Meta-traditions and Benedictions

We don't have many traditions at Olin, but one tradition we do have is that we like to start speeches with something like, "We don't have many traditions at Olin, but one tradition we do have is that we like to start speeches with something like, 'We don't have many traditions at Olin, but one tradition we do have is that we like to start speeches with something like...'

These are first three stanzas of the infinite "Olin Meta-Tradition". I bring it to your attention now because commencement is only a few days away, and I will be disappointed if we hear fewer than three variations on the theme. Would it be irresponsible for me to suggest the makings of a drinking game?

As we rush to invent new traditions, I hope that Olin will remember to look for opportunities to question old ones. In our preparation for commencement, we had an opportunity to drop an ill-considered tradition, but it looks like we missed it. We have invited Victor Kazanjian, who is the Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at Wellesley and an ordained Episcopal priest, to deliver both an Invocation and a Benediction.

If you haven't been to church recently, you might not know what those things are. An invocation is a prayer that asks a deity to do something, often simply to be present. A benediction is a prayer that invokes a divine blessing. In some religions these terms have a more specific meaning, but in general they are prayers, and they are based on the premise that there is at least one god. Putting them on the program could make a reasonable person conclude that Olin College, as an institution, endorses religion.

Since Olin is a private institution, we are not bound by laws that prohibit publicly-sanctioned prayer, but we should consider the principle that secular institutions should avoid not only "practices that 'aid one religion . . . or prefer one religion over another,' but also those practices that 'aid all religions' and thus endorse or prefer religion over nonreligion." [From the ACLU Bulletin "The Establishment Clause and the Schools", which quotes the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Everson v. Board of Education (1947).]

At a religious college, a Benediction is an opportunity to express a common belief endorsed by the institution. But Olin is entirely a secular organization, as was the Olin Foundation, and if F.W. Olin had an interest in fostering religion, he disguised it well by dedicating his life and fortune to business, engineering, and (finally) innovative education.

It is not clear what the content of the Benediction can be, other than platitudes artfully arranged to avoid offense. A nonsectarian Benediction satisfies no one. It offends secularists by endorsing religion, and it should be equally offensive to religionists, since inclusive religion, deprived of dogma, is not religion at all.

The Alliance Defense Fund, defending the constitutionality of a Benediction at a public university, claims that "The purpose of the prayer should be to solemnize the occasion." Is it appropriate, or even acceptable, for an institution that has no interest in religion for 364 days of the year to trot out a non-specific clergyman for the occasion, just to lend some gravitas? I don't see why a sincere religionist would accept such a mercenary assignment.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy makes a similar argument in the majority opinion in Lee v. Weisman (the court held that prayer at a public school ceremony violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment):

"But the embarrassment and the intrusion of the religious exercise cannot be refuted by arguing that these prayers...are of a de minimis character. To do so would be an affront to the Rabbi who offered them and to all those for whom the prayers were an essential and profound recognition of divine authority...

That the intrusion was in the course of promulgating religion that sought to be civic or nonsectarian rather than pertaining to one sect does not lessen the offense or isolation to the objectors. At best it narrows their number, at worst increases their sense of isolation and affront."

Dean Kazanjian is a talented and inspiring speaker, but it is not clear what qualification he brings, qua priest, to speak at the commencement of a school of engineering. Couldn't we get our inspiration from an engineer? There is a presumption that engineers don't think about deep questions and have little to say that is uplifting. If you want to be inspired, or "solemnize the occasion", you have to bring in professionals. We had an opportunity to challenge this stereotype, but it looks like this won't be the year.

Allen Downey is the author of "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist," which defines an Invocation as "the execution of a function or method."

Other essays by Allen Downey are available here.