‘The planned lecture on a very sensitive subject was not right for Regent’
Regent College in British Columbia has canceled an early March appearance by a “controversial” British historian who challenges the “prevailing narrative” about colonialism.
University of Oxford Professor Emeritus Nigel Biggar, an alumnus of Regent, said he is “ashamed” of the school for its decision, according to the National Post.
Biggar (pictured) and Portland State University’s Bruce Gilley haven’t been popular with the academic set due to pointing out there actually have been some benefits to British colonial rule.
In a 2017 piece titled “Don’t feel guilty about our colonial history,” Biggar discussed Gilley’s “The Case for Colonialism.” Neither deny atrocities associated with colonial rule; what Gilley points out, however, is that colonialism led to the “formation of coherent political communities, reliable state institutions and […] living-spaces where individuals and their families could flourish.”
Biggar was supposed to deliver the lecture “Colonialism Revisited: Did the British Empire Promote Human Welfare?” on March 6, but Regent President Jeff Greenman decided to cancel it.
Although Regent is “committed to equipping students and encouraging our wider constituency ‘to engage their culture as thoughtful and prayerful Christians,’” Greenman wrote in a message to students, “the planned lecture on a very sensitive subject was not right for Regent since it needed different framing to foster constructive dialogue.”
Greenman added “Whenever we engage topics about which there is strong disagreement or controversy, it is critically important that all aspects of an event, from the choice of speaker to the event’s format, should demonstrate our concern for both critical reflection and appropriate pastoral awareness.”
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Biggar claimed the decision to cancel his talk stemmed from an “intemperate, even abusive agitation” on a Regent alumni Facebook page.
“These agitators were not protesting against being forced to listen to me, because no one was forcing them. No, they were protesting that Regent should allow anyone else to hear what I have to say, because they regard it not merely as mistaken but pernicious.” …
Biggar said he’s “never denied that European or British colonialism caused grief and harm to Indigenous peoples. But the British empire also chalked up some major humanitarian and liberal achievements. So, I want the whole story to be told, not just part of it, and I want the record of British colonialism to be put in its proper context, namely a world where, long before Europeans and Britons arrived in North America, North American peoples were in the business of dominating each other, sometimes enslaving each other.”
In the 2017 article, Biggar noted Gilley’s citation of Nigerian author — and “anti-colonialist hero” — Chinua Achebe, who said the Brits governed his country “with considerable care” and were “very highly competent.”
Order was one of England’s “most valuable achievements,” Achebe said; people did not fear “abduction or armed robbery” and had “a great deal of confidence and faith in British institutions.”
MORE: Academic conference to reconsider colonialism held in secret to avoid ‘protests or de-platforming’
IMAGE: National Post/X
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