March 08, 2005
Why are you here?
I just taught class tonight. Normally the prof teaches, but for my program I have to teach a certain number of classes, and this was one of them. So I was a guest lecturer, if you will. The discussion itself went really well. But after class, one student came up to me and (over the course of the next hour) told me that he had completely checked out during the talk. The topic was "too theological". (This is, keep in mind, a graduate level theology class.) He also said that all discussions held at that level were useless and were harmful to people's spiritual life. He admits that he is strongly "anti-intellectual". I'll say. Ultimately, I told him that if he really feels that way, then he shouldn't be going to Seminary.
Most people told me that I did a good job. But this guy told me my topic was useless, he didn't pay any attention, and that the entire endevor was harmful to his relationship with God. Who says that kind of thing to a guest lecturer?
- wink [March 8, 2005 11:31 PM] || [TrackBack]syndromes says:
Strange comment. Sounds like he's just trying to be an ass. Why is he even there if he's anti intellectual anyway?
Odd.
Glad to hear the others seemed to enjoy your presentation, "too theological" and all ;)
gr1d says:
It is interesting that he came to class at all, if he indeed was that anti-intellectual. For someone who by all appearances has indicated an interest in learning about God (because it was not like he wanted to study nuclear missile maintenance and got Julia Child instead), that was a very bizarre comment he made.
Interestingly, I have never heard a med school student complain that a particular class on physiology was "too intellectual", or a computer science major whining that his professor talks too much about computer science.
Unfortunately for Christians, there are a lot of Christians out there who insist that their faith has nothing to do with any "reasonable" discussion (here I use "reasonable" to denote something that can be argued and sorted out using reason and logic). This is in fact harmful to their relationship with God, and continues to engender the stereotypical image of a Christian: That of a lobotomized human being.