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Absolutely brilliant

Well, we might as well go for the trifecta:

Yesterday we wondered what David French's "brilliant answer" was when a Cornell Law School job interviewer asked him, how, in light of his evangelical background, "is it possible for you to effectively teach gay students?" French e-mailed us with the answer:

I was surprised and pleased to see that you quoted from my talk to the American Enterprise Institute regarding intellectual diversity (or the lack thereof) and censorship on campus. I noted that you want to know my "absolutely brilliant answer" to the improper interview question. Before I tell you, I just want to make clear that the "absolutely brilliant" comment was made tongue-in-cheek in the speech and was played for laughs. I'm not really quite so full of myself. The truth is that I was fortunate to get the job perhaps in spite of my answer. I responded to the interviewer with the following statement:

<p>"I believe that all human beings are created in the image of God and should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of whether I agree with their personal conduct or beliefs. I will treat all my students well, but I can't guarantee that they will treat me well when they learn that I'm a dreaded 'Christian conservative.'"</p>

<p>She responded with a long silence and then said, "I never thought of things from that perspective."</p>

There are lot of perspectives from which those who run our institutions of higher learning have never thought of things.