Mark Simon, writing in the April 18 San Francisco Chronicle, writes about Ron Brown, assistant football coach at the University of Nebraska. Brown alleges that he was turned down for the job of head football coach at Stanford on account of his strong religious beliefs. Stanford ultimately hired Buddy Teevens, "about whose religion we know nothing, and that appears to be the point."

It's quite likely there's an atheist or two on the football team and quite probably a few homosexuals.

All of which might be good enough reason not to hire a football coach who wants to use his cap and whistle to further his own Christian goals, which include "winning" homosexuals to Christ....

Stanford is diverse and liberal in the philosophical sense, rather than the political.

Diversity means diversity of thought. An essential element of a Stanford education, it would seem, is exposure to a broad range of thinking, lifestyles and beliefs—a purposeful challenge to the way of thinking you brought there with you.

"One thing I've tried not to do," Brown said in an interview with a Nebraska media outlet, "is separate my coaching from who I am. Some people have a problem with that. They want to separate my coaching from my faith in Christ. I can't do that. That would be a huge hypocrisy. You have to be who you are."

No one is suggesting Brown should be anything less than who he is. But it would seem Stanford is perfectly justified in rejecting Brown for who he is, since that's the criteria he proposes.

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