-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Ryan Rotella, a junior at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) said that his professor, Dr. Deandre Poole, of his Intercultural Communications class, asked students in the class to write the word “Jesus” on a piece of paper, fold the paper, and step on it. By the time FOX News & Commentary got to the story, “asked” had become “directed,” “step” had become “stomp,” and the “Stomp on Jesus” firestorm was manufactured. FAU reacted by apologizing to those who were offended, immediately placing Poole on administrative leave, and banning him from FAU’s campuses.
Poole was using an exercise from an instructor’s guide to a popular textbook, Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach, written by Jim Neuliep, a professor of communication and media studies at St. Norbert College, in Wisconsin. The instructor’s guide describes the exercise:
This exercise is a bit sensitive, but really drives home the point that even though symbols are arbitrary, they take on very strong and emotional meanings. Have the students write the name JESUS in big letters on a piece of paper. Ask the students to stand up and put the paper on the floor in front of them with the name facing up. Ask the students to think about it for a moment. After a brief period of silence, instruct them to step on the paper. Most will hesitate. Ask why they can’t step on the paper. Discuss the importance of symbols in culture.
Poole, under orders from FAU not to discuss the case, did say that he never told anyone to “stomp on Jesus,” but asked his students to step on the piece of paper. Poole said the one student approached his after class and said, “How dare disrespect someone’s religion?” while hitting his balled fist into his other hand. Poole claims the student said the “he wanted to hit me,” but didn’t. Poole reported the incident to campus security and filed a report.
Poole, a former Sunday-school teacher, identifies himself as “very religious” and says that Jesus “is my lord and savior.” Poole has received hate mail and death threats, including one threatening Poole, an African-American, with hanging. Poole is on a one-year teaching contract with FAU, and although FAU may not fire him, the non-renewal of his contract will send the same message.
Not one to miss out on an opportunity to pander, Governor Rick Scott called the assignment “intolerant to Christians.”
Christians have learned well from their Islamic brothers. Any slight to their faith, real or imagined, is to be met with the full wrath of the faithful. As Poole’s situation demonstrates, no slight is too insignificant, or too illogical. Like Islam, the only way Christianity can get the respect they think they deserve is through threats and intimidation. Like Islam, it appears that Christianity has given up any hope of achieving respect through persuasive argument.
H/T: Scott Jaschik, Scott Aikin, SunSentinel, CBS Miami, Scott Jaschik.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
Jesus gave us a little forewarning that the world will hate Christians. And we’re told to be in this world but not of this world. So it is not surprising, that some intellectually bankrupt “professor” would do such a thing.
Imagine the outcry if the subject was Islam. If the students were instructed to do the same to Muhammad. The professor would be fired within days, a formal apology would have been required of the college, and the class and/or school would be closed. Just a tad bit of a DOUBLE STANDARD.
I applaud the student for speaking out against such stupidity illustrated by the “professor” Eventually, we’ll learn not to keep rolling over and playing dead every time someone insists on showing such intolerance based on religious beliefs.
davidm2575:
Thank you for your reply.
If you will go back and read what I wrote, I provided a citation from the clinical psychologist, Wendell Johnson, on the need to carefully spoon-feed general semantics — or the explicit analysis of symbolic language behavior — to the neurotic patient undergoing psychiatric therapy. I then criticized the professor in question for not recognizing in his ostensible “students” a group of infantile neurotics more in need of a group therapy session than adult university instruction. From your response, I take it that you think the professor should have treated them in this way: namely, as children or as psychiatric patients, and not as mature adults from whom one would normally expect a degree of detachment and intellectual curiosity.
Personally, I have no problem with treating children as children — in elementary school. I have no problem with treating individual neurotics as psychiatric patients in the privacy of the clinic. However, I consider it disadvantageous for society to publicly encourage children and neurotics to permanently remain children and neurotics, as the corporate political administration of this particular Florida university apparently seeks to do. I think the professor tried to demonstrate how many (but not all) people respond unconsciously to symbols the way Pavlov’s dogs responded to the sound of a bell which someone had taught them to associate with food. In this, the professor succeeded far better perhaps than even he intended. I just don’t think he had the foresight to work out the necessary general semantics principles and have them ready for rebuttal when the infantile neurotics predictably became enraged at the realization that someone else had trained them to associate some writing on a piece of paper with the exhumed corpse of a Jew who died two thousand years ago. No one likes to admit how easily someone else has duped and manipulated them by simply brandishing cheap symbols.
I feel sorry for the professor, but unfortunate consequences.can result from not recognizing infantile neurotics when you encounter them everywhere you turn. A wiser man would have taken the necessary precautions.
Michael –
I do not think the professor should have treated them as children. I think he should just realize that doing this exercise enough times, eventually he will find someone who reacts in the way that this student did. Also, I think your focus was to blame the student. I place more responsibility and therefore blame on the instructor conducting the exercise than on the student. The thing in your quote from Johnson that stands out for me is, “For this reason, the responsible clinician will be constantly on the alert for any disquieting effects of his instruction. He will give reassurances and allow ample time for readjustments as circumstances require.” It appears to me that Poole did not conduct himself in this way.
Just because a symbol has meaning to a person, this does not mean that the person is neurotic or infantile and in need of therapy. While you might be correct that the student seems a little neurotic and infantile in his reaction (I’m thinking of the description from the professor of how the student spoke to him after class), I think explaining the point of the exercise ought to be sufficient. In my opinion, the professor himself was a little neurotic to report the student to security. I wasn’t there to see the exchange, but I have been in similar situations with students and never felt the need to report a student to security. On camera the student seemed intelligent enough that simple instruction on the point of the exercise would have sufficed. The student should have been told that he was not being forced to step on the symbol, but rather he was only being put into the position of being asked to do it. The point of the exercise was to illustrate to him introspectively the power that the symbol has for him. He should then consider what other symbols there are in the world and what value they might hold for people. Instead of instruction, the student was suspended from class and the story came out and has upset a lot of people.
I am curious whether reactions would have been much different if the professor handed out American Flags and asked students to lay them on the floor and stomp on them. There has been a long history of debate in this country over flag desecration laws, and clearly the flag likely has more meaning to more students in that classroom than writing the word Jesus on a piece of paper. I imagine some of the students were quite eager to stomp on the word Jesus, which defeats the point of the exercise.
Classic case of Christian Persecution Complex. Students that aren’t mature enough to participate in this exercise aren’t mature enough to be in college or working in a professional environment. That immaturity leaves the student lacking the ability to comprehend the abstract nature of the activity, and instead have an emotional reaction.
This exercise and course are designed to challenge students and gives them an opportunity to learn how to be a professional in our multicultural workplaces.
This is not the first time that Jon Hughes has come forth to spew his mythology, but now we have the core of his rational argument. ” God can turn on his glory and have it off if he wants too. ” In other words it can be daylight and dark at the same time in Jon’s delusional world. That is so different than the world where I and my associates live! It is one thing to be quietly waiting for a fictional zombie to come and take you to heaven, it is illegitimate to suggest that an educated person should, in some way, respect that kind of mental illness or Jon’s expressions of his illness. The fact remains that the planet is engulfed in Holy War, and the three major groups of murders all believe in the same fictional god. Human history is replete with obsolete gods, in my judgement, the rest of us would be much better off to obsolete this most hideously deadly of the mythical gods.
Folks Get over your ICONS….. if your faith is that tenuous…..you have not much to begin with….
davidm2575:
Words have different meanings. I quoted the meaning that I commonly understand the word to have. I quoted the entire meaning that I commonly understand the word to have. If you have a different meaning in mind you can say so. I really don’t see how this is dishonest.
Please read my post carefully, I never said that FOX changed the word from “step” to “stomp,” I said the story had changed. I provided a link to a news report that reported the student used the word “step.” The same news report said the student used the word “asked.” Maybe the student has changed his story. The FOX article failed to note either change. I specifically wrote “FOX News & Commentary,” yet you conflate that with an entire “news network.”
BarkinDog here. Spending time in Holland between Amsterdam on Damrak street and Den Haag at some court thing with my half blind Pal. We got some more guidance with an Escort named Rosy who had a sidekick who likes dogs. More on that later. My Pal has some case in Den Haag regarding human rights. They speak English at the meeting. I get to sit in as guide dog. This topic about stepping on pieces of paper and getting into trouble is interesting. I would like to see that Florida school called on the carpet.
There is a guy in this town who scrapped the brand name Kedds off the back and sides of his shoe and has taped a word Jeso on there. When asked about it he says that the ad on there never got a question and Jeso has gotten all sorts of questions, especially when he rides the bus and flips his foot up on his knee. He says he is spreading the word but that in deference to his religion he wont step on a turd.
the student wouldn’t step on it but would he have stapled it to a wall?
Whatever his intentions, the Professor here clearly failed to recognize that he had before him in his classroom a gaggle of infantile, neurotic animists — i.e., religious believers in need of psychiatric help — and not intellectually mature adults prepared for serious scholarship. As the clinical psychologist Wendell Johnson wrote in his formerly standard university textbook on general semantics:
If these so-called university students did not learn in high school that “the map is not the territory”, “the symbol is not the thing symbolized,” and “the word is not the thing” — by which we mean the most elementary non-Aristotelian principle of general semantics — then they do not belong in a so-called “institution of higher learning.” Sunday school — or the local chapter of the Young Republicans (but I repeat myself) — would seem the appropriate place for such terminally arrested children, at least in Florida.
This professor made a big mistake when he failed to distinguish real students — who eagerly wish to disabuse themselves of erroneous beliefs — from pathetic psychiatric cases like those a Tibetan Buddhist monk described as “running away, screaming, from a picture of a snake.” Students who cannot distinguish between symbol and reality in their own culture would hardly seem prepared to communicate with anyone from another culture. As Alfred Korzybski said: “We are a symbol using class of life, and those who rule the symbols rule us.” So if Americans wish to rule themselves, they had first better learn to rule their own symbols, or somebody else will do it for them.
Michael, please go back and read your own quote. The responsibility lies with the teacher to introduce concepts in a slow and premeditated way. Students are there because they are ignorant and have a desire to learn and become educated. This was a communications class, and the point of the exercise was to help the students understand the meaning that symbols have. The student was suppose to understand that just as that symbol of Jesus meant much to him and in good conscience he could not step on it, so likewise other people and other cultures have symbols with meaning that should be respected, even if from our culture we do not understand the inherent meaning of that symbol. Meaningful communication requires this kind of understanding and respect for others. I don’t mean to be offensive, but it sounds to me like you are ignorant of these concepts of communication and need to attend the communications class yourself. Hopefully it will be from a different instructor who actually understands the point of the exercise and can help students appreciate it. Instead of reporting this student to the authorities, Poole should have taught the student patiently the point of the lesson.
Welcome to land of the Free! It would appear that we are on the road to the imposition of blasphemy laws de facto.
davidm2575:
My Oxford English Dictionary defines “like” to be “similar to” and “equivalent” to be “equal in value, amount, function, meaning, etc.” That’s the meaning of “like” that was used in the post. If you thought it meant “equal to,” you were mistaken. I never thought that anyone would think Christianity and Islam are identical (a synonym for equivalent).
Nal, both your quotes from the Oxford Dictionary were partial quotes. Clearly you are being dishonest, possibly not just with us but with yourself. I don’t know how else to look at it. The online Oxford Dictionary defines equivalent as “a person or thing that is equal to OR CORRESPONDS WITH another in value, amount, function, meaning” (emphasis mine). The word “Like” is defined as “having the same characteristics or qualities as; similar to.” You really do not see the similar definitions in these words? You used the words. Why don’t you just tell us what you meant to say?
I’m not trying to put words into your mouth by pointing out how your article made an equivalency argument between Christianity and Islam and how they react in similar ways. If you did not mean to point out similarities and convey some concept that their religious ideology creates a similar mindset, then what exactly were you trying to say? You clearly did not highlight how their reactions typically are different, and my comment was meant to bring some balance to what you were saying, not disprove something you said.
I think what is more important is for you to retract your accusation against a news network, that they changed the word “step” to “stomp.” The implication is that Fox News is a dishonest network. This is a news network that frequently hosts Jonathan Turley as a commentator. I have provided you a link to the original source, where video of the victim in this case uses the word “stomp” multiple times. Fox News reported the student’s side of the story accurately, but you have accused them of changing the story. The implication is that Fox News has a biased agenda and is not reporting news accurately. Don’t you agree that the original source I provided you trumps corrupted second hand accounts? Don’t you agree that you are wrong to stick to your report that Fox News changed the words of the story from step to stomp? I think you should talk to Jonathan Turley about this.
Oops. Got that last sentence exactly backwards – I meant to say “We’re taught that ‘art imitates life.’ Obviously, in this case the converse is true as well.
The irony here is that this episode is lifted almost entirely from a scene in C.S. Lewis’ science-fiction/horror novel That Hideous Strength. The novel’s character Mark Studdock is being held prisoner in a British government research center not long after World War Two, to force him to reveal the location of his psychically gifted wife.
Studdock is told that he will be killed if he does not undergo a regimen of training to eliminate all human emotion from his mind, the better to allow him to be controlled by a race of nonphysical entities who correspond roughly to the nature gods of Classical Europe. Part of the training is to spit, stomp on and abuse a life-size, very realistic wooden crucifix – the ultimate denouement of what Dr. Deandra Poole had HER students doing.
The man Studdock, who is not a Christian at all, but an atheist and a materialist, suddenly sees the absurdity of what he is being told to do. If Christianity is, as he had been taught by his professors and friends, nonsense, then abusing this pathetically-rendered life-size effigy of Christ, is just as great nonsense – he rebels, even though he is told this will cost him his life. Only the distraction of the man supervising his “training” by an emergency leaves Studdock alive…..
We’re taught that life imitates art. Obviously, in this case, the converse is true as well.
Steve Fleischer:
Because one of the death threats used “hanging,” particularly terrorizing to African-Americans.
Religious people wanted to stomp on Jesus. When people are not like Jesus is with each other also stomp on Jesus. I would steadfastly refuse to comply with the stomping. Others would follow me. It was not religion that was stepped on. What was in the mind of people stepped on is the enemy of religion. Jesus is the enemy of religion. Religions not being like Jesus is are the enemy of Jesus. Jesus is not an I will get back at you kind of guy. People don’t see that. They wanted to kill Jesus because the people began to follow Jesus when he raised lazerus. A person following Jesus would not give hate mail. Wrath is Gods light on judgment day. In the beginning God said let there be light. That was 4 days before the sun and stars were made. God can turn on his glory and have it off if he wants too. That is why Moses said show me your glory. The devil in the souls of people riot giving threats with scowling venomous hatred. The Muslims are wrong. People masquerading as Christians doing the same are wrong too.
Religious people wanted to stomp on Jesus. When people are not like Jesus is with each other also stomp on Jesus. I would steadfastly refuse to comply with the stomping. Others would follow me. It was not religion that was stepped on. What was in the mind of people stepped on is the enemy of religion. Jesus is the enemy of religion. Religions not being like Jesus is are the enemy of Jesus. Jesus is not an I will get back at you kind of guy. People don’t see that. They wanted to kill Jesus because the people began to follow Jesus when he raised lazerus. A person following Jesus would not give hate mail. Wrath is Gods light on judgment day. In the beginning God said let there be light. That was 4 days before the sun and stars were made. God can turn on his glory and have it off if he wants too. That is why Moses said show me your glory. The devil in the souls of people riots give threats giving hate. The Muslims are wrong. People masquerading as Christians doing the same are wrong too.
davidm2575:
I never used “equivalence.” That’s a strawman argument. I pointed out similarities between Christian and Muslim reactions. Those similarities include death threats.
Nal, you referred to how Christians have learned from their “Islamic brothers” and began to speak of these two major religious groups collectively, twice using the phrase “Like Islam…” This is arguing equivalency and creating an anti-religious stereotype to knock down all religions. The second post to your article addressed this equivalency issue. It is not a strawman. Maybe you did not intend to come across this way, but that is the message you conveyed.
David,
Stop getting in the way of “subjective proof” with your pesky objective facts. 😉
Religious people wanted to stomp on Jesus. When people are not like Jesus is with each other also stomp on Jesus. I would steadfastly refuse to comply with the stomping. Others would follow me. It was not religion that was stepped on. What was in the mind of people stepped on is the enemy of Jesus. They wanted to kill Jesus because the people began to follow Jesus when he raised lazerus. A person following Jesus would not give hate mail. Wrath is Gods light on judgment day. In the beginning God said let there be light. That was 4 days before the sun and stars were made. God can turn on his glory and have it off if he wants too. That is why Moses said show me your glory. The devil in the souls of people riots give threats giving hate. The Muslims are wrong. People masquerading as Christians doing the same are wrong too.