The Thinking Housewife, Academic Standards, and Same-Sex Marriage

Dear Fred,

I dislike the new UC logo.

I dislike Laura's decontextualized focus even more.

Here is the key paragraph referenced in INEZ' original submision to The Thinking Housewife: "UC system spokeswoman Dianne Klein said that critics wrongly assume that UC is eliminating the traditional symbol. In fact, that will remain on all diplomas and official correspondence such as presidential letters, among other uses. But she said the old logo does not reproduce well in small size on Internet pages and that UC wanted something more visually contemporary and versatile, especially for online efforts to seek donations and recruit applicants."

As unappealing as it is, there is not intention that the new logo replace the traditional symbol. 

Rather, the new logo - in whatever final form - will meet the functional requirement of copying well, especially in small sizes.

There are enough real problems in the world without conjuring the erstaz.

As Yeshua noted in a seldom-sermonized enjoinder: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (One day, I will write a homily on all Yeshua's teachings that "never make it to the pulpit." "Let the dead bury their dead." "If your eye offends you, gouge it out. If your hand offends you, cut it off." "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." "Love your enemies." "Turn the other cheek." "Resist not evil." "Go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor." "Put up your sword.")

***

I will also comment on Laura's criticism of academics who, in her view, are "opposed to higher standards..."

My daughter, Maria - a sophomore at UNC-Asheville - writes more elegantly at 19 than I did at 40. 

As I see it, Maria (and her friends) are substantially better scholars than we (and our '60's fellows) at the University of Toronto.

Not only are these "kids" knowledgable; they are erudite.

Furthermore, they undertake deep contextualization and interdisciplinary fertilization, two traits whose absence is pushing the GOP "the way of the Whigs." 

Here is an example of Maria's scholarship - http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/11/saint-augustine-of-hippo-and-saint.html  

My barely-15-year-old Danny just gave me a "tour" of World War I:  I now understand that decerebrate conflict better than before. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-trivial-causes-of-world-war-i-andby.html (Currently, Danny and I are watching Ken Burns' "The War." This 14 hour documentary was first recommended by World War II vet friend, Bill R - a recommendation I heartily pass along. http://www.pbs.org/thewar/)

"Opposed to higher standards?"

Apocalypto drum beaters are existentially committed to "a falling sky."

Not only does Chicken Little confirm their tautological self-righteousness; "a falling sky" also reinforces their Impossibly Pure Principles. 

By debasing their intellectual competition, it is easier for Armageddon Cheerleaders to confirm their superiority to "satanic liberals" whose Demon-in-Chief, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, is "anti-Christian." 

Conveniently, Laura hints at the elision of three letters so that Kenyan-born Muslim, Barry Soetero, becomes the "anti-Christ."

***

Since "same-sex" marriage is "in the news," I will conclude with this salvo.

I think Yeshua was silent on same-sex union because he was smart enough to know Love is primary and that, one day, it would be possible to sacramentalize same-sex love instead of treating it furtively in the fashion of his illiterate, brutal, brutalizing fellows keen to kill the prophets and stone their own children. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2011:%2037-53&version=GNT  ///  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21%3A18-21&version=ERV

Some biblical "literalists" claim to value contextualization. But they never engage the social, psychological and political gestalts that lie beyond "words" altogether. And so they never account for the normalized brutality that pervaded The Ancient World and how moral norms have become more human - and more humane - as we grope, falteringly, toward The Common Good. 

The bedrock reason many Christians oppose same-sex marriage is this: As soon as such union is normalized, the last remnant of Medieval Monolithicism collapses, and with it, biblical "literalism" and the pillar of absolute authority.

For many Christians, the preservation of Authority is more important than the elucidation of Truth.

Simply put, conservative Christians are so shackled by unquestionable premises that they are unable to entertain, much less believe, any postulate that contradicts their own opinionated views of "scripture" and "authority."

When The Monolith implodes -- and it will happen in the lifetime of Bonald and Laura's children or grandchildren -- Love will become the chief measure of human goodness.

We will desist from dogmatic purity games -- with their obsessive focus on who is "saved" and who is "damned" -- in order to locate "the proof in the pudding." 

We will determine, in the real world, whether sacramentalized/ritualized same-sex love is better than the enforcement of repression, furtiveness and fly-by-night reification. 

For those who see the goodness of homosexuals and lesbians in their families and social circles, it is self-evidently clear that these human beings deserve to sacramentalize their unions.

Yeshua was silent on the subject of same sex union because his fellow Jews - fonder of "stoning" than modern jihadists - would have killed him without ceremony or trial.

Imagine. 

King David is asked to pay a bride price of a hundred Philistine foreskins and gleefully brings back twice as many. 

Notably, The Bible makes no reference to Philistine widows and orphans. 

It is all about "the men," and how they justify killing one another.

I see no better explanation for Yeshua's silence than the deadly dynamics of ancient Jewish culture. 

Yes, it is important to take into account everything Jesus said.

But it is also necessary - sometimes transcendentally necessary - to consider what he left unsaid. 

And why.

Yeshua's silence is all the more notable in light of contemporary Christianity's incandescent fixation on same-sex union. 

Surely, without good reason to remain silent, Yeshua would have addressed homosexuality if enduring proscription were deemed necessary. 

Nor is it insignificant that jurisprudential tradition holds that "silence implies consent."

I do not expect to convince denizens of the "orthosphere" - certainly not The Thinking Housewife.

However, the theological sea-change that is now normalizing same-sex marriage is taking place as surely as the analogous change in moral theology that occurred centuries ago when Capitalism triumphed over serfdom and Christianity gladly went along with the demotion of usury from "grievous sin" to "moral insignificance." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury

600 years ago, every priest and nun would have railed against usury employing the same passion that conservative Christians now reserve for same-sex marriage. 

But now, every nun and every priest -- every bishop and cardinal -- carries multiple credit cards, all of them bearing usurious rates of interest. (Ironically Christian conservatives - the pillars of Tradition - are adamantly against banking regulation that would control usurious rates of interest.)

In the same way that we now look back on the monstrosity of pulpit-preached slavery -- just 160 years ago -- so too will we look back on the monstrosity of loving people obliged to keep their love in a closet.

This new light -- formerly kept under a bushel -- will soon brighten the world. 

Pax on both houses

Alan

Afterthought: Yesterday, I listened to Limbaugh and Hannity discuss the slaughter of 20 young children in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Predictably, the chief concern of these "good Christians" was feisty defense of 2nd Amendment rights (with no mention of the phrase, . American conservatives are unbending absolutists who insist on visions of "Uncompromising Perfection." Anything short of Impossibly Pure Principles and, as they see it, The Gates of Hell yawn wide. Ironically, it is they themselves who wedge The Gates open. 

Hateful Christians have become Christ's enemies. 
They speak no blasphemies, instead busying themselves with their embodiment.

***

Here is a portrait of the good Christians who encourage America's love affair with violence.

(What if the Amish are right?)

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  ”Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander" by Thomas Merton

***

On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 1:42 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

The Meaningless University

INEZ writes:

I thought you and your readers might find this news from my alma mater both interesting and disturbing:

The University of California is changing its seal from its traditional one (bearing the motto, “Let There Be Light”) to a modern monstrosity that looks like a toddler’s drawing on the old Window’s program Paint.

— Comments —

Kevin M. writes:

The proposed logo for the University of California is ridiculous. Yes, it does resemble a child’s attempt at artwork done on a computer, but what is more striking is its pathetic and transparent attempt to avoid offending anybody (save those of us with any sense of taste). The march of PC pabulum continues apace with such nonsense. The most offensive thing I find about contemporary social trends is the pervasive insistence to avoid giving offense. We are being hypersensitized as a result. Just as the tree sheltered from the wind has the weakest branches, our ability to deal with other people is being neutered by such tripe.

And we all know the impetus for a change of logo: “Let there be light” set off a bomb somewhere, and now a tradition over 100 years old has to be changed to prevent further damage.

The devolution into Idiocracy will not be resisted.

Laura writes:

It looks like a transit authority logo, the sort of symbol that identifies a bus stop or subway station. Note the statement by the university spokeswoman in reaction to complaints about the logo: “Like anything with design and change, people have opinions.” She is the human equivalent of this logo: bland, uninspired and opposed to higher standards.

--
Fred Owens
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