Let's be honest:
1) Many Christian students experience overt hostility on many university campuses. This isn't just an insecurity issue, there are professors who will take every opportunity to make religious folk feel stupid or responsible for the world's problems. I sat in my fair share of these classes as a student. This is not to say that other demographics don't also experience hostility; just to say that Christians are often targeted.
2) Many Christians are a bit Forrest Gumpy and feel deeply insecure about it. So sometimes my co-religionists anticipate and perceive persecution where none is intended. This can lead to vocal "defenders of the faith" who annoy the hell out of university professors.
3) Stomping on Jesus is kind of lame, but okay. Couldn't get a burn permit? Many professors feel that they need to deconstruct ideologies to build new paradigms. Some professors try a bit too hard to be iconoclasts. What amuses me is the obviously ironic message that the Jesus stomp conveys. If anything, it demonstrates how relevant Jesus still is in America. Nobody is stomping on images of Richard Nixon anymore and his era was like two minutes ago. Believe me, my weblog dedicated to historical Nixon research was a total failure.
-anthony
My original concern was that the student had been suspended for refusing to "stomp on Jesus." That, I think, would have been a violation of his right to free speech. The university denies that he was suspended. I hope they're telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteBut it is interesting that the textbook specifically called for using the name "Jesus," instead of say, one's mother's. And yes, I think this indicates hostility to Christianity and to Christians. It also indicates cowardice. We know that Jesus turns the other cheek, so he's safe to hit. Of course, in this country there are still enough Christians who hit back, so that it is not completely safe...yet.
Not at all safe, it turns out.
DeleteSince this is just a variation of the Milgram experiment, I wonder how many people stomped on Jesus. How many of them were Christians?
ReplyDeleteReportedly everyone stomped except the one student who complained. Who was, by the way, a Mormon.
DeleteJesus will survive this 1st-amendment-protected exercise of "free stomp".
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, this on the instructor's page made me chuckle:
"Areas of Specialization: Intercultural Communication, Leadership and Communication, Political Communication"
To paraphrase Tricky Dick,
"If an Instructor specializing in Intercultural Communication does it, it's not idiotic."
Fatzers, someday you'll introduce yourself and I'll buy you a beer.
Delete*blushes*
ReplyDeleteSchweppes Bitter Lemon for me ;)
Anthony, you were supposed to keep the historical Nixon site secret until we had time to work on it.
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe that you're in the Nixon mythicist camp.
DeleteI think I could be persuaded that someone made up Spiro Agnew.
DeleteI was all excited to comment on "The Jesus Stomp" until I read your piece and found out it was not about Bill O'Reilly's upcoming book.
ReplyDelete