ASU Graduation Gets Political

Platitudinal Leftism

As a faculty member, I attended ASU’s graduation ceremony last night in our football stadium. I don’t want you to misunderstand me: I had a fun time attending. I even incited the crowd to loud cheers when we processed in and I said “forks up.”

Yet, as the sole public conservative Christian at ASU, I feel it is my duty to offer you cutting-edge analysis of the content of the graduation program. It was reported to be our largest graduation ever, and that’s at the nation’s largest university which means we should pay close attention to what ASU is doing if we want to understand how universities are ideologically shaping their graduates.

And last night made a very clear statement: leftist ideology is still the hegemonic force at ASU.

ASU defines itself as inclusive. I agree. A university education should be inclusive and accessible to all. ASU also tells us that education is an inalienable right, and that we should all keep learning and adapting. Again, I agree.

But then ASU claims it is unique in accomplishing these things. That’s where the mistake is made.

You see, it is already illegal for any university to discriminate based on race, gender, religion, and so on. That’s why so many of them are in trouble, because they have been doing just that. ASU itself has required employee training about the problem of “whiteness.”

Insofar as universities are obeying the anti-discrimination laws, the only real difference between ASU and a university with 400 students is the amount of space available. And there are other very large universities, like Washington and Ohio, that serve nearly as many students. ASU isn’t doing anything new.

But here’s what is happening: otherwise positive words—inclusion, education, learning, critical thinking—are being redefined according to a radical leftist agenda. Let’s walk through the night and see how this played out.

Although it’s plain to see, for many it’s like asking a fish to describe water. They’ve been in it so long, they no longer notice it. Many Christians have simply settled into this as “just the way it is.” But your humble dissenting reformer (that’s me, if you didn’t catch it) is here to help you see what’s really going on: Christians have become the object of discrimination, even as a radical ideology of identity politics gets normalized under the banner of inclusion.

The general vibe you got by graduation program is that someone at ASU watched a Spider-Man movie and thought, “With great power comes great responsibility, that sounds profound. Let’s say that, but with education.” So students are fed empty slogans like “make the world a better place,” “serve your community,” and “be a leader who adapts to ongoing change through resourcefulness and . . . you know, the other stuff. Now go be an advocate.”

This is a university graduation. Shouldn’t there be at least some depth to it?
One thing is certain: ASU produces a large number of self-described “advocate leaders.”

Here’s just one example. As you walk up to the football stadium, the speakers broadcast ASU’s Native American Land Acknowledgement. It tells you that you must honor the original inhabitants of the land. But here’s the problem: it never actually tells you who they were. It only names current tribes. So let’s look back, who really was here first? And by whom were they conquered and displaced?

At ASU, you’ll hear references to “indigenous ways of knowing.” But the example given in the land acknowledgment is that indigenous people dug canals which later pioneers relied on to build the current Arizona canal system. That’s not a “way of knowing”—that’s just knowing. This is an attempt to divide people rather than affirm what is common and universal. They applied truths about water flow, gravity, and elevation to build canals. That’s called knowledge, and it isn’t based on race or culture-specific epistemology. It’s universal.

Next, attendees were presented with many symbols affirming the LGBTQ+ sex philosophy. The graduation ceremony made it clear where ASU stands on this issue. It isn’t treated as one worldview among many, it is the one considered true, the baseline from which everything else is judged. The only remaining question is: “Will you affirm my identity as a healthy one that is good for me?”

There is no space for genuine critical thinking, no opportunity to ask, “What if you're wrong? What if you've been influenced by deeply flawed thinkers like Alfred Kinsey and John Money? You’re doings things to each other’s bodies that we know are harmful, did no educator care about your enough to tell you this? They tell you that you are critical thinkers but can you you identify your own assumptions or test them for meaning?” That line of questioning is no longer permitted, not in a system that claims to honor critical thinking, but refuses to allow it.

Among the student speakers, one did quote Jesus: “The truth will set you free.” This is a frequently used line, even by those on the radical left, though it’s often yanked out of its biblical context. Still, the speaker did mention Jesus by name, and a large portion (it sounded like the majority) of the crowd cheered.

That was the heartbreaking part.

These Christians are in captivity. They are forced to pay for an education steeped in radical leftist ideology, an education that presupposes Christianity is false and only “tolerates” it so long as it bows to the dominant creed: eco-mystic feminist gender-climate-race-equity philosophy. They are told that the faculty should “look like” the communities they serve yet Christians are statistically non-existent on the faculty. These disparities of outcome are supposed to prove structural bigotry, unless they might help Christians.

Christians, rise up and expose the falsehoods of what such professors are teaching. Recognize what you have been made to sit through, and even pay for. Realize that you’ve been robbed of an education and handed ideological conformity in its place. Your kindness and empathy have been used against you to promote fundamentally anti-Christian philosophies.

Finally, the special speaker spent her time telling us about her privilege. I thought privilege was supposed to be a bad thing. But she proudly told us how her parents had such influential connections that she got to grow up working out with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in a special gym in the nation’s capital. Then she told us about her highly placed friends at ASU. I thought that getting benefits, jobs, honors, due to having influential friends was supposed to be a bad thing, too. Did I miss a memo?

But here’s where it gets really good.

She told us that we are “created in each other’s image,” that we come “from the earth,” and that each person is “the good.” That is what ASU officially endorses, and that’s the person to whom ASU gave an honorary degree.

Unbelievable.

Let’s think through each of her claims.

She is clearly referencing, and rejecting, Genesis 1, where we are told that we are created in God’s image. We are equal to one another, yes, but we are not created in each other’s image. Her statement was a flat rejection of God the Creator, replacing Him with the earth, or an earth goddess, or some form of eco-mysticism. And that goes well with the number of times she and others referenced the Declaration of Independence and inalienable rights, but left out where we got those. And this wasn’t presented as a personal opinion, it came from the recipient of an ASU honorary degree.

One of my long-standing criticisms of our university system is that it fails to produce students who are wise and know what is good. ASU essentially responded with, “Hold my beer,” and selected an honorary speaker who told us, “You are the good.”

That’s such a basic category mistake, and I’m confident I could round up a handful of elementary school students to explain why it’s wrong.
We need the good.
We pursue the good.
We are not the good.

The good is something we seek. The good is for humans, not equated with humans.

She didn’t say “you are good,” she said “you are the good.” But either way, it represents a further rejection of Genesis 1–3 and clear general revelation seen in nature. The message was: “You are created in each other’s image, and you are not sinners, you are good just as you are.”
Well, except for white heteronormativity. That’s bad.
Otherwise, you’re good.

Lastly, when we did hear from students, many of them said something like, “I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, and that is ASU,” or “I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, and that is giving to my community.” These statements reflect the broader point: the university is failing to produce students who are wise and know what is good.

ASU isn’t the “thing bigger than myself.” It’s supposed to be the place that prepares you for that.
And “giving to your community” only counts if what you’re giving is actually good.
To know that, you must first know what the good is.

What these students were saying is that we have eternity in our hearts. We yearn for meaning and something more than our selfish desires. ASU didn’t need to alert them to this, we all know it. What ASU needed to do is help them learn what will fill that need and what won’t. The guest speaker came close, and got my hopes up, when she said that knowledge is eternal, but it fell flat because of her claim that we are made in each other’s image. She could not make the final step knowing God.

The night was a series of leftist platitudes designed to give warm feelings to those who were never taught to think critically. But once we examine their meaning, we see how vacuous they really are. Isn’t a university education supposed to go beyond middle school and provide some in-depth content? Shouldn’t a university be able to define “the good” and explain the means by which it is pursued?

The only consolation is that we now have a massive supply of self-described “advocates” and “community leaders” for the future. The world is so brimming full of self-appointed leaders you must ask who will be their followers? These leaders can’t tell you what the good is, so they’re not advocating toward it or leading to it, but they are certainly advocating something.

Christians, let’s call their bluff and show that we are critical thinkers who know what is good and how to know God. We see through their lies, about God, about creation, about the Bible, and about the true nature of what is good. Demand a university education that makes you wise and virtuous.

Let’s show them what critical thinkers can do.