Happy Valentine's Day

[chaoswolf]

My ass!!! On V-day, you're supposed to show affection to the one(s) you love, right? Wanted to handle that. Didn't get a chance to. Here's part of the reason why: This morning when I woke up, I had to get dressed & out the door because class is at an early time. I'll try not to make that mistake again for next quarter....anyways: have a soda on the way to school (while on bus). Get to school & have half a soda my friend Lianne split with me before I left to go off to HIST 17A. Get into boring history class & take a few notes, get handed a piece of paper. All I remember from that sheet: Johnothan Edwards. I don't know who the fuck he was, but I do know that preaching a "hellfire & brimstone" sermon in a class where you are supposed to be learning about the fundamentals that founded the country rather than religious philosophy is beside the fucking point. Tempted to report this asshole to the Dean, because preaching religion to students in class is not cool!!!! On the plus side of this morning: I had a HUMA 10 (Human Sexuality) class meeting today with a group of 4 gay & lesbian students. I noticed that one of them was holding a piece of paper which I had thought was the copy of Kinsey Scale that I had printed for Proffessor Lomax a month earlier. I could make out some of the text, but I couldn't make out enough to discern what it was. I asked when they opened for questions, and Lomax tried to tell what it was. He didn't do a good job, so I took over & answered the questions about the song. Also, preformed the song and got the entire class of 40 students to ROTFLTAO (roll on the floor laughing their asses off). It was very cool! I managed to get through the entire song with mabey a single word butchered, but I was on key & had the tune correct. Need to thank Kenef next time I see him.

Still on my list of things to do (in no particular order):

• Ship the CD to asahoshi
• Take Mayhem to see Constantine & dinner, possibly offer to spend night with her on Fri because I didn't see her today

Comments

[ladynekochan.livejournal.com]

i'm sorry! =(

[chaoswolf]

Cest la vie....

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Tempted to report this asshole to the Dean, because preaching religion to students in class is not cool!

Edwards was a critically important figure in the 18th century, and you really can't teach colonial history without mentioning and explaining his influence. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" represented a new style of preaching and is the literal fire-and-brimstone sermon that's a classic: "That world of misery, that lake of burning fire, is stretched out wide under you" is an incredible change from the intellectual declamations of the 17th century Puritans, and that stylistic change was at the heart of the first Great Awakening. I'm completely secular, agnostic, unobservant, but I'd have to talk about Edwards, too, to be a competent teacher in a U.S. history class.

The practical question is whether the prof was teaching about Edwards, role-playing to get the students into his lecture about Edwards, or claiming that Edwards was speaking for God. The first two is just fine, but the third isn't. (It's not kosher reasoning in ordinary history to say that a god takes sides in human events.) The colonial historian I taught for in grad school, Richard Beeman, dressed up as a preacher and read part of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" through part of the relevant lecture.

[asahoshi.livejournal.com]

I've had competent U.S. history teachers that don't even tough on Edwards. I would be in agreement with Chaos on the matter. I don't care that the U.S. was founded heavily on religious freedom, it hasn't gotten the country very far.

[chaoswolf]

Finally! Someone who agrees with me that religion isn't everything! Thanks, Love. BTW: Happy V-day & I promise I'll send the album soon!

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Well, if you study history, you don't get to study just the parts you like, right? And if teachers should strip out all reference to religion, how should they describe the civil-rights movement? Religion was heavily involved in it.

I stand by my prior judgment as an agnostic, secular historian: A competent college history course that includes colonial North American history has to mention Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening.

[dopple.livejournal.com]

if I could reach you, I would hug you