I have no idea why there has of late been a resurgence of interest in Noah Riner (did he go talk to a home schooler conference or something?) but Little Green Blog and the Dartmouth Free Press website have been getting numerous comments the past few days to posts/articles that I wrote last fall. Since those comments are functionally hidden from you, my readers, due to their place deep within the LGB archives, I'll just throw up a link to the original post (this one too) and excerpt some of the comments now:
From the DFP website: "I don't understand your fear of all things Christian. What is so frightening about encouraging students to look at themselves critically and thoughtfully? Why does the name of "Jesus" strike fear in your heart?" [Ok, how about this. You recognize that faith, religion, and all your little biblical stories are legitimate subjects for unfettered secular academic inquiry, and we'll stop getting pissed off if kids tell us he's the only route to personal improvement. How about that?]
From Julie: If Jesus Christ truly did exist and if he lived a perfect life, would he not be worth mentioning in a convocation speech? Furthermore, if Christ actually died on a cross for the sins of mankind and resurrected after three days in order that we might be saved, then don't you think it was a good thing that Noah spoke of him? And so I challenge you to research the facts, the evidence; if you find that there is no real evidence for everything I listed above, then you're right in admonishing Noah for saying what he said. [Facts? Evidence? Madam, would you possibly be referring to The Bible? I believe we like to call that "begging the question."]
From Shaundra: There is a christian comic who just wrote a book called "out of the Closet Christianity" I am not sure if this is a quote from the book, but it talks about how homosexuals are coming out of the closet and christians are going in. That is a very scary thought. [A scarier thought is that there are actually Christian comics. Aren't bad attempts at popular music enough?]
From Mei-Shen Gregory: Noone understands God, we have all turned away from God, and we are stubbornly resistent to repent before God. Why are many people reluctant to ascribe God as both Father and Judge? [Uhhhhh... Maybe because some people feel that He doesn't exist.] Most importantly, the sacrificial act of Jesus is a symbol of the depravity of our condition? [That's what I was wondering.] ...in this postmodern culture, our reasoning has become clowded [sic] by too much generous orthodoxy and not enough absolute truth [like orthography]... Riner's message at a prestigious and secular IV [My land, we've gone intravenous--O, that insidious President Wright] league school such as Dartmouth was quite impressive [actually, I hear it was quite underwhelming to anyone who actually heard the speech]
From Anonymous: You see now, a person can blame his crimes on "bad genes" or a poor upbringing, instead of on the fallen sin nature. [Because "Satan made me do it" is such an improvement on the insanity plea.] ...true love is putting the well-being of another before one's own well being. I thank God for witnesses like Mr. Riner.I will keep you in my prayers. May God bless you all... [See, this is exactly it--Riner, and his supporters, feel that the best way they can show us "true love" is by ministering to us. We're saying no thanks, no sale, goodbye and brush the dust from your sandals on the way out.]
Well, at least I know that if I ever hit some kind of dark place in my life and need salvation, all I have to do it toss up a well-reasoned deconstruction of some asshole's shitty campus speech, and people will be crawling out of the Goddamn woodwork with only the well-being of my soul in mind.
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