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

[MadZealot]

You're right, it probably wouldn't happen in the US.

 
In the US you might hear about Muslim students (and student groups) rightly speaking out against the tasteful exercise.  If extremists got wind of it you might have threats of violence, but hopefully no real violence.  
Either possibility is more likely than the covert Republican operative scenario.

[Sophia C]

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.

 
I was recently TA-ing in a class where exactly this was the topic - based on the work of the wonderful Philip Davies, who argues that the Bible belongs to everyone in every culture that it has influenced, and not just to believers. He was writing a while ago - his approach is now standard in a lot of biblical studies departments, but at the time it was revolutionary, so it's an important starting-point for undergrads who are new to the subject. Most of the (presumably secular) students had no problem with this approach, but did have difficulty relating to the Bible at all because of their low level of (what you might call) biblical literacy - which is the main problem we face when teaching biblical studies in the the UK. But a couple of religious students got very angry about Davies' approach, and wouldn't accept that non-believers should be allowed to interpret the Bible from a secular position. The class was a really interesting mix, as we juggled between students who didn't know who Jonah was and others who were adamant that he existed and was literally swallowed by a whale...

For more fun on this subject, I recommend the twitter feed Bible Students Say. It's a biblical studies teacher tweeting comments from his students. It's the source of much breakfast table entertainment for me and SJ.

I'm not sure what I think of the original exercise. I wouldn't try it in any of my classes, not even to demonstrate religious privilege. It's too likely to backfire. It has made me think a discussion on this news story and whether the exercise was appropriate might be interesting in a class, though.

[RandallS]

I don't really think the stomping itself was inappropriate, but the fact that one of the students got in trouble for refusing to participate seems really skeevy to me.

The fact that a person given authority over others requested that people (basically) stomp on Jesus strikes me as misuse of power. And I'm neither Christian or conservative.

[Sage]

The fact that a person given authority over others requested that people (basically) stomp on Jesus strikes me as misuse of power. And I'm neither Christian or conservative.

 
I'm honestly really torn on this and am not sure how I feel about it one way or the other. Or rather, I feel a multitude of things in a multitude of directions.

[mandrina]

The fact that a person given authority over others requested that people (basically) stomp on Jesus strikes me as misuse of power. And I'm neither Christian or conservative.

 
I disagree, the exercise was to ask them think about it, ask them to do it, since it wasn't an actual religious symbol (there might be more issues with Mohammed's name or fully written out God in Hebrew, since there are actual restrictions in those religion of writing the names out.) and then talk about it, whether or not they could bring themselves to do it.  The important part is the talking.   Whether or not the actual stomping takes place really isn't important and it should be made clear in the exercise that it's ok if they can't or won't do it, but the written out thing seems to.  

 It happened to be christocentric, I think a better exercise would be for the teacher to ask them to write out the name of their main religious figure, (or an approximation thereof, if the religion prevents the writing out), use that one and talk about it.  Bringing the flag into it might be good as well, since many people seem to have a religious attachment to the flag too. It actually is a good thought exercise.

[Snowdrop]

The fact that a person given authority over others requested that people (basically) stomp on Jesus strikes me as misuse of power. And I'm neither Christian or conservative.

 
I think the way it actually seems to have happened was extremely inappropriate and a misuse of power.  It seems like the original point of the exercise was more to gauge reactions to being put in such a situation, though; I assume the original exercise would have been equally effective if everyone refused to do any stomping.  (Which is why this article baffles me: it seems like the student who got suspended was in a lot of ways actually doing exactly what the designers of the exercise wanted.)

[MadZealot]

The fact that a person given authority over others requested that people (basically) stomp on Jesus strikes me as misuse of power. And I'm neither Christian or conservative.

 
Bingo.  There are other ways to get at the idea behind the exercise than to be so on the nose about it.

[RedHawk]

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Jesus-Stomping-Incident-Draws-Florida-Governor-Rick-Scotts-Ire-200158071.html

It's not a particularly well-written article; I wish they had explained what the point of the stomping was originally meant to be in the first place.  But I am interested to see what people here think of it.  

I don't really think the stomping itself was inappropriate, but the fact that one of the students got in trouble for refusing to participate seems really skeevy to me.  

 

I mean, really?  I can't imagine being told not to attend class and not to talk to anyone because I felt uncomfortable participating in an activity.

 
Freedom of religion works both ways and if this person didn't want to stomp on Jesus then that person shouldn't gotten into trouble. What if someone asked us to stomp on the Pentacle.

[Nyktipolos]

Freedom of religion works both ways and if this person didn't want to stomp on Jesus then that person shouldn't gotten into trouble. What if someone asked us to stomp on the Pentacle.

 
I probably wouldn't care, because a pentacle is not my lord, savior, or messiah.

[Asch]

I probably wouldn't care, because a pentacle is not my lord, savior, or messiah.

 
Lol.

Uhm. I mean yes. This.

A name / symbol etc are representative to me, they aren't literally that person / being / concept. Since my religion doesn't have strict guidelines about writing out or desecrating a name it's not a fair parallel.

Would I stomp on a piece of paper with a deity name on it? Probably not but I don't think the point of the exercise was to actually do it, but to consider doing it and how one's feelings about the act could translate to empathy / understanding for another religion's adherent's feelings.

As to what actually happened in the classroom and whether the school over reacted I haven't the foggiest. Too many reports are conflicting and too much has been steam rolled and spun to say for sure at this point.

[veggiewolf]

...

Every time I see the title of this thread I wonder why anyone would want to execrate Jesus.