My granddaughter graduated from university this year! And I’m thrilled to report that even though Covid-19 cancelled graduation, she was able to escape the academy with her faith vibrant and strong, refusing to be another ‘Christian’ casualty to the progressive values that dominate and run the ‘higher-learning’ culture of our universities.
Along the way, there were interesting moments, like the time she texted me during an English class to ask if it was true that there were really three (3) Eves in the Old Testament garden, as her professor was dogmatically pronouncing ‘live’ to imprisoned impressionable students. I answered her truthfully and with her permission, wrote her teacher a ‘nice’ letter . . . and made certain the Department Chair received a copy for good measure!
“Dear Dr. ___________
I am neither an alt-right provocateur or a bombastic neocon. But I confess that even I was surprised to learn from my grandchild attending your English class, that you felt compelled to inform the students in the class, under the guise of “The Symbolic Garden”, that the widely accepted understanding of the Creation Story was profoundly wrong and that the real story of the Garden symbolism was that there were actually three (3) primordial women in the very beginning, not one, and over time the number was reduced to the singular figure, Eve.
Given your classroom pronouncement, I could assume that you have a good understanding of Hebrew language, have studied the authoritative Massoretic text and various midrashim and are equally familiar with the abundant legends of the Jews that rabbinic scholars liked to artificially incorporate into their traditions.
If so, then in the interests of academic transparency, you could have offered your young students, my grandchild included, a more balanced approach to the opening text of Bereshit. Or, you could have said that Lilith developed at the very earliest in the 3-5th century Babylonian Talmud as a mythological creature and that Jewish mysticism even suggests she and Adam were once thought to be twins joined together at the back by God.
You provided no such balance.
The point is not that you broached the subject of Garden symbolism in your class and included the well-known Genesis passage; it’s that you knowingly chose to misrepresent the original Hebrew text (M.T.) and pass off to the students an alternative, but failing exegesis of a long-standing familiar biblical passage with no hint to your class that Lilith and the ‘Ugly wife’ is in essence a fundamentally fringe and kabbalistic apogesis of the Genesis text.
For the record, I have no issue with plurality, open dialogue or exposure to conflicting lines of thought in a university setting. What I do take exception to is you using your class lectern to disparage the faith of any Christians in your class and masquerade as a theologian, a position you are not academically qualified to speak to with any degree of authority. It is one thing to talk about biblical symbolism and the Garden as Eden. It is quite another to take the biblical record as traditionally viewed, and then sow doubt by exegeting it and pronouncing it as a corrupted and fallacious document. I suspect the esoteric symbolism of the Islamic garden - the Jannat al Firdaws was not equally derided?
As a role model, I think the expectation that you support all identity groups – Christians included, is reasonable. This you did not do. Consequently, you not only failed my grandchild, you misused your position of power to cast a dark shadow on Scripture.
Moving forward, perhaps discussions around Charlottes Web or Tolkien’s The Hobbitt might be more in line with your expertise and a better use of class time, instead of denigrating the faith traditions of some of your students.”
And “Yes” I provided my full name and address.
Now, I am no novice to secular education, so I understand that grinding away at a Christian’s faith and relieving them of the terrible burden they carry, can be a bit of a sport in many universities.
Families and churches justifiably deserve blame for arming their youth with rubber swords and plastic shields instead of teaching them to think critically about the world they live in.
Nothing new here!
What I do find increasingly troublesome at Canadian universities however is the growing wave of cancel culture threatening free speech and opposed to alternative voices — including conservative ones. And while the preponderance of progressives in the humanities and social sciences in Canada is indisputable, with their politically correct speech codes, gender courses, ‘feelings’ based evidence and nonsensical white “racialized privileges” (Susan Gingell, Univ. of Saskatchewan), it seems clear to me that in a postmodern world the freedoms that pivot around the search for ‘Truth’ have been exchanged for ideological conclusions.
Freedom of expression in Canada is protected as a ‘fundamental freedom’ by Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Covid-19 has taught us however that this ‘freedom’ is in the eyes and hands of our politicians, not Canadian citizens. The point is not whether the government has the right to leverage ‘reasonable’ limits – but whether in a cancel culture, public shaming, mob mentality, Marxist BLM, and defund the police environment, the ability to be ‘heard’ is an equally reasonable expectation as well. Covid-19 has demonstrated that it is the politicians who decide which freedoms are worthy and which ones are useful. So countless university departments have sipped the same cool-aid, leveraging their progressive ideology as they deem useful as well. Consider …
Wilfred Laurier University (Waterloo): March 8, 2017. Remember Jian Ghomeshi? He was the former Radio CBC broadcaster charged with four counts of sexual assault and later acquitted. Well, the Criminology Students Association (CSA) at the university invited one of Ghomeshi's defence lawyers – a Danielle Robitaille - to come and talk about the role of defence counsel in the Canadian legal system. Regrettably the event never happened – because hooligans at the university forced Robitaille to cancel because of concerns for her personal safety.
Ryerson University Aug. 22, 2017. A panel discussion on “The Stifling of Free Speech on University Campuses” was cancelled because activists like Christeen Elizabeth said the event was giving a platform to ‘fascists’ like University of Toronto prof. Jordan Peterson (Clinical Psychologist) and Concordia University prof. Gad Saad (Behavioural Scientist). Of course, no supportive facts were offered by Elizabeth or her cadre of supporting activists from the Socialist Fightback Club; only name-calling and subjective hate speech. This is the intellectual junk slowly eroding the fabric of our places of learning.
University of Waterloo April 25, 2018. The Laurier Society for Open Inquiry scheduled a lecture for April 30, 2018, to talk on “Multiculturalism, Borders and Identity in Canada”. Speakers included Canadian political commentator Faith Goldy-Bazos and Canadian Sociologist Ricardo Duchene. The university charged the group $28,500 in security fees in order to proceed with the event. The lecture was cancelled. No kidding! There goes thinking critically!
When University of British Columbia agreed to host an anti-SOGI event (with Jenn Smith – who identifies as a transgender), citing free speech, the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff, representing approximately 5,000 UBC staff asked the university’s president to cancel the speech. Seems some of the staff felt ‘unsafe’ – a common weapon and canard wielded to shut down views that challenge another person’s emotional safety.
As an aside, on July 8, 2019, UBC was banned from marching in the Vancouver Pride Parade because they allowed the talk on campus, which goes to show that PRIDE only pretends to preach inclusion and non-bullying behaviour.
Formed in 2010, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is a legal, non-profit, advocacy organization (Alberta) that specializes in Canadian constitutional law, specifically in interpretations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It publishes an annual Campus Freedom Index which measures the state of free speech in our 60 public universities in Canada and the index is measured against the university’s stated policies … and practices. Grades include A, B, C, D and F.
In 2019 only four universities received an A grade and five universities received an “F” grade for the first time for failing to protect free expression: Memorial University, Ryerson, Universities of Winnipeg, Calgary and British Columbia. Back in 2018 there were seven in the ‘Flunk List’ (F).
In 2020 thirteen universities received at least one F grade as did 23 student unions with their imposition of speech code to enable censorship. To illustrate a specific example of malfeasance, the Students’ Union of the University of Ottawa revoked club status from any students group with a pro-life message.
Describing the sad state of free-speech in our universities, John Carpay wrote in the National Post …
“Such incidents are becoming more common place, and typically play out as follows: (1) a right-of-centre or “conservative” person is invited to speak or debate on campus; (2) left-wing groups declare that the invited speaker is ‘racist’, ‘hateful’ or ‘homophobic’ and therefore not entitled to speak at all; (3) feminists, LGBTQ, Antifa and/or other groups threaten violent or physically disruptive protests; (4) the university slaps event organizers with a large invoice (for example, $17,500 at the University of Alberta) for ‘security costs’ that students can’t afford to pay; (5) the event is cancelled. In some cases, the university simply cancels the event as soon as it learns of ‘protests’. John Carpay, (Civil Rights Lawyer) National Post, September 5, 2018
Canadian universities annually receive over $14 billion federally, provincially, and remain some of the most intellectually closed systems in our land. Plus, it’s a one-sided conversation! There is grand public talk about diversity, but folks who are ideologically diverse are not welcome.
The Federal government gives $600 million to the Press to ensure Free Speech – yet it sits idle on Free Speech at our universities.
This is the face of post modernism. This is the Canada we live in. Here … realities are just social constructs and subject to change. Here … all truth is subjective and objective truth is simply a myth. Here … knowledge and reality have multiple meanings.
This is the ideology that has our Prime Minister get up in Question Period on Dec. 12, 2018 in Parliament’s Centre Block and talk about ‘irregular’ [not illegal] border-crossers. And this is the ideology that shuts down campus speakers and inhibits free speech — especially if it is from a centrist or right of centre position. Am I imagining all of this? No! In July of this year Harper’s magazine published a letter signed by over 150 authors (i.e. Margaret Atwood; J.K. Rowling), all condemning what they called the ‘restriction of debate’.
Trying to juggle love for our neighbours and stand for Truth and the God of Truth is challenging for an evangelical Christian committed to moral and absolute truth. Tolerating the views of others is clearly the ‘Christian’ thing to do. I get it! Jesus would be happy! But refuting a belief is not nearly the same thing. I hazard to suggest that on the first point believers are doing reasonably well, as a good many simply stay quiet … or invisible. On the second point, believers are failing — barely able to articulate their faith in academies populated with postmodern progressives, let alone “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
It is not necessarily about winning over opponents or challenging the ostensible superiority of contemporary secularism. But it is about speaking publicly and privately to the place of ‘Faith’ and making an open, honest and robust statement of the gospel.
Navigating the complexities of a postmodern society is not easy. Then again, it’s not an impossible task either! Christians seem less inclined to challenge those who are less inclined to ‘hear’ our point of view. Why is that? Are they afraid? Are they ill equipped? Are they disinterested? Have they been deceived? You can reach your own conclusions. In the end the results remain the same: “Truth stumbles in the streets” (Isaiah 59:14) of our universities — and few lambs cry out. They need to find their voice. “Only Saying ...”
Comments