Dr. Owen Anderson, professor at Arizona State University (ASU) said that the faculty's labeling of conservative speaker Dennis Prager, who is Jewish, a "white nationalist" is "low insult."
“You had the vast majority of the Honors College professors writing a letter calling Dennis Prager a white nationalist and giving that as a reason why he shouldn't be allowed to speak under the Honors College,” Anderson told host Leyla Gulen on the Grand Canyon Times Podcast. “If you know Dennis Prager, you know that he's a religiously observant Jew. And so to call him a white nationalist is just a low insult and completely misrepresents who and what he is.”
“What Dennis Prager has to say is not dangerous. He's not a white nationalist. And it's really even problematic to have to say that,” Anderson said. “That's the way they do it, is they'll put out this terrible insult and then you have to spend your time saying no."
This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Anderson is a professor in the ASU School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies. He has been with ASU for twenty one years, and previously was a fellow at Princeton University, a visiting scholar at Princeton Seminary, and a fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
In this podcast episode, Anderson discusses free expression on college campuses, specifically the ASU faculty's reaction to a event held at the university earlier this year.
As former ASU staff member Ann Atkinson told the Grand Canyon Times Podcast earlier this year, the event referenced by Anderson was a "Health, Wealth and Happiness" event planned by Atkinson and held at the T.W. Lewis Center for Personal Development at ASU's Barrett Honors College.
Atkinson, the former director of the T.W. Lewis Center, said she was fired from her job following the event, which featured a number of conservative speakers, including talk show hosts Prager and Charlie Kirk, and financial author Robert Kioysaki. Atkinson said that after the speakers were announced, “39 of 47 Barrett faculty expressed outrage and sent a letter to the dean condemning the event,” reported Arizona PBS.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Atkinson said ASU faculty described the event speakers as “purveyors of hate” and that the university announced that funding for the T.W. Lewis Center would not extended past June 30, thus terminating Atkinson’s position.
Anderson has testified in hearings held by a new Arizona legislative committee examining "free speech expression" at ASU in the wake of the Honors College reaction.
A pastor at Historic Christian Church of Phoenix, Anderson has authored several books, including "Job: A Philosophical Commentary,” "The Declaration of Independence and God,” and "The Natural Moral Law" (2013).
He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from ASU, as well as masters degrees in both religious studies and philosophy from ASU. Anderson also graduated Magna Cum Laude with undergraduate degrees from ASU.
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