Monday, January 24, 2011

My op ed on UK's Gaskell Affair in today's Herald-Leader

My article on the Gaskell Affair at University of Kentucky was published in today's Lexington Herald-Leader.

It highlights the university's doublespeak on diversity, as evidenced by its actions toward Gaskell, who was up for the position of observatory director at UK until it was discovered he was "potentially evangelical."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/01/tin-eared_martin_cothran.php#comments

Singring said...

Martin, can we expect your next op ed to express indignation and outrage about tax breaks going to a Christian amusement park that requires employees to sign a statement of fundamentlaist faith?

Martin Cothran said...

The ADHD Task Force of Vital Remnants has deemed the above comment completely irrelevant to the post.

Singring said...

'The ADHD Task Force of Vital Remnants has deemed the above comment completely irrelevant to the post.'

That's strange. Because your op ed was a fiery peon against a state funded institution basing its hiring policies on religious beliefs. A noble cause, no doubt.

Yet when it comes to a religious theme park being built with taxpayer support by an organisation that requires alll of its employees to sign statements of faith, your outrage suddenly dissipates and becomes hearty approval, even going so far as to state that if they claim they are doing science, we are not question that claim and just hand over the tax dollars.

So how come you question UK's hiring policy? I mean - they said it was based on the merits, not religion. Who are you to doubt them?