Education
John Knox Spins in his Grave
by Clay Staggs
Our good friends in the PCUSA have published a book (under their Westminster John Knox imprint) that purports to examine the events of 9/11 from a Christian perspective. Apparently, the book ultimately concludes that there was no attack. Instead, people in the administration conspired to bring down the World Trade Centers in a controlled demolition and foist blame on the countries they desired to invade. [Full disclosure: I have not read the book myself.] The Washington TImes article on the book can be found here:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060818-122729-2030r.htm
Lest anyone doubt the paper’s veracity, if you point your browser to the publisher’s site, this book is the LEAD book being promoted as I write this. Check it out:
Now, there are any number of comments one could make about the PCUSA’s decision to publish this book, and I reserve the right to come back later to those (or perhaps commenters can pick up my slack). The thing that struck me the most, though, has to do with education, and, more specifically, the consequences of lack of historical knowledge on the public’s part.
On the publisher’s page, there are several reviewers’ comments. This was the one that got me:
“Do American Christians want the United States to act like the New Rome, invading other countries to impose its imperial rule and its control of other peoples’ resources? That is just what the U.S. is doing, increasingly so since 9/11, explains David Griffin. In this gripping summary of evidence for the truth behind 9/11 and the 9/11 Commission report, Griffin makes a compelling case that the imperial practices of the American government have become a destructive force in the world. And he clarifies the biblical and theological basis for Christians to challenge the resurgent American imperialism that often claims divine blessing on its destructive actions.” - Richard A. Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion, University of Massachusetts, and author of Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder
Opinions about what the US is doing in the Middle East surely vary, and people of good will can disagree. However, what the US is doing is certainly not replicating the Roman empire. To my knowledge, we’re not collecting any taxes from the lands we’ve supposedly conquered. We’re not persecuting religions there that offend our government. We’re not conscripting Iraqis and Afghans into our military.
Now, Distinguished Professor Horsley probably knows exactly what the Romans did in their empire. What’s disturbing is that he can make such comments and have them taken seriously by mainstream organizations, and, by extension, parts of the general public. I would like to think that the PCUSA’s publisher would be embarrassed to publish such comments because their readers would scoff at their obvious inaccuracy.
Mark this down as yet another argument for broad liberal arts education.
Posted by Clay Staggs at August 26, 2006 10:47 AM
Has the PCUSA become the most liberal mainline denomination? I think they have now left the Lutheran liberal branch and even the Episcopals in the dust as they trash the Reformed Faith for their own purposes. Wouldn’t you love to be under authority to a minister from this Claremont (?) Seminary?
Re: education, the gratuitous changing of historical fact under the banner of socio-political dogma, along with the trashing of the Western Canon in the name of modernity and political correctness is destroying the future of our culture and our world. By the way, you know me well enough to know that there are no racial or elitist overtones intended.
Clay, Good find. I find it reprehensible that the church is used to advance political sentiments. An honest question: Doesn’t an imprint like WJK lose credibility from sincere academia, (even moderates on both sides) by printing subject matter so far removed frmo their founding premise? I would like to hear from somone that agrees with the book’s conclusions and ask them if publishing houses matter in their acceptance of the material. Or, given the nature of Mr. Griffin’s book, if they would trust theological books issued from the same imprint?
Tim, following up on your comment, I went back to the ppcbooks.com site, where I found this:
The Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) is the denominational publisher for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), but the materials it issues under its Westminster John Knox Press imprint cover the spectrum of modern religious thought and represent the work of scholarly and popular authors of many different religious affiliations. PPC’s Geneva Press imprint is for a specifically Presbyterian audience.
I guess I’m unclear on why their denominational publisher would publish works of different religious affiliations in the first place.