We find it interesting enough to link it with the fervent request that gentle readers not only read it but post whatever they think about it in the comments. Our own comments would run to several pages, much more than we can type these days, and would likely stifle discussion, if not distort Golub's voice as well.
So have at it, dearest blog-friends, if you please.
And if you need an appetizer, here's a tease-quote:
I actively incorporate the gospel of Christ into my teaching--although not for the reason you might think.
I myself am not Christian-- as some readers may remember, I'm Jewish. I am, however, a passionate choral singer with an interest in music of the Baroque and Renaissance, and it is hard to find secular ensembles that perform this repertoire. As a result I spend a lot of time in church. . . .
My decision to begin incorporating the anthropology of Christianity into my classes was premised on the belief that, academically speaking, Christianity could be used to soften hands while I did the dishes. That is to say, I realized that I didn't just have to let the fact that my classes were saturated with Christianity go unremarked.
6 comments:
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000
States won by:
Gore: 19; Bush: 29
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
Government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
Um, when we invited comments on this post, we sort of intended that they relate somehow to the contents of this post.
I think Anonymous is on to something: Alex Golub is an illegal alien and should be deported back to Mars.
Okay, I admit, Golub's not really an illegal alien, nor is he from Mars. But c'mon, he admits to running naked in the desert on trips to Burning Man, while doped up on synthetic mescaline. That's certainly more earthy than earthly, and it's not exactly the sort of pedigree that makes one want to stand up and take notice of his views on Christianity.
I will say this about the latter, however. His insistance on referring to communion as an act of cannibalism is, at the very least, at odds with the considered opinion of our legal system. Cannibalism is a felony, after all, and I know of no one who has been convicted of cannibalism simply for taking communion.
Sure, Golub also has some nice things to say about Christians, but his opinion of Christianity is betrayed by his choice of vocabulary. Referring to communion as an act of cannibalism is like referring to baptism as an act of murder. Why would one want to do so except to denounce the practice without having to go to all the trouble of trying to support one's prejudice against it?--especially when the practice is thought of simply as a means to gaining the insights of anthropology.
Some existentialists believe that to obtain meaning in life, one must do the absurd.
In practice, on this blog, getting a scowling response from SWNID sometimes requires the absurd.
Next time I'll try the Nigerian phone scam.
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