15AR20-41

AR 20:41 - Crippling students by indulging them

In this issue:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH - liberal professors long for the good old days before obsessive fears of offending students took over

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - a child shall lead them (out the back door)

ROMAN CATHOLICISM - "a fair-minded model of generosity, grace, and love" to aid your interactions

Apologia Report 20:41 (1,270)

December 2, 2015

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Are the consequences of near-universal critophobia finally coming home to roost? The introduction to this piece is ominous: "Something strange is happening at America's colleges and universities. A movement is arising, undirected [and, being championed] in the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don't like. Here's why that's disastrous for education - and mental health."

So begins "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in the September issue of The Atlantic. The authors cite a cornucopia of protections sought by students - and consequences, such as "a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym [who] wrote an essay for Vox <www.goo.gl/OUGgx6> describing how gingerly he now has to teach. 'I'm a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,' the headline said. ...

"Two terms have risen quickly from obscurity into common campus parlance": microaggressions and trigger warnings. Again, examples abound in the text.

"This new climate is slowly being institutionalized, and is affecting what can be said in the classroom, even as a basis for discussion. ...

"The press has typically described these developments as a resurgence of political correctness. That's partly right, although there are important differences between what's happening now and what happened in the 1980s and '90s." The authors elaborate.

"The current movement is largely about emotional well-being. More than the last, it presumes an extraordinary fragility of the collegiate psyche, and therefore elevates the goal of protecting students from psychological harm." Yet "this movement seeks to punish anyone who interferes with that aim, even accidentally. You might call this impulse vindictive protectiveness. ...

"The dangers that these trends pose to scholarship and to the quality of American universities are significant.... [I]n this essay we focus on [the] question: What are the effects of this new protectiveness on the students themselves?" One sentence seems to summarize this: "According to the most basic tenets of psychology, helping people with anxiety disorders avoid the things they fear is misguided."

The authors find that vindictive protectiveness "prepares [students] poorly for professional life, which often demands intellectual engagement with people and ideas one might find uncongenial or wrong. The harm may be more immediate, too. ... The new protectiveness may be teaching students to think pathologically."

The question is raised: "How did we get here?" (See the article's title for a clue.) Seeking solutions, the authors champion cognitive behavioral therapy and complain of higher education's embrace of "emotional reasoning" which they define as "letting 'your feelings guide your interpretation of reality.'"

The authors acknowledge that "There have always been some people who believe they have a right not to be offended," and respond by asking: "What are we doing to our students if we encourage them to develop extra-thin skin just before they leave the cocoon of adult protection?" They also warn that "The new climate is slowly being institutionalized, and is affecting what can be said in the classroom, even as a basis for discussion or debate." The problem, in part, is "teaching students to catastrophize and have zero tolerance." (Such teachers are creating little monsters who will, in time, turn on each other, resulting in self-destructive chaos if this pattern is not checked. - RP)

"The biggest single step in the right direction does not involve faculty or university administrators, but rather the federal government, which should release universities from their fear of unreasonable investigation and sanctions by the Department of Education. ...

"Talking openly about ... conflicting but important values is just the sort of challenging exercise that any diverse but tolerant community must learn to do. Restrictive speech codes should be abandoned.

"Universities should also officially and strongly discourage trigger warnings. ...

"Finally, universities should rethink the skills and values they most want to impart to their incoming students. [S]tudents should also be taught how to live in a world full of potential offenses."

The authors conclude: "Thomas Jefferson, upon founding the University of Virginia, said: 'This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." <www.goo.gl/WIJPDL>

For links to a collection of related Atlantic content, see <www.goo.gl/SWzfn0> and for an organized response to the restriction of speech on university campuses, see <www.thefire.org>.

Last, this will make you smile: "University president to students who feel victimized: 'This is not a day care'" <www.goo.gl/QP4PnZ>

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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Yet another example of the Internet's growing impact on fringe religion. In "Ex-Jehovah's Witness schoolgirl exposes organisation as a religion that 'destroys lives,'" UK reporter Ben Tufft begins: "A schoolgirl who left the Jehovah's Witnesses after learning of its alleged failure to protect vulnerable women has blasted the organisation in a powerful speech to her classmates.

"Holding back tears, she recalled her personal experiences as a member of the church [sic] and how she was taught everyone outside the religion, including her father, would be sent to Armageddon.

The girl, identified elsewhere <www.goo.gl/8ZTMkZ> as "Brie, a senior at Lincoln High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin", also "highlighted women's lowly position in the hierarchy of the organisation and how they are viewed as inferior to men." (Visit <www.goo.gl/P8PedT> to watch her 14-minute speech.)

"Dissenting from the orthodoxy on church doctrine and practices is forbidden as a Jehovah's Witness and those who do are shunned by religious leaders. Independent thought is discouraged and is thought to have been introduced by the devil.

"The most shocking allegations relate to women the girl spoke to, who were members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and wished to remain anonymous. ...

"In 2015 a Californian court ordered the Watch Tower Society, the company [sic] which runs the Jehovah's Witnesses, to pay $2.8m in damages after failing to disclose the past abuse of a congregation member, which led to the sexual abuse of a nine-year-old girl. ...

"'It is a religion that preaches love and acceptance, but the reality is everything is conditional. Love and acceptance is only extended as long as members practise absolute obedience and question nothing, ever,' she said.

"'This religion destroys lives, destroys families and they do it largely unchecked… because they are really good at silencing the people who leave."

"The Jehovah's Witnesses were not immediately available for comment." The Independent (UK), May 24 '15, <www.goo.gl/Wm3jTs>

Also see <www.goo.gl/IGtsrQ>

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ROMAN CATHOLICISM

Tim Augustyn, resident pastor, writer, and editor of Unlocking the Bible <unlockingthebible.org>, has found what appears to be quite a gem: "Just about every book ever written with the words 'Catholic' and 'evangelical' in the title have been primarily for pastors or academics.... Such books offer detailed explanations of the thorny theological differences between the two camps. But Chris Castaldo's Talking with Catholics about the Gospel: A Guide for Evangelicals [1] is different.

"By different, I don't mean Castaldo [formerly Director of the Ministry of Gospel Renewal at Wheaton College] skirts our theological differences in order to make the book feel more readable or Roman Catholicism seem more palatable. It tackles a most of the issues head on, and (just as importantly) does so in a way that makes Catholics look human, not naïve, dumb, irrational, or extraterrestrial. ...

"I've read my share of books about Catholics and evangelicals, and they've helped me to develop a theological grid for understanding Roman Catholicism. But I'm not sure how much these books helped me to grow in love. Talking with Catholics will help you do both. Castaldo <chriscastaldo.com>, who was raised as Roman Catholic and now serves as lead pastor of New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois, is more than fair-minded when writing and thinking about these issues. He's a model of generosity, grace, and love." And to us those are rare and priceless qualities in apologetics resources. <www.goo.gl/gsqKyH>

Compare the above with Talking with Evangelicals: A Guide for Catholics, by Ralph Del Colle [2].

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Talking with Catholics about the Gospel: A Guide for Evangelicals, by Chris Castaldo (Zondervan, 2015, paperback, 192 pages) <www.goo.gl/qjb2w8>

2 - Talking with Evangelicals: A Guide for Catholics, by Ralph Del Colle (Paulist Prs, 2012, paperback, 104 pages) <www.goo.gl/7nqzqb>

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