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September 25, 2008

Christianity, Racism, Stupidity (not in that order)

I don't have a great deal of experience with Christianity apart from reading the bible in sophomore Civ class and taking a Reformation seminar to fill a requirement for my history degree. I may have been born a jew, but I never received much of a religious education beyond learning the difference between a bagel and a bialy (yum). I do, however, love to read and from what I can gather, the teachings of Christ revolve around being goodly, tolerant, reserved of judgement, loving, kind, and faithful. It would seem to me that a Christian education would involve teaching children the importance of being good, not because it gets you into heaven ("Small is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life"), but because it is love of the lord and selfless service to fellow man.

That being said, I am not sure how to digest the events that took place yesterday on the campus of George Fox University, an institution Forbes.com rated the highest among western Christian Universities (so says the GFU website). According to Suzanne Pardington of The Oregonian, early Tuesday morning a campus custodial crew discovered a life sized, cardboard cutout of Barack Obama hanging from a tree with a sign attached to the effigy stating "Act Six Reject." This was a mock lynching on one of the country's premier Christian Universities. This is not Oxford, Mississippi in 1962. This is Newberg, Oregon in 2008. I barely have the stomach to talk about it, I am so disgusted and dispirited. I know, I know that the actions of one do not represent the body as a whole, but if this is the kind of hatred that simmers on the campuses of Christian colleges, then something has gone terribly, tragically wrong.

Act Six is an incredible, full ride scholarship program for, in the words of its mission statement, "emerging urban leaders who want to use their college education to make a difference on campus and in their communities at home." (Oh, no! Not those slacker, "community organizers"!) GF University is home to a small number of Act Six scholarship recipients, but apparently even a dozen students of color are too many for certain members of that (Christian) community.

Kids do stupid shit. That's a given. At twelve, I took my parents ancient Honda out for a 2 am joy ride while they were out of town (first gear, baby!). This, however, is so profoundly racist and classist, so fucking stupid, I can't find a single cell in my body that feels anything but contempt for the system that raised the shit who did this deed. Children's actions do not develop out of a vacuum. I can guarantee you that the Aurora, CO fifth grader who went to school last week wearing a homemade t-shirt stating Obama a terrorist’s best friend (sic) didn't come up with that one on his own. He absorbed the hatred and abject ignorance from his parents (just the way I thought, in fourth grade, that Ronald Reagan was a GREAT president because my mother said so twelve times a day). Because the coward, the so-called, self identifying Christian who mock lynched Obama did so in the dead of night, who knows if he/she is just following in his/her family's footsteps, but it doesn't bode well for either his/her future or ours as a nation.

I would like to give Americans the benefit of the doubt. Christ, I would like to give Christianity the benefit of the doubt. One of the loveliest men I know, a truly funny, smart, kind and gracious person, is an ex-priest who worked his butt off for twenty years keeping the homeless fed and warm down at the Denver Catholic Mission. His life inspires me. The events yesterday at George Fox University do nothing other than depress the shit out of me. So much for racism being a horrifying thing of a distant past.

Thanks to M. LeBlanc over at Bitch Ph.D. for the heads up

Posted by bethamsel at September 25, 2008 7:11 PM