The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Once Again, Christine O’Donnell Is Right: Coed Dormitories Are a Very Bad Idea

Posted on | September 16, 2010 | 80 Comments

Yesterday, I took notice of Rachel Maddow’s snide attack on Christine O’Donnell for having had the temerity to say, in 1996, that masturbation violates biblical injunctions against lust. It goes without saying that Maddow is heedless of biblical injunctions (e.g., Romans 1:18-32), as is her right in a free society, yet what struck me was the MSNBC hostess’s easy assumption that every viewer shared her disdain.

Maddow offered no argument of her own about the propriety of masturbation; she merely played video of O’Donnell’s comments and smirked. Salon’s Justin Elliott takes a similar approach toward O’Donnell’s statements (quoted in a 2003 article by Cheryl Wetzstein of The Washington Times) about coed dormitories at colleges and universities:

Dorm life has evolved into a blending of the sexes, from coed buildings to coed floors, coed bathrooms and now even coed rooms.
“What’s next? Orgy rooms? Menage a trois rooms?” asked Christine O’Donnell, spokeswoman for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Del., which publishes a college guide.
All this coedness is outside normal life, said Miss O’Donnell. “Most average American adults don’t use coed bathrooms – if they had the option of a coed bathroom at a public restaurant, they wouldn’t choose it.” Coedness “is like a radical agenda forced on college students,” she said.

Like Maddow, Elliott presents O’Donnell’s opinions as self-evidently laughable. The reader is assumed to believe that only someone “nutty” could hold such views.

Is this so? Are coed facilities at universities — including coed bathrooms and coed dorm suites — so non-controversial that no intelligent person could plausibly criticize this policy?

Young people may be forgiven for not knowing that, until the 1960s, many of the nation’s most prestigious universities — including Harvard, Yale and Columbia — were all-male institutions. When Hillary Clinton graduated from Wellesley, it was a women’s college.

Historically speaking, then, coed campuses as a ubiquitous phenomenon in higher education are a fairly recent development. Coed dormitories are an even more recent innovation and, it must be noted, are by no means ubiquitous in 2010. The last time I checked, my alma mater (Jacksonville State University in Alabama) still had separate men’s and women’s dorms. Even on campuses that have coed dorms, these are merely one housing option, and many students choose to live in single-sex dorms. (If indeed they stay in campus housing at all, off-campus apartments being now preferred by many students.)

When I was entered Jax State in 1977, the visitation policy in dorms was still enforced rather rigorously. Women could visit in men’s rooms (and vice-versa) only during certain hours. Having a female guest in your room after-hours — “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” — could result in disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion.

At issue in all such discussions  is the question: What is the purpose of a university?

Do universities exist primarily to facilitate the sex lives of students, including teenaged freshmen and sophomores? Or is it possible that parents who pay up to $40,000 a year to send their children to college hope that administrators will provide an environment where students may focus their attention on getting an education? Insofar as parents generally wish to see their own values upheld by their children, do parents who disapprove of promiscuous sex have no interest in whether university housing policies facilitate such promiscuity?

Don’t students themselves also have an interest in avoiding unwanted intrusions on their privacy that might occur in a coed environment? Indeed, does student-housing policy involve questions of personal safety, or was the alleged gang-rape of Megan Wright merely an isolated incident?

Noting the decline in academic standards in public education, Newt Gingrich once described modern high schools as “subsidized dating.” Have we now reached the point where universities may be described as “subsidized fornication”?

These are serious questions, deserving of serious discussion, and addressing such questions was certainly within the purview of Christine O’Donnell’s position as a spokeswoman for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. (The controversy surrounding her employment at, and departure from, ISI being a subject we may explore later.)

Elliott’s sneering atttitude toward O’Donnell’s criticisms of coed dorms implies that — like her advocacy of premarital chastity — no reader could (or should) take such matters seriously. She’s just a kook.

Well, say hello to another kook: Wendy Shalit, whose 1995 Commentary article criticizing the coed policies at Williams College led to her 1998 book, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, which I heartily recommend.

I’d wager that O’Donnell’s views on coed facilities were influenced by Shalit’s arguments, and if Justin Elliott has never acquainted himself with those argument, this is his fault and not O’Donnell’s. I would similarly bet that O’Donnell’s advocacy of chastity (including the avoidance of masturbation) was influenced by Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye, another book I heartily recommend.

Of course, Wendy Shalit and Josh Harris are not candidates for the U.S. Senate, and O’Donnell’s opinions about coed dorms and masturbation are irrelevant to the campaign in Delaware. It is politically convenient for Justin Elliott and others to pretend that Christine O’Donnell is some sort of fanatical freak — a right-wing Christian theocrat! — but their dismissive attitudes ought not deceive intelligent and skeptical people.

Sneering contempt for old-fashioned virtue is a very dangerous thing. It is remarkable how far gone our popular culture is in this regard. All sophisticated people are now supposed to scoff at the notion that young people can refrain from premarital intercourse, much less be “masters of their domain,” as the Seinfeld show once phrased it. 

So casual is our cultural assumption that “everybody’s doing it” that we are shocked when anyone dares suggest we shouldn’t do it. The only acceptable morality is now amorality — an agnostic indifference to virtue — and our society has become strikingly intolerant toward those who publicly dissent from the New Sexual Orthodoxy.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil . . .
Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
II Timothy 4:3-4 (KJV)

In warfare, it is generally an error to cede the high ground to one’s enemy, and soi-dissant “conservatives” who refuse to defend the Judeo-Christian moral tradition are committing a strategic error. It goes without saying that O’Donnell is scorned by God-hating wankers like Charles Johnson:

As I have elsewhere argued, “Thou shalt not steal” is the most persuasive argument against the Welfare State. Biblical injunctions against adultery and covetousness are part of the same moral fabric that condemns government-abetted expropriation of wealth. Advocates of economic liberty therefore should not lightly disregard this common ground of morality they share with social conservatives.

Conservatives should not unnecessarily intrude discussion of sexual morality into the political discourse. It ill behooves us to adopt the self-righteous posture of pharisaical crusaders seeking to use government as a scourge for the chastisement of sinners. Neverthless, in situations where traditional morality is under assault — as when liberals sneer at O’Donnell’s advocacy of virtue — conservatives ought to rally to its defense, however unfashionable such morality may be in our decadent era.

In fact, I would argue that an occasion like this is a teachable moment, permitting conservatives an opportunity to remark on the increasing decadence of our culture. O’Donnell is now being ridiculed, you see, because she once dared to question the modern liberal idolatry of Progress.

“We know that we have made no discoveries, and we think that no discoveries are to be made, in morality; nor many in the great principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty, which were understood long before we were born, altogether as well as they will be after the grave has heaped its mould upon our presumption, and the silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity.”
Edmund Burke, 1790

“My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.”
G.K. Chesterton, 1923

The Cult of Progress involves the assumption that everything new and modern is better than anything traditional and old-fashioned. It is the credulous acceptance of this unexamined premise that provides an ideological foundation upon which liberals have erected their syllogisms of Hope and Change.

Christine O’Donnell’s willingness to speak out in defense of moral virtue ought to be applauded by conservatives, and deserves respect from all decent citizens of humane goodwill.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Comments

80 Responses to “Once Again, Christine O’Donnell Is Right: Coed Dormitories Are a Very Bad Idea”

  1. Ran / Si Vis Pacem
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:05 pm

    Frankly, I’d rather focus on the masturbatory fantasy of progressive socialism being proffered by her opponent, Coons.

    It is his ideology on trial here. The issue is Coons’ socio-pathological belief that vicarious generosity via taxes is altruism. It ain’t generosity. It’s just plunder and power. (Which O’Donnell rejects.)

  2. Ran / Si Vis Pacem
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:05 pm

    Frankly, I’d rather focus on the masturbatory fantasy of progressive socialism being proffered by her opponent, Coons.

    It is his ideology on trial here. The issue is Coons’ socio-pathological belief that vicarious generosity via taxes is altruism. It ain’t generosity. It’s just plunder and power. (Which O’Donnell rejects.)

  3. One more point on the Christine O’Donnell and the left on Masturbation…. « Da Techguy's Blog
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:07 pm

    […] Update: Stacy McCain explains the theology. […]

  4. datechguy
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:08 pm

    So Let’s get this straight liberals:

    1996 Opposing masturbation as a sin, unqualified for Senate in Delaware

    1996 Getting bj’s from interns in the oval office, qualified for President.

    please explain.

  5. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:08 pm

    Consenting adults can do what makes them feel good. And remember most college students are adults. Of course they are adults who are generally supported by their parents and the largeness of the Federal student loan programs available, but adults nevertheless.

    Now take me and my pet Chris Coons….

  6. datechguy
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:08 pm

    So Let’s get this straight liberals:

    1996 Opposing masturbation as a sin, unqualified for Senate in Delaware

    1996 Getting bj’s from interns in the oval office, qualified for President.

    please explain.

  7. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:08 pm

    Consenting adults can do what makes them feel good. And remember most college students are adults. Of course they are adults who are generally supported by their parents and the largeness of the Federal student loan programs available, but adults nevertheless.

    Now take me and my pet Chris Coons….

  8. Wondering Jew
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:25 pm

    Keep Sneering Dems.

    We’ll laugh all the way to the Senate seat.

  9. Wondering Jew
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

    Keep Sneering Dems.

    We’ll laugh all the way to the Senate seat.

  10. alan markus
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:42 pm

    Here’s a good video to listen to while reading all the posts about O’Donnell’s masturbation comments:
    Cyndi Lauper – She Bop

  11. alan markus
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:42 pm

    Here’s a good video to listen to while reading all the posts about O’Donnell’s masturbation comments:
    Cyndi Lauper – She Bop

  12. MrPaulRevere
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:46 pm

    Perhaps if she advocated hanging out in X-rated bookstores in fishnet stocking with a fistful of condoms the libs would back her.

  13. MrPaulRevere
    September 16th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

    Perhaps if she advocated hanging out in X-rated bookstores in fishnet stocking with a fistful of condoms the libs would back her.

  14. Anne Galivan
    September 16th, 2010 @ 8:10 pm

    There is no question that colleges are PROMOTING promiscuity. So are public high schools and, apparently, now even elementary schools.

    Just one of the many reasons I home-school my kids.

    Oh,and my two college-educated children? They both attended state college while living at home. They were able to keep their values intact while getting their degrees. My daughter has a Master’s degree in Forensic Drug Chemistry, and my son a B.S. in Business Management. And with maintaining a 4.0 GPA my son was actually PAID to go to college through academic scholarships.

    All to say, there are other ways to get an education and Christian parents who accede to the current sex-saturated culture by saying they have “no choice” are ignorant, in denial, or don’t care enough to make it work.

  15. Anne Galivan
    September 16th, 2010 @ 4:10 pm

    There is no question that colleges are PROMOTING promiscuity. So are public high schools and, apparently, now even elementary schools.

    Just one of the many reasons I home-school my kids.

    Oh,and my two college-educated children? They both attended state college while living at home. They were able to keep their values intact while getting their degrees. My daughter has a Master’s degree in Forensic Drug Chemistry, and my son a B.S. in Business Management. And with maintaining a 4.0 GPA my son was actually PAID to go to college through academic scholarships.

    All to say, there are other ways to get an education and Christian parents who accede to the current sex-saturated culture by saying they have “no choice” are ignorant, in denial, or don’t care enough to make it work.

  16. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 8:51 pm

    Everytime I think of my pet Chris Coons, I am turning Japanese!

  17. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

    Everytime I think of my pet Chris Coons, I am turning Japanese!

  18. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 8:55 pm
  19. Senator Harry Reid
    September 16th, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
  20. Live Free Or Die
    September 16th, 2010 @ 9:15 pm

    Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, said it’s OK, so that proves Christine O’Donnell is crazy. o(^.^)o

    The spirit of antichrist is always denying that Jesus Christ is Lord, and opposes those that follow Him vehemently.

  21. Live Free Or Die
    September 16th, 2010 @ 5:15 pm

    Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, said it’s OK, so that proves Christine O’Donnell is crazy. o(^.^)o

    The spirit of antichrist is always denying that Jesus Christ is Lord, and opposes those that follow Him vehemently.

  22. BREAKING: Fire Melts Steel, Oswald Killed JFK, Vince Foster Shot Himself : The Other McCain
    September 16th, 2010 @ 5:26 pm

    […] Oswald Killed JFK, Vince Foster Shot HimselfPosted on | September 16, 2010 | No CommentsWhile I was toiling in defense of Christine O’Donnell’s criticism of coed dorms, the Progressive Orgy Room was going […]

  23. Red
    September 16th, 2010 @ 9:45 pm

    “All to say, there are other ways to get an education and Christian parents who accede to the current sex-saturated culture by saying they have “no choice” are ignorant, in denial, or don’t care enough to make it work.”
    I wouldn’t say that. Some parents want this for their kids but can’t afford it in either money or time off to teach their own children. Don’t be so cut and dry.

  24. Red
    September 16th, 2010 @ 5:45 pm

    “All to say, there are other ways to get an education and Christian parents who accede to the current sex-saturated culture by saying they have “no choice” are ignorant, in denial, or don’t care enough to make it work.”
    I wouldn’t say that. Some parents want this for their kids but can’t afford it in either money or time off to teach their own children. Don’t be so cut and dry.

  25. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:17 pm

    All I want to know is has she or has she not engaged in pre-marital sex?
    Is she still a virgin?

  26. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:17 pm

    All I want to know is has she or has she not engaged in pre-marital sex?
    Is she still a virgin?

  27. Wintery Knight
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:20 pm

    I don’t know why everyone is picking on her for chastity. Chastity is the art of looking at another person of the opposite and seeing them as God sees them. You don’t see them as a means of gratifying yourself, you see them as a person who is meant to be related to God through Christ. Your time, money and skills are meant to be employed helping other people to have that relationship and to improve it through a study of theology and apologetics, as well as more practical concerns like marriage, parenting and economics. Why is it wrong for O’Donnell to take seriously the idea that we should not be using people for the most intimate acts unless we are willing to bond to them for life and to protect them from emotional harm. It’s not good for us to be having sex outside of marriage and then breaking up. There are others things that women and men should be doing – like building each other up as Christians to have an influence and to do good things.

  28. Wintery Knight
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

    I don’t know why everyone is picking on her for chastity. Chastity is the art of looking at another person of the opposite and seeing them as God sees them. You don’t see them as a means of gratifying yourself, you see them as a person who is meant to be related to God through Christ. Your time, money and skills are meant to be employed helping other people to have that relationship and to improve it through a study of theology and apologetics, as well as more practical concerns like marriage, parenting and economics. Why is it wrong for O’Donnell to take seriously the idea that we should not be using people for the most intimate acts unless we are willing to bond to them for life and to protect them from emotional harm. It’s not good for us to be having sex outside of marriage and then breaking up. There are others things that women and men should be doing – like building each other up as Christians to have an influence and to do good things.

  29. Wintery Knight
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:21 pm

    Oh, and I should mention that yes, I am a virgin, and it makes a huge difference in the way I relate to women.

  30. Wintery Knight
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:21 pm

    Oh, and I should mention that yes, I am a virgin, and it makes a huge difference in the way I relate to women.

  31. wombat-socho
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:32 pm

    Y4E: What do you care? You got no shot, son. 😉

  32. wombat-socho
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:32 pm

    Y4E: What do you care? You got no shot, son. 😉

  33. FenelonSpoke
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:43 pm

    I would imagine that the people who are likely to vote for Ms. O’Donnell think that coed dorms are not a good idea. Heck, I know people who are liberals who don’t want their kids being in co-ed dorms and would be appalled at co-ed rooms, so Justin Elliot can sneer all he wants. Her views on that and masturbation would not be deciding issues for them. The country is falling apart and as you stated, Stacy, the job of a university is not to facilitate the sex lives of students.

  34. FenelonSpoke
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:43 pm

    I would imagine that the people who are likely to vote for Ms. O’Donnell think that coed dorms are not a good idea. Heck, I know people who are liberals who don’t want their kids being in co-ed dorms and would be appalled at co-ed rooms, so Justin Elliot can sneer all he wants. Her views on that and masturbation would not be deciding issues for them. The country is falling apart and as you stated, Stacy, the job of a university is not to facilitate the sex lives of students.

  35. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:49 pm

    “Y4E: What do you care?”

    I don’t know wombat, she seems so interested in everybody’s sex life I figured turn around is fair game.
    So I want to know, is she a virgin? Has she ever engaged in pre-marital sex?

  36. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 6:49 pm

    “Y4E: What do you care?”

    I don’t know wombat, she seems so interested in everybody’s sex life I figured turn around is fair game.
    So I want to know, is she a virgin? Has she ever engaged in pre-marital sex?

  37. Kelly
    September 16th, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

    Oh my God, now I understand why they are so concerned!

    If O’Donnell is in the Senate she will pass a law banning all masturbation! She will ban co-ed dorms! She will convict Bill Clinton for murder! She will eat our babies and kill our kittens!

    It all makes perfect sense now.

    Stupid, stupid liberals. Because running a male prostitution ring out of your house is A-OK but this woman talks some craaaazaaaayyyy shit!

  38. Kelly
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:22 pm

    Oh my God, now I understand why they are so concerned!

    If O’Donnell is in the Senate she will pass a law banning all masturbation! She will ban co-ed dorms! She will convict Bill Clinton for murder! She will eat our babies and kill our kittens!

    It all makes perfect sense now.

    Stupid, stupid liberals. Because running a male prostitution ring out of your house is A-OK but this woman talks some craaaazaaaayyyy shit!

  39. ARCHON
    September 16th, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

    just google all of the “campus/co-ed” porn sites.
    O’Donnell was Right!

  40. ARCHON
    September 16th, 2010 @ 7:36 pm

    just google all of the “campus/co-ed” porn sites.
    O’Donnell was Right!

  41. RightKlik
    September 17th, 2010 @ 12:15 am

    Wow. Very good.

    Libs are obviously having difficulty finding substantive fault with O’Donnell.

  42. RightKlik
    September 16th, 2010 @ 8:15 pm

    Wow. Very good.

    Libs are obviously having difficulty finding substantive fault with O’Donnell.

  43. Randy Rager
    September 17th, 2010 @ 12:30 am

    ““Y4E: What do you care?”

    I don’t know wombat, she seems so interested in everybody’s sex life I figured turn around is fair game.
    So I want to know, is she a virgin? Has she ever engaged in pre-marital sex?”

    Rough translation: “I have no real knowledge of Christine O’Donnell, I have no hope of ever living up to any code of virtue and it irritates me that the Dims are going to get shellacked practically everywhere this year and for the foreseeable future, so I’ll ask questions on the internet that I would never have the sac to ask in person.”

    That about sum it up? Or do you want me to start delving deeper into the particular psychoses behind an unceasing cry of “Hypocrisy!”?

    Maybe you should quit while you’re behind.

  44. Randy Rager
    September 16th, 2010 @ 8:30 pm

    ““Y4E: What do you care?”

    I don’t know wombat, she seems so interested in everybody’s sex life I figured turn around is fair game.
    So I want to know, is she a virgin? Has she ever engaged in pre-marital sex?”

    Rough translation: “I have no real knowledge of Christine O’Donnell, I have no hope of ever living up to any code of virtue and it irritates me that the Dims are going to get shellacked practically everywhere this year and for the foreseeable future, so I’ll ask questions on the internet that I would never have the sac to ask in person.”

    That about sum it up? Or do you want me to start delving deeper into the particular psychoses behind an unceasing cry of “Hypocrisy!”?

    Maybe you should quit while you’re behind.

  45. young4eyes
    September 17th, 2010 @ 1:09 am

    “Libs are obviously having difficulty finding substantive ”
    Oh, but you are so wrong.This is just the icing on the cake.

    Perhaps character means nothing to Conservatives.No surprise really. But it does say something about a person if they do indeed walk the walk and talk the talk.
    We haven’t even gotten around to parsing through her dubious financial history, her history of lying about her college experience, not to mention some really kooky statements( see O’Reilly interview where she says that scientists are creating mice with human brains) etc.,etc. ad infinitum.
    And this from someone running on a platform of restoring honor to America.Ha!
    It’s only just begun….

  46. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 9:09 pm

    “Libs are obviously having difficulty finding substantive ”
    Oh, but you are so wrong.This is just the icing on the cake.

    Perhaps character means nothing to Conservatives.No surprise really. But it does say something about a person if they do indeed walk the walk and talk the talk.
    We haven’t even gotten around to parsing through her dubious financial history, her history of lying about her college experience, not to mention some really kooky statements( see O’Reilly interview where she says that scientists are creating mice with human brains) etc.,etc. ad infinitum.
    And this from someone running on a platform of restoring honor to America.Ha!
    It’s only just begun….

  47. William Teach
    September 17th, 2010 @ 2:04 am

    You just have to wonder, if O’Donnell is such a bad candidate, and so easily beatable, why are the Liberal moonbats pulling opening up their complete bag of nasty personal tricks?

  48. William Teach
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:04 pm

    You just have to wonder, if O’Donnell is such a bad candidate, and so easily beatable, why are the Liberal moonbats pulling opening up their complete bag of nasty personal tricks?

  49. young4eyes
    September 17th, 2010 @ 2:11 am

    really, she’s one to complain about dirty tricks, isn’t she?
    William Teach needs to learn a little something about politics,eh? Nice try,Bill.But the Palinbots have been running with that meme for some time now, and they still don’t get it!

  50. young4eyes
    September 16th, 2010 @ 10:11 pm

    really, she’s one to complain about dirty tricks, isn’t she?
    William Teach needs to learn a little something about politics,eh? Nice try,Bill.But the Palinbots have been running with that meme for some time now, and they still don’t get it!