TWO FROM COUNTERPUNCH

First, essayist and activist Tim Wise on the "persecution" of American Christians:

Claims of Christian Victimization Ring Hollow

Persecution is having a teacher tell you that the faith of your family is illegitimate and that you are going to spend eternity in a lake of fire surrounded by demons, and being told that all of your family who have died heretofore are already there preparing a space for you. Been there, done that.

Persecution is being corralled into an assembly in your public school and being forced to listen to a proselytizing representative of a Christian youth group call the students to proclaim their devotion to Jesus, and to imply that those who won't do so are lost souls. Been there, done that.

Persecution is writing an eighth grade term paper in that same public school, in which you examine both sides of the school prayer issue evenhandedly, but are graded down because the title you chose, "Our Father Who Art in Homeroom?" is deemed sacrilegious by your fundamentalist teacher. Been there, done that.

Persecution is having a teacher place anti-abortion pamphlets on every desk in his room, which not only call for an end to the procedure but do so in explicitly Christian terms, insisting that all who disagree are de facto baby-killers and agents of Satan. Been there, done that too.

Fundamentalists obviously have some sort of weird persecution complex. They hold more political and economic power in this country than at any other time in history, yet they still whine about how the liberals are out to get them. To be honest, I must admit that on many levels I am out to get them. Of course, I have no real power (except maybe over the high school students I teach but they're protected from my Satanism by the very pro-religious establishment of the community where I work) so I'm no threat. The reality is that liberals are menaced by fundamentalists--go figure. The Bible Nazis are crazy.

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Next, my teaching hero, University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jenson, opines on politics in the classroom:

Illusions of Neutrality

These illusions of neutrality only confuse students about the nature of inquiry into human society and behavior. All such teaching has a political dimension, and we shouldn't fear that. The question isn't whether professors should leave their politics at the door -- they can't -- but whether professors are responsible in the way they present their politics.

Every decision a professor makes -- choice of topics, textbook selection, how material is presented -- has a politics. If the professor's views are safely within the conventional wisdom of the dominant sectors of society, it might appear the class is apolitical. Only when professors challenge that conventional wisdom do we hear talk about "politicized" classrooms.

The classroom always is politicized in courses that deal with how we organize ourselves politically, economically, and socially. But because there's a politics to teaching doesn't mean teaching is nothing but politics; professors shouldn't proselytize for their positions. Instead, when it's appropriate -- and in the courses I teach, it often is -- professors should highlight the inevitable political judgments that underlie teaching. Students -- especially those who disagree with a professor's views -- will come to see that the professor has opinions, which is a good thing. Professors should be modeling how to present and defend an argument with evidence and logic.

As a high school teacher, I wholeheartedly agree. That's why I'm quitting my job in the indoctrinational institution known as "public school" at the end of the spring semester. I'm pretty sick of parsing my words.

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