tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post2966574754040362219..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Don't Trust the Experts!!!Paul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-27307936943346806392011-09-08T10:29:23.302-06:002011-09-08T10:29:23.302-06:00Randall. I guess my reaction was to the automatic ...Randall. I guess my reaction was to the automatic leap to the postmodernist pick and choose of Perry, Bachman, et al from the seemingly simple message that one must be prepared to encounter different ideas and worldviews in college. Must be the early semester optimism that I suffer from ever fall when I confuse the enthusiasm of my freshman for genuine engagement with history. I guess I took the message too literally (no fundamentalist pun intended) because it resonated with me and my freshman encounter (some 30 years ago) with opposing viewpoints. That encounter made me realize that I must learn to think for myself or abandon the field. As for the Southern revisionist view, they fail to see that there are good, better, and best arguments based on logic, reason, and evidence. I guess that is where Perry et al get confused. Maybe academe needs to do a better job explain the tentative nature of truth so that we don't come across as biased experts who cook the evidence to suit our perspective. Where is C.S. Lewis when you need him?David Raymondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06367557836092030258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-64419118677474931102011-09-08T06:50:04.190-06:002011-09-08T06:50:04.190-06:00David: That's a good point.
My issue has to d...David: That's a good point.<br /><br />My issue has to do primarily with the weighing of evidence. The student in the film suggests putting the Ten Commandments in public would change things. Would it? Is there a shred of proof for that? How would someone even gauge it?<br /><br />On weighing the evidence . . . Rick Perry claimed last night that there is no real validity to human-caused climate change. I would not encourage a college student along those lines. I would also challenge a student who held zealously to an ancient aliens view on the building of the pyramids. <br /><br />Certainly, students should question assumptions and they should come to understand how important interpretation actually is. That would include interpretation of the Bible as well. I guess I'm asking about a standard, accepted view. <br /><br />How would a historian of the South respond to a long rant from a student on how the Civil War was fought over state's rights, not slavery? Would it matter that the informed academic history community has no truck with that theory?Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-78025903610053896932011-09-08T06:44:26.931-06:002011-09-08T06:44:26.931-06:00I am going to send the clip to my REL 365: Evangel...I am going to send the clip to my REL 365: Evangelicalism in the US students. Many are self-identified evangelicals who happen to be in a large state university in the Midwest--not Peoria, but pretty close! They seem too hip to listen to focus on the family, but I am sure that they have heard warnings from friends and family regarding the likes of me!Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15065245209257127659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-47289838703831055962011-09-08T05:41:19.410-06:002011-09-08T05:41:19.410-06:00After reading the comments I had to watch the vide...After reading the comments I had to watch the video again and I came out with a different take. I understand why people are reading between the lines and attributing the worst of evangelical thinking (or nonthinking as the case may be), but couldn't this video simply be a cautionary tale for young Christians heading off to college? Everybody has a worldview. That worldview influences our understanding our disciplines and shapes our research. In college, even Christian colleges, you will encounter unsettling worldviews that run counter to your own. Be prepared.If you are unprepared, you will be demoralized and tempted to seek refuge in parties, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. (I failed to see the connection between questioning, which is a thrust of the video, and partying.) Sift through the evidence and think for yourself (It is implied that we should not take expert opinions on faith). Is this bad advice? How many naive freshman think the professor is a dispenser of unvarnished, factual wisdom? Learning to distinguish between fact and interpretation of the facts is at the heart of our discipline. The title of this blog is the same advice given to me by my neo-Marxist 1960s radical professors: question authority!David Raymondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06367557836092030258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-68473664436366258452011-09-07T16:32:02.568-06:002011-09-07T16:32:02.568-06:00Randall - you're welcome!
TrueU has been arou...Randall - you're welcome! <br />TrueU has been around for at least a couple of years. Focus on the Family's relationship to higher education is ambivalent - both Christian and secular universities. Dobson often warned against sending students to colleges that are not Christian as he defines it.Hildenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-52752929197101625532011-09-07T12:19:02.152-06:002011-09-07T12:19:02.152-06:00Thanks Kevin!Thanks Kevin!Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-74303000781869274082011-09-07T12:18:03.063-06:002011-09-07T12:18:03.063-06:00I think Texas is a good example, with WallBuilders...I think Texas is a good example, with WallBuilders and the Texas State Board of Ed, creation museum, Hagee... <br /><br />I still believe that Thomas Frank is right about the suburbs of Kansas City. Not sure where else the geographic centers would be. <br /><br />The American South? Would like to see a map of America's megachurches. Would that give us some idea of the red-meat center?<br /><br />"Plays in Peoria" is still just a nice alliteration.Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-80970651846492033682011-09-07T12:13:54.460-06:002011-09-07T12:13:54.460-06:00What a great film! The inferred connection betwee...What a great film! The inferred connection between questioning things and then therefore going to raves and forgetting 11 hours of your life because you're drunk is fantastic!<br /><br />As someone who has read Randall's forthcoming book (more on that later), I think Randall's book will help us understand how the "anointed ones" who preach against the authority of experts get the level of trust they get, especially when the seem so nonsensical to those of us who were not raised that way--and even when there are people within the evangelical community who are in fact mainstream experts on this kind of stuff. Why believe Ken Ham, non-credentialed creationist, when you can believe Francis Collins, evangelical, but also Harvard biologist, former head of the Human Genome Project, and current head of the NIH? <br /><br />Randall's book will help us understand why folks like Ham have any ground to stand on, and an audience (and political party) who toe their line, contrary to the mainstream as it may be.Kevin M. Schultzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10983890538804950630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-77361788409680371552011-09-07T11:46:14.535-06:002011-09-07T11:46:14.535-06:00Janine, more later on your questions, but in reali...Janine, more later on your questions, but in reality this stuff doesn't play all that well even in COS. I have plenty of devout evangelical students who get along just fine at my public univ. Of course their beliefs are challenged, but so are those of my atheist students who I constantly pester in class.Paul Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-65520147948573284772011-09-07T11:23:43.709-06:002011-09-07T11:23:43.709-06:00As a seventh-year resident of Central Illinois, I ...As a seventh-year resident of Central Illinois, I have been sitting here these last few minutes, wondering if these issues would even play IN Peoria. :) <br /><br />The idea that the general populace must be protected by religious leaders (and not too secretly-- white Anglo patriarchs with ties to the American Revolution) seems to play well where we see "white (male) misery," (as Dave Roediger would say). That is, some combination of a memory of former glory and the privileged attitude, historically tied to white skin, that white men deserve to be at the top of the social and economic hierarchy and resent anyone ahead. <br /><br />So, I think of spots in the country where residents possess either less land and capital than they had generations ago (many rural areas and former mining centers, especially in the white midwest and South), and where there are still memories of strong white, male unions, with jobs now automated or moved elsewhere. Is this right? I'm just brainstorming out loud. If so, perhaps the expression, "Will it play in Peoria?" might swap Peoria for the name of some small town somewhere in Kentucky or Oklahoma. <br /><br />Where are the geographic centers of "red-meat, anti-science or providential history"? The books I've been reading locate these in national organizations in the 1970s, 80s and beyond, but is there any more specific, geographic answer beyond this? Is Colorado Springs extra special?Janine Giordano Drakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15743145462085629472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-26825249639039652122011-09-07T10:51:00.475-06:002011-09-07T10:51:00.475-06:00Interesting Randall -- very different than new pub...Interesting Randall -- very different than new public persona that they are promoting, at least around here. <br /><br />I asked question about the students bc. one student in the trailer mentions "I thought I was going to a Christian college but then my professor said creationism was stupid" etc. These students never confronted my Baptist college biology professor, James Hurley, as devout a believer and a scientist as they come. He could also breathe some serious wrath on the kinds of blatant ignorance of basic scientific facts that the students here profess. It was hilarious to watch his face scrunch up in disgust and fury when the subject of the Creationist Institute (or whatever it's called) came up.Paul Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-52953011356418075192011-09-07T10:20:13.574-06:002011-09-07T10:20:13.574-06:00I think it's meant to warn students to be wary...I think it's meant to warn students to be wary while they are at state colleges. A warning to protect themselves against falsehoods of all sorts.<br /><br />The emails I still get regularly from Focus tend to be about homosexuality and the war on Christians.Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-28888525474882510382011-09-07T10:07:31.876-06:002011-09-07T10:07:31.876-06:00Wow, where to start? Strange thing is the public s...Wow, where to start? Strange thing is the public statements of the post-Dobson Focus have been all about moving beyond this kind of stuff, beyond culture wars, uniting with people on other side of issues where there is agreement (such as campaign with local liberal groups to promote adoptions for kids who need homes). Basically everything that this little film evidently is not. <br /><br />Maybe some semi-competing agendas within the organization? I don't really know. I love the part here where "questioning" leads inexorably to drugs, raves, sex, etc. Is this film supposed to be a sort of advertisement for true Christian colleges, Randall, or something else? Kind of hard to tell.Paul Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.com