It really isn’t all that shocking to discover there is an anti-Evangelical bias amongst college professors in North America. A recent poll shows just how much this is so, and what is shocking is how much more animus is directed at Evangelicals compared to Mormons or Muslims or Jews. The survey of college professors can be found in World Magazine– follow this link
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13235.

The most salient information is this—

In a scientific survey of 1,269 faculty members across 712 different colleges and universities, 53 percent of respondents admitted to harboring unfavorable feelings toward evangelicals. The next closest group in the unfavorable ratings was Mormons at just 33 percent. Muslims’ unfavorable rating was just 22 percent.

The study was done by Gary A. Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, who set out to gauge levels of academic anti-Semitism compared to hostility toward other religious groups. He found that only 3 percent of college faculty holds unfavorable views toward Jews.

Notice please who did this survey– a group that could be called an ‘anti-Semitism’ watchdog agency! They certainly could not be construed as a group given to distorting or concocting data that would simply confirm Evangelical suspicions.

What this survey does not deal with is anti-Evangelical sentiments at non-Evangelical seminaries (particularly mainline seminaries) in North America, but I can tell you that a survey, if honestly done would find evidence of that as well.

I do have to say however that my own anecdoctal non-scientific personal experience is that things have actually changed for the better in some quarters in recent years if we are talking about hirings at seminaries. I was once told by a Dean of a United Methodist seminary that over his dead body would an Evangelical be hired at his institution. This was 25 years ago, and today that institution has hired more than one good Evangelical scholar, and frankly so have other major non-Evangelical seminaries as well. Old prejudices however die hard.

What is perhaps most interesting to me about this extensive survey is that while ‘liberal arts’ colleges apparently have become less ‘liberal’ or open minded about Evangelicals over the last three decades, various seminaries have become more ‘liberal’ or open-minded in their thinking about Evangelicals in some ways.

Progress can be cited not only at many mainline seminaries, but also well-qualified Evangelicals have also been hired at some of the more prestigious Ivy League Divinity schools such as Yale and Princeton. To some degree this can be put down to the coming of age of Evangelical scholarship in this same period. When I was entering college at the beginning of the 70s, there were about 2 Evangelical NT scholars who had world-wide regard and could be hired anywhere– I am referring to F.F. Bruce and Bruce Metzger. Things have changed in a major way since that point in time. Now Evangelicals are leaders in many areas of the study of the Bible and cognate disciplines. We have much to be proud of, but also miles to go before we sleep.