Update on Martin Gaskell

Over at Instapundit, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynonds (who is not noticeably sympathetic to Creationism or Intelligent Design) has been following the story of Martin Gaskell and the University of Kentucky's decision to pass him over for a position because of his religious views.

Gaskell says he believes in evolution. Nevertheless, University of Kentucky officials rejected him for a post at their university because they feared he was "something close to a creationist" and "potentially evangelical."

As Reynolds noted in his post, if the University of Kentucky rejected Gaskill because they were concerned about bad publicity over hiring some sort of closet Creationist, they certainly blew that one. It's also hard to imagine that if Gaskell was (say) a fundamentalist Muslim the University of Kentucky would have been quite as blatant in rejecting Gaskell for religious reasons. Some religious litmus tests are unacceptable to the academic class, while others are mandatory.