On the Brooks/Biddle GENED 130 videotaping: Don't Do Anything Today That You'll Regret Tomorrow! (by anon)

On Tuesday February 25, a professor from UW-Whitewater hosted a guest speaker, Eyon Biddle. Biddle's shocking statements during the Gened 130 class caused student, Kyle Brooks to take out his phone and start recording the conversation.

The speaker was invited to the class to talk about his experiences in state and local politics; beforehand, he was briefed on the topics that were previously taught in class. While Biddle was sharing his views and experiences he stated, "The context of 2010 was white rage, to be honest with you...white people having to pay for healthcare for blacks, browns and gays; racism with the first black president like you saw." Biddle's statements might be regrettable after his speech appeared on Facebook, YouTube, Campus Reform and on national news network, Fox.

While there may be some legality issues with student Brooks videotaping another person, I believe that Biddle should have come prepared with a speech that he would not mind the whole nation hearing. As a politician he should know better to say things, in any context, that he would not want to get around.  As the old saying goes, “don’t do anything today that you’ll regret tomorrow;” Biddle will probably think twice the next time he gives a personal speech.

As technology advances, people are always capturing "rare" moments and publishing them online and in most cases, there are no legal issues.  Biddle might be angry that his speech is appearing in a national spotlight, but would he be angry if the speech highlighted good traits? If people were honoring his speech would there be a question whether or not Brooks broke a law? This is where I believe there is a gray area.

I think as a student, Brooks should be able to record his class; he is paying for it after all.

The full video, captured by Kyle Brooks, can be found here

All scripture is NOT God-breathed (by anon)

There is great emphasis on calling the Bible “God’s Word” and esteeming it with inerrancy.  The reason for this emphasis is that it gives that book great authority if true.  The problem is not so much that there are some obvious errors in the Old Testament, which counts against inerrancy, but that the Bible never makes any reasonable claim that it is God’s Word (but even if it did, it would be circular reasoning).

Here’s the story that’s told.  In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul says, “All scripture is God-breathed.”  That’s typically the only reason why people believe that the Bible is the Word of God, but that’s shortsighted.  First, the word “God-breathed” is highly vague.  No Biblical scholar can say with certainty what that word really means because we have very few ancient manuscripts that use that term.  Thus, we have never been able to get a good definition of it, making it really hard to interpret it as saying the whole Bible was somehow written “by God” and without any error.  It could mean “pertaining to God” or “from the mouths of believers.”  But to say that it must specifically mean that every sentence in the Bible must be true because God specifically put it there is overreaching at best.  It is just that no one really knows what “God-breathed” means.  That’s the first problem.

Second, for the sake of argument, let’s just say that “God-breathed” means what every Evangelical wants it to mean.  Ok, but when Paul says, “scripture,” he is only referring to the Old Testament because when Paul was writing, that was the only scripture.  So he technically leaves out everything in the New Testament.  Thus, if you use 2 Timothy 3:16, you cannot say that the “whole” Bible is God’s Word (again neverminding the first point).

Third, at this point, someone will bring up 2 Peter 3:15-16 to show that the New Testament is also considered scripture.  In those verses, Peter says, “and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”  Here people say that Peter equates Paul’s writings with scripture.  That is a stretch because the passage is ambiguous.  Actually, it is much easier to understand the passage simply as Peter saying that Paul’s writings are hard to understand as some of the OT books are hard to understand.  There’s no equating going on there, but so be it.  The point I want to make is that even if we allow for the stretch of Peter equating Paul’s writings with scripture, that still leaves out these New Testament books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Hebrews, James, the epistles of Peter (that’s a big oops if one wants to use the verse above as inerrant!), the epistles of John, Jude, and Revelation.  That’s a lot of New Testament books that have absolutely no reason to be called “scripture” or “God-breathed” according to the Bible’s own standards.  That’s the third problem.

But for the big fourth problem, one could never use the Bible as justification for its own purported divine status.  That’s the epitome of circular reasoning.  I have never understood why so many pastors use that reasoning.  They are teaching irrationality.

What is to come of humanity with such hate? (by anon)

If you are or were ever in doubt that gay and lesbian people have significant and alarming opposition to them, please read the below comment that was recently sent anonymously to this blog.

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What I Demonstrated To Gays:

I showed care and compassion. It was on full display. I fed you when you were hungry, I offered drinks and other stuff for free. I clothed you, helped you when you've been unwell, I gave you warmth from the cold, I saved your life, picked you up from the floor when you're drug fucked. I listened when you were down, I listened when you cried, I hugged you when you needed comfort. I gave you advice to help you. I researched your illnesses so I could understand. I gave you lifts, I gave you a voice, I gave you a chance, I gave you freedom, I gave you compassion and I gave you love...and it was real. These things demonstrate a man with a true heart.

What Gays Demonstrated:

You sexually assaulted me, you robbed my property. You stole my money, you lied to my face. You laughed at my body, you ambushed me everywhere, you ganged up on me when I needed you most. You humiliated me to the point of cutting my body and trying to die. You never gave me a voice and never listened. You didn't care what you did so long as it was bad. You made me hate myself and the fact that i was gay. You damaged my property and locked me out of my house. You thought I was worth nothing so you never bothered to text, for weeks and weeks yet you broke my heart for not being there. You dumped me on Xmas Eve after i helped you a lot (Merry Xmas). You bullied and ridiculed and never gave me a chance. You made me cry night after night. You gave me an illness that I can no longer live. You took a hard life and made it unbearable. You gang up in numbers while I'm a lone voice. You wrecked my computer and downloaded whatever you wanted. You made my Mum sick and my daughter a broken heart. I had no idea what you were all up to. You stole 13 years of my life which I'll never get back. Look at what I did for you and look at what you did TO me. You gave me a life that I can no longer live...and I wanted NONE of it.

I now know who you are and what you stand for. It is clear to me now and its all too late. If only you were good and it would have all been different. But none of you are and never will be. I loathe your looks, the way that you talk. I can't stand to be near you. I go to my death knowing that my family will be broken...by you...by YOU and you alone.

I hate you gays...your murderers and scum. And when I'm gone, watch your back...you'll never know when it comes. 

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Disgusting.  Pure and simple.  We have such short lives in an insignificant, absolutely small region of the universe.  The amount of hate some people generate makes me question humanity, and whether we can ever give dignity to that infinitesimal space.