[Vision2020] Crusaders vs. Infidels: Moscow's MuscularChristianity

[Darrell Keim]

A fair viewpoint, Nick.  I suspect you view it as a somewhat literal call to
arms.

I view it as advertising hyperbole.  They are preparing their students to do
these things metaphorically.  I base this off meetings I've had in the past
with all three CC based institutions.  They all basically said:  We are
attempting to prepare our students/parishioners with the knowledge to defend
and advocate for their moral beliefs in an increasingly immoral world.

This ad simply states similarly in a way designed to catch the eye of their
target market.

If they are being literal, they better step up their physical education
program (ha-ha!)

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 5:01 PM, Gier, Nicholas <NGIER at uidaho.edu> wrote:

>  Hi Darrell,
>
> I disagree.  Whatever one's political persuasion any reasonable human being
> would say that this NSA blurb is violent rhetoric and it should be
> condemned.
>
> If a Muslim website had language like this on, the FBI would be on it in a
> second.
>
> Really surprised at your response.
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nicholas F. Gier, Professor Emeritus
> Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
> "The Palouse Pundit" on Radio Free Moscow, 92.5 FM
> President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO
> www.idaho-aft.org/ift.htm
> 208-882-9212, 1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com on behalf of Darrell Keim
> Sent: Tue 11/30/2010 4:57 PM
> To: nickgier at roadrunner.com
> Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Crusaders vs. Infidels: Moscow's
> MuscularChristianity
>
> My summary of the new advertising campaign:
>
> New envelope, same old Christmas letter inside.
>
> Liberals will hate it, middle of the road folks won't care, and Christian
> conservatives-their target market-will love it.
>
> And, no Nick, I didn't say enough had been said.  If there is new info to
> discuss about CC-good or bad-I want to hear it.  I tried to say that
> rehashing the old doesn't seem to be of benefit.  Small, but important
> nuance there.  Probably my fault though, as others also missed the nuance.
>  Easy to do, as I was recently reminded.  Email doesn't do nuance very
> well.
>  C'est la vie!
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 1:36 PM, <nickgier at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
> > Greetings:
> >
> > Despite Darrell Keim's belief that enough has been said about Christ
> Church
> > and NSA, their recruiting blurb is simply beyond the pale.
> >
> > This is my radio commentary/column for the week and the full version is
> > attached as a PDF file.  I direct you to my Logos School revision of West
> > Side Story at the end.
> >
> > Read everything that I've written about Pastor Wilson at
> > www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/Wilson.htm.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > THE CRUSADERS VS. THE INFIDELS:MOSCOW'S MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY
> >
> > A long war is a small price to pay for eternal peace.
> >
> > --found on a toilet stall wall
> >
> > I don't often cruise the website of New St. Andrews College (www.nsa.edu
> ),
> > Moscow's small Christian college, so the new recruiting campaign gave me
> > quite a jolt.  The headline is "Yo, Secularism, Why Don't We Step into
> the
> > Alley?"
> >
> > The blurb describes the NSA faculty as "not timid in a rumble," and they
> > want to make the students "dangerous" so that they can "throw the lies of
> > this age up against the wall, lifting wallets and the occasional gift
> card."
> > It ends with "an invitation to a brawl."
> >
> > Is NSA a Christ-centered liberal arts college or a fighting club?  If it
> is
> > the latter, then its conditional use permit should be reviewed.
> >
> > After the initial shock receded, my first thought was "How can they
> > possibly recruit young women with this raw machismo"? Out of seven images
> > (two with real tough guys) only one includes female students.
> >
> > Silly me, I forgot that some females might want to go to a college where
> > they can meet "real" Christian men to whom they can be properly
> submissive.
> > These religious brawlers would defend their honor in an alley or anywhere
> > for that matter.
> >
> > NSA men, however, would not defend their ladies' right to vote.
> According
> > to NSA's founder, Douglas Wilson, misguided women might decide to cancel
> out
> > their husband's wise choices in church and political matters.
> > Wilson also believes that only propertied males should vote. Deliciously
> > ironic, however, is the fact that Wilson encourages all of this
> congregates
> > at Christ Church to vote for conservative candidates.
> >
> > The phrase "muscular Christianity" came out of the Victorian Age, where
> > Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes encouraged young men to combine
> Christian
> > ideals with physical conditioning. Thanks to muscular Christianity, I
> built
> > up some pretty nice biceps at the local gym of the Young Men's Christian
> > Association, but I still ended up with the Unitarians, who of course
> can't
> > fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
> >
> > NSA does have sports teams, but "pumpkin" rugby has replaced lacrosse
> (too
> > feminine?), and there is a "girls" volleyball team.  Some of the senior
> > faculty, however, look like they have not been to a gym in ages.
> >
> > In 1964 Douglas' father Jim Wilson wrote a small book entitled
> "Principles
> > of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism." I once told Wilson Pere that
> I
> > thought that upraised sword on the front cover of the book was rather
> > provocative, but he just shrugged his shoulders and said that he only
> meant
> > spiritual warfare. Being thrown up against a wall sounds pretty physical
> to
> > me.
> >
> > Has Douglas Wilson's "Trinitarian skylarking" now turned into godly gang
> > warfare?  An example of the former is an outrageous April Fool's stunt.
> NSA
> > students stole University of Idaho letterhead and used the English
> > department's FAX line to announce a feminist scholar who would lecture
> > topless. Wilson later admitted encouraging his students to do the deed.
> >
> > Douglas Wilson also established Logos School, whose K-12 students, I'm
> > told, put on some very good plays.  I would like to propose that they do
> an
> > adaptation of West Side Story.  Instead of the white working class Jets
> and
> > the Puerto Rican Sharks, the gangs should be renamed the Crusaders and
> the
> > Infidels.
> >
> > I foresee two snags in this version of the play. Although the killing of
> > Maria's brother by the Jet's Tony could go ahead, the love story between
> > Christian Tony and non-Christian Maria would be a real stretch.  NSA men
> > must get the permission from a potential date's father, or from Wilson in
> > loco parentis. Even more problematic is the fact that there can be no
> truce
> > between the gangs at the end.  For Wilson and other conservative
> > evangelicals, there will be bitter warfare until Christ comes to smite
> the
> > infidels.
> >
> > As a "post-millennialist" Wilson believes that there will a 1,000 year
> > Christian theocracy with strict enforcement of biblical law until Christ
> > deigns to appear.  I might prefer to get it over with more quickly in the
> > "pre-millennial" Rapture.  I'll paraphrase Milton's Satan: I would rather
> > fry in the Rapture and take my chances in Hell rather than serve
> oppressive
> > Christian masters.
> >
> > Sometime in the late 1970s, I found a saying on a toilet stall wall near
> my
> > campus office.  Compared to most toilet graffiti, this one was quite
> > sophisticated and a bit puzzling: "A long war is a small price to pay for
> > eternal peace." One might ask: What kind of peace is this when everyone
> who
> > has not converted to your religion has been killed?
> >
> >  Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for
> 31
> > years.
> > =======================================================
> >  List services made available by First Step Internet,
> >  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >               http://www.fsr.net
> >          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> > =======================================================
> >
>
>
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