Faith Statements Impinge on Academic Freedom? A Response to the Canadian Association of University Teachers

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is engaged in a project of blacklisting several Canadian Christian universities that require their faculty to sign a statement of faith as a condition of employment. In this article I set out and defend three reasons for thinking that CAUT should stop its project. Reason 1: CAUT’s blacklisting project thwarts academic freedom broadly conceived. Reason 2: CAUT’s blacklist relies on a philosophical assumption that purports to promote academic freedom but is actually a case of academic bullying. Reason 3: CAUT’s crucial claim—that a Christian school’s requirement for faculty to subscribe to a statement of faith means that such schools “cannot be practicing academic freedom”—is in an important sense false.