Gaia and Man at Yale

Serving in the United States Senate would be a "greatway for me to apply the principles and values that were honed atYDS." --Delaware Democrat and U.S. Senatenominee Chris Coons, to the Yale Divinity School Notesfrom the Quad, September, 2010

Wow.

Chris Coons, the supposedly sure-thing Democratic opponentof Delaware Republican U.S. Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell,gave an interview publishedthis month in Notes from the Quad, a publication of theYale Divinity School (YDS) -- the school where Coons spent theearly 1990s earning a Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.)specializing in ethics, graduating in 1994.

Topic? 

Coons repeatedly expressed his determination to bring whathe calls Yale Divinity School "values" to the U.S. Senate andpublic life in general. He wants, he says, to "put the educationaland faith-formation experience of YDS into practice in the world."Coons says he has always been interested in "values-basedleadership" and "enjoys the challenge of integrating across thepractical and the values based." He sees his function as a publicofficial as engaging in a "values formation role" and says heintends to use elected office as a chance to "apply the principlesand values that were honed at YDS." After listing the issues hewould face in the U.S. Senate he says that making the "toughchoices"¦is all about values-based leadership."

So. 

If you've spent two or three years in a significantinstitution of learning like the Yale Divinity School getting aMaster's degree in Religion -- and boast that when elected to theUnited States Senate you intend to bring the values you learned atthat institution to Washington and the world, then the questionbecomes, in the case of Chris Coons:

What values does Yale Divinity School teach?

Values are transmitted by a university in at least threeways: courses, assigned reading, and last but certainly not leastthrough the leadership and professors of the school. Which makesthe following three questions about the Yale Divinity School valuesChris Coons insists he will bring to Washington very importantquestions. They are:

"¢Â What kind of values are taught in YaleDivinity School courses?

"¢Â What kind of values are found in thebooks Yale Divinity School assigns as requiredreading to its students?

"¢Â What kind of values are role modeledby the professors or leaders of Yale Divinity School through theirown writings and publications?

So. Are you sitting down? Sure? Good. We begin.

Yale Divinity School Courses and RequiredReading

"¢ Witchcraft and WitchHunting: Specifically listed as REL717: Witchcraft and Witch Hunting, the "REL" presumablystands for "Religion." Apparently Christine O'Donnell's mainoffense when it comes to dabbling in witchcraft in high school on adate is some sort of Ruling Class snobbery that she didn't go toYale Divinity School, where witchcraft has been quite officiallypart of the school's curriculum. The very same school from whichChris Coons insists he has taken his values.