. Our entire educational enterprise has lost any moral boundaries that confirm common sense, natural law and intellectual sanity.

The left’s anti-Western neo-Marxist orthodoxy of race, sex, and class conflict has become the dominant reality on nearly every one of our campuses. Intellectual nihilism, sexual licentiousness, intolerance, bigotry and antisemitism are now the norm.

G.K. Chesterton once warned us that “when you break the big laws,” you create a void where evil rushes in to replace good.

Value neutrality is a ruse. Vacuums never sustain themselves. Remove virtue, and you will get vice. Get rid of the Bible, and you will get butchery. A faithless culture soon justifies furnaces.

If you want to know why this is all happening, all you need to do is look at your alma mater and what it teaches.

What happens in Israel will not stay in Israel. We are insane to think that teaching tens of thousands of our progeny that such atrocities are justified will bear any different fruit in the United States than what we now see in the streets of Israel.

The next shoe to drop may be in Galveston rather than Gaza.

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.