Honor Religious Heritage

“Honor already matters in your lives right now,” Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah told a gathering of the freshman class (Student Dispatch, Oct. 9). You bet it does! 

Without the Judeo-Christian ethic there is no capitalism, scientific method, academic freedom, democracy, rule of law, or property rights. 

It means something when Princeton drops its motto, “Dei sub numine viget” (under God’s power she flourishes), from publications including the Chapel’s Order of Worship. It means something when Princeton ended mandatory Chapel in 1964. It means something when Princeton’s former president, a molecular biologist, declares the atmosphere behaves like a greenhouse, hires a faculty member who has been a green lobbyist for 20 years and who states that his purpose is “to teach the new generation about global warming,” hires an adjunct professor for journalism who was the climate-change reporter for Time, and institutes a politically correct speech code.

Yes, it takes courage to speak up, but without courage there are no other virtues (Plato). Honor and integrity are like virginity — once lost, never regained. Princeton’s reputation as a world-class college with a research university appended has been lost.