Most political commentators have always presumed that religious fundamentalism, specifically when it derives from the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, leads to either no or even anti- democratic behavior.  This assumption has become such a mantra of contemporary liberals and atheists (but not of classical liberalism), that it feeds and dominates all political discussion of diversity, political correctness, and American foreign policy. 

New research has demonstrated that this is just not the case and does not "hold water" when examined empirically, and I may add not unbiasedly, it makes the traditional liberal perspective the true permeation of what it means to be bigoted.  This new research has now come out in an academic press book. 

Recently, I sent the following email to everyone at my campus, Purdue University Calumet, and to friends and acquaintance at other universities in addition to friends and family across the country as well as internationally.  But, I thought, "hey, why stop there."  So here is a copy of what I sent out (although my original e-mail did not include a picture) to encourage new knowledge in the field of political tolerance and its positive relationship to religious orthodoxy.  I am sending this out because it is the first work to utilize social science methods to establish the hypothesis that religious commitment in the Judeo-Christian tradition is compatible and reinforcing of democratic values especially as those are interpreted to reflect political tolerance embodied in the American "Bill of Rights." 

The evidence suggests that the Judeo-Christian tradition as it is practiced in the United States enhances support for political tolerance.  As opposed to the liberal mantra, which is the basis of most American university social science courses, that the religious right, or greater observance of faith, leads to intolerance the worst that can be said about orthodoxy is that it has a neutral consequence of political tolerance and democratic ideal.

The attached Baylor University Press book (SeeBook.htm), is a product of one of Purdue University Calumet's (PUC) alumni, Marie A. (Witting) Eisenstein. It is already on Amazon and will be officially released on February 15, 2008. The outside reviews of the book speak for themselves about the quality of her work and about her standing in the profession. 

Since many of you here were her teachers and there are a number of individuals, now employed at PUC, who graduated with her, I wanted to pass this information to all of you.

As many of you remember, she was the 1996 outstanding senior student in the Department of History and Political Science and was selected that year as the outstanding senior in the graduating class to deliver the commencement address for the graduating students.

This reflects uniquely well on the Department and on the University itself because of its academic success and yes, I am doing some of my own familial bragging.