“They would be ‘less likely to hire’ a person they knew to be an evangelical”

A study reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals 2 out of 5 sociologists (39 percent) said they would be "less likely to hire" a person they knew to be an evangelical. (HT: Houston Chronicle’s Kate Shellnutt). Peter Wood, who wrote the Chronicle of Higher Education article, was not pleased:

Bias by academics against Christian conservatives does not register very strongly if at all as a transgression against the principles of intellectual honesty and fair-mindedness. These groups are academic pariahs, frequently characterized as stupid, anti-intellectual, doctrinaire, ill-disposed towards the values of liberal learning, and deserving of their ostracism. It isn't particularly hard to find academics willing to give voice to these attitudes….Those who indulge in cartoon caricatures of conservative Christians or act with bias against individuals who they fit to this category are just as guilty of bias as they would be if they engaged in anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, or homophobia….

I have several members of Hillcrest with degrees in social work, and they would have had to run this gauntlet in order to graduate. None of them has yet to pursue master’s work in their field. Big surprise.