Fordham University, the New York City school founded by a Catholic archbishop, held the book talk in late February to discuss James Baldwin, the late author and Civil Rights activist.
A related story by The Fordham Ram, the student newspaper, said the book “Jimmy’s Faith” was the topic with book author Christopher Hunt. Hunt is an open homosexual and former Christian who teaches religion at Colorado College, a private liberal arts school in Colorado Springs.
Hunt’s book was published by Fordham University Press.
Zachary Marschall, of Campus Reform, calls the topic a “lot of nonsense” created by liberal scholars.
“They want to queer everything the way restaurants wanted to put truffle salt on everything for a few years,” he complains. “It's enough, and we need to move past it."
Baldwin, who was born in New York City, is known for a writing career that included essays, poems, and novels. He died in 1987 at age 63.
Hunt, the book’s author, told the audience he felt drawn to Baldwin’s story because he, too, battled his Christian faith and his own sexual orientation.
“The reason they told me to revisit Baldwin is they knew that here I was a Ph.D. student in a theology program who came to the realization that I was no longer a Christian,” Hunt said, according to the Ram.
The book talk was sponsored by the Racial Justice and Equity Concerns Committee, a part of Fordham’s theology department, the Ram reported.
Marschall, who is Jewish, says the university authors and scholars are trying to create a “queer understanding” of God and Christianity.
“The religion is not about the individual,” Marschall argues. “God existed out of space and time as we understand it, so His existence is not about you.”
Therefore the book on Baldwin, and the book talk itself, Marschall concludes, are examples of wannabe academics spouting off “nonsense.”
