FIRST THINGS is reporting the story of death threats and an assault on a conservative professor and five students at Princeton University who are also religious and social conservatives. The professor, Robert George, is a contributor to First Things.

There are significant questions regarding what has actually happened, and investigations are ongoing. It’s not time to mount an outcry, for there is at least a minimal possibility that one of the students being threatened–the one who was beat up–actually engineered the whole thing. Instead we can be watching the situation, and praying for those involved: all the threatened persons, in case the situation is genuine; or the student, if he has fabricated things.

The best news at this point is that people there are treating it responsibly:

Unlike the case of the Duke Lacrosse rape scandal, everyone at Princeton University—the administration, Public Safety, and the threatened students and professor—is handling this the right way. Some in the blogosphere—including many who were so critical of Duke’s handling of the “rape”—are falling into the temptation to take sides too early and use this incident for political advantage. There’s no doubt that we have something here of major significance, but the important thing is not to jump to conclusions.

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