Sometimes religious types try to broaden their views in order to be loved and respected by nonbelievers.

Don’t try this. You only give them more reason to disregard you.

Take what happened to Smith College’s chaplains: Their nondogmatic and pro-diversity stance was so persuasive, the school fired them in the name of nondogmatism and diversity.

Smith once employed chaplains who serve Catholics, Protestants and Jews, reports The Weekly Standard. No more.

“Our student body has become increasingly diverse in every way, including religiously, and we belive students would be better served by moving away from the emphasis on these three faith groups and moving toward broader support for the full range of religious belief and practice on campus.”

These chaplains were already doing the diversity thing, “supporting groups from the Radical Catholic Feminists of Smith to the Hillel Foundation to the Association of Smith Pagans and Al Iman.”

But now, what about the rest of the school’s many chaplains? http://www.smith.edu/religiouslife/People/people.htm

Smith is a warning about what will happen, eventually, to institutions that drift from their religious principles. They will one day turn against their religious principles.

Smight’s origins were very Christian. The Standard notes that Sophia Smith’s will establishing the college said:

“It is my opinion that by the higher and more thoroughly Christian education of women, what are called their ‘wrongs’ will be redressed, their wages adjusted, their weight of influence in reforming the evils of society will be greatly increased.”

The school’s website repeats that passage verbatim … except that it deletes, without even the courtesy of an elipse, the part that I put in italics above.