I apparently missed the part in orientation before my freshmen year where they told students that being a professor meant that you had the right to impose your thoughts and ideas as absolute facts on students. In addition, no one ever told me that being a professor allowed you to ridicule anyone in your class for having a differing opinion from yours.

The other day, I was in a political science class dealing with government when the professor made a reference to God being a woman. He later made another reference to the same issue.

I am not here to argue with this professor’s opinion about God. To be quite honest I could not possibly care less about who or what that professor thinks God is. I have long since developed my own opinion of God and don’t need any help from a government professor on figuring out matters of a religious nature.

What I am here to argue is that professors should keep their own religious, and for that matter political, opinions out of the classroom and respect the beliefs of others.

I understand that it is necessary for a religion professor to have an opinion about God, and I even understand that what they teach is going to be slanted to what they believe. The same holds true for political science professors and politics.

However, there is no reason for an English professor to take 20 minutes out of class to persecute a group of students because of who they voted for in the last election (another unpleasant experience I was a part of).

It is a professor’s job to teach the facts as he or she sees them to students on a particular subject. It is not his or her job to make anyone feel as though their beliefs are wrong. Some professors seem to have the attitude that it is their divine duty to declare to the uneducated masses the absolute truth that was bestowed upon them regardless of its relevance, or irrelevance in this case, to the subject matter of the class.

Another problem is that Western is a public university, a part of the state. Since we all know that church and state are separate, then why are professors, paid employees of the state, allowed to express their religious opinions in classes that have nothing to do with religion?

If we do not say a prayer before sporting events so as to not offend those of other religions, then how can the university allow non-religious professors to express their religious beliefs? The absolute truth is that these professors who so proudly take part in these actions have egos that have closed their minds to new thinking, making them borderline bigots.

I also understand this goes both ways. I do not agree with a professor who preaches exactly what I believe to a classroom of students. I am not offended by what professors say, I am simply offended by the fact that any professor would express his or her religious beliefs in a class where it has no relevance.

This is a public institution and the professors should be required to act as though they respect the separation between church and state.

Many professors preface their beliefs by providing the illusion of an open floor discussion by telling students that their opinions are welcomed. However, many students are intimidated by a person who controls his or her final grade and will not stand up for their beliefs out of fear.

Of the students who do stand up for what they believe, many of them are drawn into what is basically a one-on-one argument with a person who has the control of the classroom.

Either way, students with opposing views usually go unheard either from silence or by force of the benevolent dictators of the classrooms.

I am fine with separation of church and state, and in fact I support it, but it has to go both ways. If we are going to defend one group of people’s right to sit in class and not be offended then we have to defend that right for everyone.

Simply put, let the religious professors teach religion, the political science professors teach politics and everyone else just stay out of both subjects all together.

The opinions expressed in this commentary do not reflect the opinions of the Herald or the university