How Religious Schools Strengthen Our Republic

The narrowing of intellectual life on campus is no passing trend; it has become a defining feature of American higher education. Viewpoint diversity among professors and students alike is growing scarce, leaving prevailing ideas uncontested and unrefined. Yet religious colleges and universities offer an unlikely model for renewal. Though rooted in faith traditions, they often preserve the very conditions for open, rigorous inquiry that many secular institutions now struggle to sustain. That the most intellectually diverse campuses may be those grounded in a single faith seems paradoxical—but it is precisely their moral coherence that makes pluralism possible.

Consider the College of the Holy Cross, a small Jesuit school in Worcester, Massachusetts. Each fall, freshmen pledge themselves to the Jesuit principle of Magis—the call to strive for excellence in all learning. The ritual is more than symbolic; it establishes a shared moral vocabulary that guides the community. Holy Cross reinforces those principles not through slogans but through structure: small classes that reward dialogue, a common core curriculum that demands breadth, and even a single dining hall that draws the entire campus into conversation. The result is an intellectual culture animated by trust and curiosity. Its alumni—ranging from Justice Clarence Thomas to Dr. Anthony Fauci—reflect not uniformity but academic seriousness. In an age defined by stagnation and opposition, Holy Cross quietly demonstrates how conviction and pluralism can coexist.

That paradox holds across faith-based campuses nationwide. From Baylor to Brigham Young University, from Yeshiva University to Wheaton College, religious institutions thrive by marrying moral clarity to intellectual openness. They know what they stand for, and that clarity frees students to question rather than conform. Where secular universities increasingly police speech and sentiment, faith-rooted schools model institutional confidence. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, roughly four in ten students nationwide regularly self-censor for fear of social or administrative reprisal. That number should alarm anyone who believes education requires freedom. Religious colleges provide a striking counterexample: when purpose is clear and belonging is secure, disagreement becomes safe again, and students are more willing to test arguments in good faith.