Ignorance isn't Bliss -- It's dangerous

Yesterday I wrote about the recent Pew Forum survey of religious knowledge, a survey that revealed that Americans are rather ignorant when it comes to religion -- even our own religious tenets.  But while ignorance might be bliss it can also be dangerous, for it leads to persecution, repression, and even violence.  It has political consequences, as we're seeing in the ongoing attempt to smear the President, who though he is by confession of faith a Christian, is being painted as a Muslim.  Now there's nothing wrong with being a Muslim -- in my mind -- but in the minds of many Islam equals terrorism, and thus, if the President is a Muslim then he must be in secret league with terrorists. 

One of the points that comes out of the Pew Survey is the need to teach comparative religion, treating every religion fairly.  Unfortunately this effort at overcoming ignorance is hampered on two fronts -- those who want a doctrinal Christian view taught in the schools, and those who want to exclude all forms of religion from the schools.  And, of course, the schools, with enough other problems on their plate want to stay clear of any controversy, so they simply don't address religion.  They know that offering comparative religion or bible as literature classes will be a lose-lose situation.

It is in this context that John Esposito, one of the preeminent scholars of Islam (and a Roman Catholic), and Sheila Lalwani, a fellow at the Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding at Georgetown University, which Esposito directs, respond to news that the Texas Board of Education, a Board that has offered up bizarre decisions on science textbooks and American history textbooks, have voted by a 7-6 margin to oppose textbooks that in their view portray Christianity unfavorably and "gloss over" unfavorable aspects of Islam.  The authors suggest that this decision can have a disastrous effect on Muslim-Christian relations and feed Islamophobia, in large part because the impact that the Texas school system has on text-book publishing across the nation.  What the Texas Board decides influences the textbooks used in districts across the country.  

Ignorance of religion is not bliss, it is dangerous.  Indeed, as the Esposito and Lalwani make clear -- Islam isn't the enemy, ignorance is!  It is this ignorance that is being used for political purposes to divide and conquer the nation.  The question is, then, what shall we do to dispel the clouds of ignorance that are hanging over the nation?  

Lots of Charts

I've updated my Charts page. It's good stuff, if, you know, you're into that sort of thing. My favorite one is the first one showing how much Texas leads the nation in executions.

Chart: Number Executed In Texas

Digging through the archives I found this chart I made two years ago for my classes. I could update it through 2010, but it would just show a longer line for Texas.

Lost Opportunity to Teach Charity

Two small private schools that were little-known outside of the Dallas, Texas area were thrust into the spotlight last week. The Covenant School girls basketball team put a whuppin' on the girls from Dallas Academy, a whuppin' to the tune of 100-0. You read that right, Covenant scored 100 points in a high school girls game. That might be worth talking about under some circumstances. Most girls basketball contests end with the winner scoring in the 40's or 50's, so scoring 100 points shows that you either have an outstanding club, or the other team was really bad (at least in comparison), or some other freakish thing occurred such as a multiple overtime game. In this game, we can blame all of the above. Covenant is a Texas state-championship contender, Dallas Academy is not very good, and there was indeed something freakish afoot here. But that freakish event was not some multiple overtime thriller in which one team scored those 100 points and the other scored in the 90's. No, Dallas Academy scored zero points. None, nadda, zilch. They came up empty. They put up a donut. Nothing on the board, no balls through the hoop. Think about how hard this 100-0 thing is to have happen. There are 48 playing minutes in a regulation girls high school basketball game. Each basket is worth two points. To score 100 points, Covenant was scoring at better than a basket per minute throughout the game. Meanwhile, Dallas Academy did absolutely nothing. I overheard someone commenting on this game, that it would likely never happen in a boys game. Their reasoning was that at some point boys simply wouldn't have taken it any more, and there would have been a physical penalty inflicted on the leading team by the losers that would have slowed down the pace, or ended the game. Yep, he was talking about fighting. It isn't right either, but his point was that at some point the losing boys team would have taken matters into their own hands and let the winners know that the embarrassment had gone too far. At 10-0 you are off to a good start. At 20-0 you have taken complete control of the game. At 30-0 you have almost no chance to lose, especially at the high school level. At that point, and arguably far earlier, you have shown that your talent level is no match for the other squad. You probably have already gone to your 'bench', meaning you have put in your backup or substitute-level players and they have continued the dominance. At some point around this time, any further building of your lead has a simple phrase in the sporting world that describes what is happening: piling on. This is where Micah Grimes got it all wrong. He is the Covenant girls basketball coach, and his response was that "it just happened." Pardon me, Mr. Grimes, but something like a 100-0 sporting event between young girls can never 'just happen'. Rather as the coach you allowed it to happen. This was a teaching moment that someone in charge of our kids is supposed to take advantage of and use to better their lives. Long after the embarrassment of being on the winning side of a 100-0 game subsides, the lessons of a 50-0 victory could have been felt, perhaps for the rest of the lives of some of the girls involved. This was a moment to teach the virtue of charity, the generosity and helpfulness for the needy or suffering, the gift for a public benevolent purpose, the idea of benevolent good will. Grimes was in control. He controlled what was said to the girls on the sidelines. He controlled their playing time, both in this game and in future games. He had the ability to put on the brakes. What could he have done? He could have told his girls to walk the ball up the floor on every possession. He could have told them to play soft defense and allow the Dallas Academy girls to setup plays and take shots. He could have pulled a couple of his key on-court leaders aside and made sure that the girls stayed with this program on the floor. There are ways to handle this type of situation without making it look like a joke or a Harlem Globetrotters game. The fact is that the result was already settled, all that remained at a certain point was to determine the final score, and to determine how this level of a blowout would be remembered. Grimes should have taken this opportunity to speak to his girls about these very ideas of charity, generosity, good will, benevolence, and sportsmanship. He could have built his halftime speach around it. He could have reinforced it at every stoppage of play. He easily could have made the girls understand that they were in a unique situation, one that they may never be in again in their playing careers. He could have let them know that this was a one night reduction in their playing level intensity. There was obviously no real competition available to them here. He was wrong to say that it just happened. He allowed it to happen. In fact, he directed it to happen. He had his team keep up full pressure until the 100-0 mark had been achieved. From attendee accounts it was very obvious that the score was something that was seen as a goal as the game unfolded. Afterwards, coach Grimes felt no guilt or shame. The school, on the other hand, got it right. They fired Grimes in the immediate aftermath, the same day as the game, and issued a public apology. For his part, Grimes remained steadfast in disagreeing with the apology and saying that "Although a wide-margin victory is never evidence of compassion, my girls played with honor and integrity and showed respect to Dallas Academy." He got the first part right about a lack of compassion. But his team lost it's honor and integrity as they continued to effectively kick a person lying on the ground. How they showed any respect at all to Dallas Academy is beyond me. This was not a professional game where players are paid and must accept the consequences of any game. This is a high school where athletics are supposed to be only one part of a learning process for the kids involved, from players and cheerleaders to spectators and even disinterested students. Micah Grimes may have been just a coach at Covenant and not have had the official title of teacher, but he failed in that a big part of the job of every high school athletic coach is exactly that - teacher. He missed a huge opportunity to teach his girls, and his school, about charity. For the resulting magnitude of that failure, Grimes deserved to lose his job, and no high school should consider hiring him until he admits his mistake, shows that he truly understands its ramifications, apologizes to all involved, and takes steps to prove that he is ready to move forward with an adjusted mindset. There is never a need to sacrifice charity and compassion simply for winning a sporting event.

It's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

For the 2nd time in three years, the City of New Orleans prepares this morning to be blasted by a powerful hurricane. The devastation wrought back in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina is now legendary, but a great deal of that horror was not a creation of God, or Mother Nature, or any kind of natural or supernatural being or event. The devastation was brought on man by man. For at least decades, the governments, both local and regional, and the people of the Gulf region were warned that this was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to build giant walls and roofs so that men can be protected from every possible disaster. Men need at some point to take responsibility for their own actions and lives. When you purposefully and intentionally make the decision that you and your family are going to live in an area that is historically prone to certain natural events, then you have chosen to take on certain risks and have the responsibility to ensure that you and yours can survive and recover when those events occur. And the key word in that entire statement is 'when', because this is not an 'if' scenario. Hurricanes barrel through the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico every single year, they have done so for all of recorded history, and they will continue to do so into the future. In the U.S., this means that coastal states such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the Carolinas are always going to be vulnerable to these types of events. Anyone who moves into or remains living in those states near the coastlines makes the choice that the beauty of everyday life there is worth the trade-off in having to evacuate or baton down when these strong storms hit. When they do hit, those who have made those decisions, along with their local and state governments, should be responsible for any recovery and rebuilding. It is not as if these events are a surprise, a sudden calamity that could not have been forecast. While any particular storm cannot be foreseen, the fact that there will be storms year after year, and that some of these will be of the devastating variety, means that people who live in these areas are rolling the dice. When we gamble and win, it is considered being 'lucky', it is not usually considered smart. When you gamble and lose, it should not be my responsibility to bail you out and put you back on your feet. Do people need help out of the goodness of others hearts? Sure, that is the point of charity and volunteerism. But for the federal government to continue to take hundreds of millions of dollars in hits because of the continued and repetitive gambling of some of our citizens is ridiculous. Every time that a natural disaster hits, the first question is "What is the federal government going to do about this?" The fact is that members of local governments have made the choice to be citizens of those communities, and they need to be responsible. They need to educate their fellow community members, prepare for responding to these incidents, and prepare for recovery from these incidents. The local governments and businesses and citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes were told that a Katrina-like event was going to happen, and they chose to make other decisions over the years and decades in their spending that did not address the issues of basic protections against such a storm. Instead, the federal government was expected to protect them from their choice to live in that area, and bail them out in recovery when the event actually happened. And this is not the only example of this type of thinking and lack of preparation. For decades, the people in the San Francisco and Oakland areas, and many other communities in southern California, have been warned that a major earthquake of a devastating magnitude is going to strike at some point. Not some point hundreds of years in the future, but likely at some point in the next few years or decades. It is going to happen: buildings, bridges, roads, homes will topple and hundreds if not thousands or more of people are going to die. It is a fact of the future that every one of those people has been warned about. But they have chosen to live in those areas anyway because there are many benefits on a day-to-day basis. I respect and acknowledge the right of those folks to live in those areas. But they have chosen to live there in a known disaster-waiting-to-happen neighborhood, and when it happens, likely in my lifetime, it should not be my responsibility to bail them out and help them rebuild right there so that it can all happen again someday. Sudden, unexpected events are one thing. Predicted and expected events are another. One results in a tragedy, the other results in a bad choice coming home to roost. It appears that Hurricane Gustav, which will slam into Louisiana today, will not be nearly as bad as Katrina was, but it will be a strong storm that will beat down an area already beaten badly. The fact is that a hard rain is going to fall, and the further fact is that it won't be the last time.