How Ivy League is too Ivy League, you ask? Some examples come to mind, such as enacting racially discriminatory practices in the name of racial equality, which is something Harvard has actually done. But in this case Harvard appears to have outdone itself:
The Puritan colonists who settled in New England in the 1630s had a nagging concern about the churches they were building: How would they ensure that the clergymen would be literate? Their answer was Harvard University, a school that was established to educate the ministry and adopted the motto "Truth for Christ and the Church." It was named after a pastor, John Harvard, and it would be more than 70 years before the school had a president who was not a clergyman.
Nearly four centuries later, Harvard's organization of chaplains has elected as its next president an atheist named Greg Epstein, who takes on the job this week.
Who wants to tell them?
It would seem that running a platoon of religious ministers at a major American university should at the very least require someone who is actually religious. Then again, the faith community at Harvard pretty eagerly signed up for this one, so many it doesn't matter so much in this case:
To Mr. Epstein's fellow campus chaplains, at least, the notion of being led by an atheist is not as counterintuitive as it might sound; his election was unanimous.
Harvard students who are looking around for off-campus housing should probably consider looking around for off-campus religion as well.
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