I think this is just part of a growing trend of under-informed, overly-precautious administrators terrified of the ACLU.

I wonder how the ACLU’s assault on religion squares with their beliefs on freedom of speech.

Here’s what their website states about religious liberty:

The free exercise clause of the First Amendment guarantees the right to practice one’s religion free of government interference. The establishment clause requires the separation of church and state. Combined, they ensure religious liberty.

I think they had it right with the first sentence, actually. I completely agree. Often misconstrued, the idea of freedom of religion in the United States was meant to keep the government out of religion, not to keep religion out of goverment. People make up the government, and religion is circumambient to many people’s lives. You cannot ask them to bring only their non-religious self to the Capitol building for public service, therefore you cannot rightly expect religion to be out of government. And since religious liberty means government staying out of the business of religion, does that not mean government should really stay out? Neither advocate nor dissaude, correct? If that’s the case, I should think they wouldn’t tell us when we can and cannot practice that freedom. I think all that’s lead to is a culture of high-strung individuals that are scared to mention God in a public forum.

Just reading through some away messages–because my social life has reached a new low–and I saw something.

YAY!!!! I got cast as Eve in Children of Eden! God is soooo good!!!

Is it just because I go to a “Christian” university that such things appear? It makes me wonder when people proclaim God’s glory only when they’re getting what they want. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ remarks:

What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven–a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘like to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’.

-The Problem of Pain, p31.

Hmm… indeed. Well, enough for now. Off to peek in on BlogNashville with a panel including Glenn Reynolds.

On the way back from the concert site tonight, Matt was handed a gospel tract. More specifically, Matt was handed a tract detailing the consequences of being a Sodomite. More to come later, scans included…

Here in a few weeks a conference will be held on blogging at Belmont. Known as BlogNashville, it’s supposed to be the largest blogging event held this year, and is apparently going to cover topics ranging from anonymous blogging under repressive governments to making money with your blog. Ah, sounds interesting, but with finals surrounding that conference, I just hope to slip into watch a few sessions. Namely just the ones featuring Glenn Reynolds, fellow Knoxvillian and author of the number one blog. It’s a free event open to the public, but they ask that you register. Oh well, I hope they don’t mind if I peer over the balcony into the Beaman Student Life Center and Maddox Grand Atrium.

Okay, so the goins on yesterday may not have been as bad as expected. Sure Belmont comes out looking like a bully, but as Bill Hobbs reports, it wasn’t by students who only thought they knew what they were talking about. In fact, one student is a Sudanese refugee who lived down the hall from me last year. The student, Amr Ali, stood up and confronted the ambassador, and Hobbs notes one of Amr’s comments:

I want you to look at me. This is the future. The people that you have oppressed, the people that your government has kicked out of the country will go back and make a better Sudan. We will make the country greater than it has ever been since you have raped it since 1989.

*Photo credited to News@Belmont

The Tennessean also picked it up. (The full Tennesseean article is here.) Not suprisingly to most bloggers, Hobbs did a much more thorough job covering the story, but the newspaper did mention one more thing, however, in naming the professor who led the walkout. Professor Daniel Schafer, my history professor last semester, spoke before Kabeir got up.

Given that situation, Schafer said, students would be better served to leave the room and take part in a letter-writing campaign in the next room. ”He is not here to listen to our concerns, but to pretend to listen to our concerns,” Schafer said.

With that, about 70 students got up and left.

I have to admit, perhaps I should have gone. It would have been interesting to see. And it certainly would have been interesting to see my buddy Amr lambast the Sudanese representative. Let’s just hope the little disclaimer in all the news outlets, such as this snippet from WVLT in Knoxville, is taken into consideration before judging Belmont too harshly:

Belmont officials who organized the event with deputy chief of mission Abdelbagi Kabeir say they warned him the audience would be strongly opposed to his government.

Tomorrow morning, Belmont will host a talk with Sudanese Ambassador Kabeir to call attention to the genocide crisis taking place in Sudan. The problem? The description of the event on Belmont’s intranet is diplomatically misleading–it makes the event sound like it’s hosting a representative speaking on behalf of the victims:

The genocide taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan is the most serious humanitarian crisis on the planet. On Wednesday, April 13, we will host Ambassador Kabeir from the Sudanese Embassy as we focus on the needs of the people of Sudan and what we in the international community can do to make a difference. Ambassador Kabeir will speak as part of a convocation at 10:00 a.m. in Neely/Black & White which will draw attention to the crisis. In addition, he will be available to meet with faculty and students and to participate in classroom discussions. The purpose of having him visit campus is to draw attention to the continuing genocide in Sudan. You can find out more about the daily, brutal massacre of children, women and men at: www.darfurgenocide.org or www.savedarfur.org. The Sudanese government does not agree with the international assessment of the situation. However, Ambassador Kabeir knows that we will be presenting the international consensus about the genocide, as well as giving him a chance to give us his government’s perspective. I believe that this event will cause more of us to write our representatives, call our senators, and pray for the people of Darfur. When the Rwandan genocide was occurring in the 1990’s, many of us said to ourselves that we would not let this happen again. Now, with the movie “Hotel Rwanda” in theaters, many of us are again repenting of the fact that we did little or nothing in the face of great evil against innocent civilians. This will be a chance for us to think, pray and act together.

Only after one professor encouraged students to NOT attend the event tomorrow was the truth revealed. I decided to look into the event. Here’s what’s actually happening. The ambassador from Sudan is just that: he’s an ambassador coming from the Sudanese government to explain to all who will listen exactly how the reports of genocide in Darfur are all lies.

Why would Belmont do this? Why would they invite someone so controversial to campus and make a mockery of ourselves? Apparently it was someone’s big idea that we could invite this guy, show him a video of the crimes in Darfur, and then when he gets up to give his rebuttal, half the students stage a walk-out. Shortly after, the other half of the students walk up and hand the ambassador handwritten letters written in conjunction with Amnesty International. Wow. This plan could not make Belmont look good any way it plays out. How does it make the university look to invite speakers specifically to spit in their face? On the other hand, why are we giving Hitler a political stage to tell everyone that, in fact, Jews are not being killed.

I don’t know what else to say. This is a very bad idea. I hope the national news media doesn’t pick this up.