Weighing the Evidence

Diogenes offers an opportunity to examine a particular hypothesis and the provided evidence. Here's the hypothesis, from the Boston Globe:

... the dispute has highlighted a tension between the culture of academic communities, with their emphasis on a diversity of views, and traditional religious delineations of right and wrong.

Presented evidence:

On a recent Sunday, before 11 o'clock Mass was over, one outraged parishioner threw many of the fliers into the sacristy's trash and tore down some of the signs adorning a booth, before breaking down in tears. A second churchgoer, too upset to sit through services, went home and wrote an open letter that he distributed after Mass, calling the distribution of the flier "an injustice." ...

When Sheehan refused to shut down the table, Conway made several trips up and down the aisles, carrying piles of the flier and throwing them out in the sacristy. He also tore down some of the signs hung from the table, he said. ...

But Manjapra and Conway insist that such a thing has no place in their Harvard Square church. "The priests have a responsibility to make sure that information distributed on tables adheres to the spirit of the community," Conway said.

If you haven't figured it out, Manjapra and Conway are doing what's known in the Church as "dissenting." The objectionable fliers laid out the Church's position on same-sex marriage, and the two who thought the Church's teaching had no place in their... umm... church are representatives of the "open minded," "diversity of views" academic community. Says one:

"This went beyond a mistake; it's something bigger," said Manjapra, who studies German history at Harvard. "What I'm afraid of is that my church community will become one of exclusion and name-calling."

Yeah, if it can avoid active censorship.