"Jesus" Stomping Incident Draws Florida Governor Rick Scott's Ire

[yewberry]

Aaaah yes, those thrice damned conservatives.  Going so far as to waste valuable time and money on trolling classes they do not need (nor want) just so they can bitch about the PC police, piss off the commie professors, and stir up cauldrons of contrarian discontent.

Now that's just damned silly.

While not completely outside the realm of possibility, it does seem pretty unlikely to me.  But then, the whole story kinda does.  I'm very interested to see if they can tease any reality out of the spin.

Brina

[MadZealot]

While not completely outside the realm of possibility, it does seem pretty unlikely to me.

 
Well, I must confess: I wasted entire semesters trolling classes like underwater basketweaving, nude yoga.  Hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, because, y'know... conservative!!!  
I made those commie profs so angry you could hear their enamel snap.

Troth.

[yewberry]

Well, I must confess: I wasted entire semesters trolling classes like underwater basketweaving, nude yoga.  Hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, because, y'know... conservative!!!  
I made those commie profs so angry you could hear their enamel snap.

 
Like I said, pretty unlikely.  I've never heard of a student getting suspended because he wouldn't do an exercise, though, so I figure there's gotta be more to this than what's being reported currently.

Brina

[MadZealot]

Like I said, pretty unlikely.  I've never heard of a student getting suspended because he wouldn't do an exercise, though, so I figure there's gotta be more to this than what's being reported currently.

Brina

Oh definitely.  If he was suspended, he must've really ruffled some feathers.  Interestingly enough, no witness accounts.

[yewberry]

Oh definitely.  If he was suspended, he must've really ruffled some feathers.  Interestingly enough, no witness accounts.

They've probably all been told to keep things close to the vest because LITIGATION!!!1!

I don't know how that could explain usually-chatty college kids, though.  What with their facebooks and their tweeters...

Brina

[MadZealot]

They've probably all been told to keep things close to the vest because LITIGATION!!!1!

I don't know how that could explain usually-chatty college kids, though.  What with their facebooks and their tweeters...

Brina

The student seems to revel (gloat?) a bit on his FB page.  
 
Victory!  

Hm.

[Jack]

Aaaah yes, those thrice damned conservatives.  Going so far as to waste valuable time and money on trolling classes they do not need (nor want) just so they can bitch about the PC police, piss off the commie professors, and stir up cauldrons of contrarian discontent.

Now that's just damned silly.

When I was in college taking religious studies classes, it seemed like every class on academic Christianity or religion as a whole had a few students who signed up expecting Bible School and had no idea how to deal with it. I saw a couple of "what do you mean, consider these contradictions in the bible?!" freak outs. But they weren't trolling, just sheltered.

[Sage]

When I was in college taking religious studies classes, it seemed like every class on academic Christianity or religion as a whole had a few students who signed up expecting Bible School and had no idea how to deal with it. I saw a couple of "what do you mean, consider these contradictions in the bible?!" freak outs. But they weren't trolling, just sheltered.

 
Oh Jesus, we had a kid meltdown in our New Testament Christianities class at Haverford (which is a super liberal Quaker school). We never even GOT to talk about Revelations because he went on a rant about how we can't possibly understand the Bible unless the Holy Spirit decides we're cool enough to have ~*~God's mysteries~*~ whispered into our ears and hearts as we read.

[Oíche]

When I was in college taking religious studies classes, it seemed like every class on academic Christianity or religion as a whole had a few students who signed up expecting Bible School and had no idea how to deal with it. I saw a couple of "what do you mean, consider these contradictions in the bible?!" freak outs. But they weren't trolling, just sheltered.

 
I can echo this one on two counts.
In my first year in university I took a class called 'Religions and Global Diversity', it was a fantastic subject that basically discussed religions and beliefs from all over the world from an academic viewpoint- we covered quite a vast range including philosophers and scholars of religion. Our personal religious or non-religious beliefs did not matter or have a bearing on it.
We had our introductory lecture and when the breakdown and point of the course was explained I noticed that many devout Christian and Muslim students did not return to the class afterwards, looking shocked that personal beliefs didn't make a difference to what we'd be doing.
However I did meet one lad who was heavily involved in the Christian Union here and he was very interested and very accepting when I explained my beliefs to him, so he was an exception to those We had great chats!

The second count is that my Celtic Civ course tends to draw in many Americans studying abroad for a semester (I've met many fine ones too , but it's always the Americans in this case we hear about- mainly Bible Belt ones) to the 'Early Irish Spirituality', 'Celtic Religion and Mythology' and the 'Celtic Saints' classes.
Every so often we hear about some not being able to cope with the fact that we study these from an academic viewpoint rather than a religious one and study texts other than the Bible as part of the course material (Irish hagiographical and apocryphal texts being major ones).
A friend of mine who is a tutor told me he had one call him a 'blasphemer' when explaining and discussing the topic of triple goddess figures in Irish mythology in the tutorial he taught :hdsk:

[sailor]

It sounds like actually stepping on the paper is kind of secondary to the point of the discussion.



Because the majority of students will be Christians and the whole point is to have them experience what it's like when the Christian majority goes around "stomping" on Mohammad and the Buddha?

 
Because if the authors recommended stomping on Mohammed they'd be killed?

That and religious privilege seems to be to exempt non-Christians?  If it was to show privilege the teacher would have to have the students stomp on the name appropriate to Their religion, not to a religion that has no meaning to them.

[sailor]

Could be he took the class to troll.  This is the sort of class that vocal conservatives tend to complain about.  They don't like anything that teaches someone to be 'politically correct' (Also known as being respectful of other people).

 
Uh, what about being respectful of Christians?

[Jack]

Because if the authors recommended stomping on Mohammed they'd be killed?

And how often does that happen in the United States, again?

That and religious privilege seems to be to exempt non-Christians?  If it was to show privilege the teacher would have to have the students stomp on the name appropriate to Their religion, not to a religion that has no meaning to them.

 
Probably it was being blindly Christocentric and assuming the students using it would be Christian.

[Snowdrop]

Could be he took the class to troll.  This is the sort of class that vocal conservatives tend to complain about.  They don't like anything that teaches someone to be 'politically correct' (Also known as being respectful of other people).

 
But seriously?  I kind of don't care if that is why he took the class.  I mean, I don't care if he's the fundie-est of fundies.  Because unless someone's actions are actually infringing on others' rights in some way, people have the right to be fundies if they want to.  It's not something anyone should be getting suspended over.  

Unless his response to the professor amounted to something like, " . . . and YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY, YOU DEMON SPAWN!" I can't imagine how simple refusal to do a trivial exercise can be construed as being abusive towards the professor.

[DashesAgainst]

And how often does that happen in the United States, again?

You're right, it probably wouldn't happen in the US.  But Americans and other Westerners in countries that have Islamic extremists might be at risk - given that such news would likely travel around the world.  This example comes to mind:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_World_Outreach_Center_Quran-burning_controversy

That said, this "exercise" was pretty tasteless.

[sailor]

And how often does that happen in the United States, again?


 
Probably it was being blindly Christocentric and assuming the students using it would be Christian.

In the US, not very often if at all. Europe and the mideast? Yeah, it happens. You can spell Rushdie and the name of grandson of the famous Dutch painter?  
 

It's enough of a threat to US interests for the President and the Sec State to try and trample 1st amendment rights.