Our growing godless culture is become more consistent with itself. This is inevitable. Over time, as people embrace a particular worldview, they throw off the older worldview and embrace the features of the new worldview, no matter how devastatingly destructive. The goal is human autonomy at any price.

An article about Harvard student group hosting a Satanic Mass brought this to mind while I was watching a classic film. (“The Satanic Temple, which is scheduled to perform the reenactment Black Mass, is the same group that is trying to have a statue of Satan (depicted as ‘Baphomet’) installed on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol.”)

It was Gary Cooper week at AMC. One of the films the network was showing was The Pride of the Yankees (1942), the story of New York Yankee’s great first baseman Lou Gehrig.1

Gehrig was a student at Columbia University for a time before joining the ranks of professional baseball. One of the scenes – it was brief – showed the Alma Mater sculpture and the inscription above the Library of Columbia University. The inscription includes the phrase “for the advancement of the public good and the glory of Almighty God.”

Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King’s College. The president of the school wrote: “The chief thing that is aimed at in this college is to teach and engage the Children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him, in all sobriety, godliness, and righteousness of life, with a perfect heart, and a willing mind.”

The original seal of Columbia is filled with biblical material. “There are no less than five symbolic references to God and the Bible contained in the seal.”

Every major university in the United States, with the exception of the University of Pennsylvania, was established on a solid Christian foundation.

Harvard was the first. Its operating foundation was specifically Christian:

“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 lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning.”

One of Harvard’s early mottos was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae (“Truth for Christ and the Church”).

How far Harvard and so many other schools have fallen. Now we are learning that the once venerable Harvard has gone to the devil:

“A Satanic Black Mass reenactment is scheduled to take place at the Queen’s Head Pub in Memorial Hall at Harvard University on May 12, with the Mass performed by The Satanic Temple, which is being hosted for the event by the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club.

“A non-consecrated communion host will be used in the reenactment, according to Lucien Greaves, spokesman for The Satanic Temple.”

Of course, Harvard would never admit that the school is sponsoring the event. “The ‘official response’ states, ‘An independent student organization, the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, plans to host a controversial student event involving a historical reenactment of a black mass ceremony that has a narrator providing historical context and background.’”

I wonder what the administration would say if an “independent student organization” was going to engage in “a historical reenactment” of the lynching of a black man.

How about this one? What if an anti-same-sex marriage group wanted to hold a conference on why same-sex sexuality is immoral and does not deserve special rights status? How long do you think this claim by the school would be honored?:

“Harvard Extension School does not endorse the views or activities of any independent student organization. But we do support the rights of our students and faculty to speak and assemble freely.”

So if you are a Christian and a student at Harvard who opposes same-sex marriage and abortion, put the school’s claimed neutrality policy to the test and advertise a seminar on the topics and see what sort of reaction you get.

1. Gehrig was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Gehrig died in 1941. [↩]