I enjoy Douglas Wilson’s blog, and in this recent stroll through one of James Davison Hunter’s chapters, Wilson recounts an anecdote involving Robert P. George:
So is not as though Christians could just stroll into the important cultural centers, or walk in unimpeded provided they were willing to do the work. At a dinner we had with Robert George when he came out to speak for NSA’s commencement, Peter Leithart asked Dr. George how he managed, um, to get by at Princeton, being as outspokenly conservative as he was. He replied that it was with both guns blazing — and that he advises young academics to do the same thing. If you keep your head down, they will find you anyway, and then when “the hit” comes, all you have done is provide your adversaries with plausible deniability. Lots of people don’t get tenure, ya know?
Christians know all about the influential centers that Hunter talks about — and have known about them for a long time. I have been privileged to know a number of faithful Christians who have gotten graduate degrees from prestigious universties, and it really was a dicey proposition for them. Some keep their heads down, and manage to survive — but the price tag is one of personal compromise. When they get to a position of influence, they can’t use it because they discover that they misplaced their soul somewhere along the way. Or they fly the flag nobly, and are taken out. A mere handful survive without compromise because the machine gun fire is withering.
Read the whole thing, often Wilson’s last lines are his best.