Dan Savage’s talk holds important lessons for journalists

Dan Savage spoke at the National High School Journalism Conference two weeks ago and made some comments about what the Bible says about homosexuality. Savage, a sexuality advice columnist for the Village Voice, is an avid gay rights activist and has a history of commenting on the Bible as a tool in the anti-gay movements.

As chronicled by many, from Savage to theologians to For The Bible Tells Me So, among others, the Bible has many rules for how to run one’s life. These include not eating shellfish or pork, not wearing mixed fiber clothing, and not allowing unmarried non-virgin women to live.

Here’s the part of Savage’s speech that has some groups riled up:

Here’s a transcript of the speech for those of you who can’t watch the video (thanks to Blag Hag):

“People often point out that they can’t help it. They can’t help with the anti-gay bullyings because it says right there in Leviticus, it says right there in Timothy, it says right there in Romans that being gay is wrong.  We can learn to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about gay people the same way we have learned to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about shellfish, about slavery, about dinner, about farming, about menstruation, about virginity, about masturbation. We ignore bullshit in the Bible about all sorts of things.

The Bible is a radically pro-slavery document. Slave owners waved Bibles over their heads during the Civil War and justified it. The shortest book in the New Testament is a letter from Paul to a Christian slave owner about owning his Christian slave. And Paul doesn’t say Christians don’t own people. Paul talks about how Christians own people. We ignore what the Bible said about slavery because the Bible  got slavery wrong. Sam Harris in Letter to a Christian Nation points out that the Bible got the easiest moral question that humanity has ever faced wrong: slavery.

What are the odds that the Bible got something as complicated as human sexuality wrong? 100 percent. The Bible says that if your daughter’s not a virgin on her wedding night – that a woman isn’t a virgin on her wedding night, that she shall be dragged to her father’s doorstep and stoned to death. Callista Gingrich lives. And there is no effort to amend state constitutions to make it legal to stone women to death on their wedding night if they’re not virgins. At least not yet. We don’t know where the GOP is going these days. People are dying because people can’t clear this one last hurdle. They can’t get past this one last thing in the Bible about homosexuality.

One thing I want to talk about is – ha, so you can tell the Bible guys in the hall that they can come back in because I’m done beating up the Bible. It’s funny that someone who’s on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-assed some people react to being pushed back. I apologize if I hurt anyone’s feelings but I have the right to defend myself, and to point out the hypocrisy of people who justify anti-gay bigotry by pointing to the Bible and insisting that we must live by the code of Leviticus on this one issue and no other.”

Christian and conservative groups say Savage bullied Christians in his talk and embodied the exact opposite of tolerance.

Instead, I think Savage was refreshingly candid. He was speaking to a group of teenagers – teenagers who seek truth in their newspaper clubs – and there’s nothing teens like more than when an adult is candid and honest. In fact, to tell a group of student journalists that everything in the Bible is gospel truth would ring false to students who eat shrimp, wear poly-cotton blends, and don’t believe in slavery.

My first impression wasn’t that Savage is saying Christianity is wrong. As an avid Savage Love reader, I know he’s talked about Christianity being his childhood faith. I think he’s saying you shouldn’t use faith to hurt. In an ideal world, people would use religion to create a world of tolerance and peace, instead of pointing to verses written thousands of years ago to shun and even kill others.

There is no arguing that some people (GLBT, allied, or suspected to be GLBT) are tormented by self-identified Christians to emotional trauma, physical hurt, or death.

Savage has apologized for describing the walk-out as “pansy assed,” but he says he’s standing by his remarks about the contents of the Bible.

“My remarks can only be read as an attack on all Christians if you believe that all Christians are hypocrites. Which I don’t believe.”

I think this controversy is good for student journalists to pay attention to. It’s a journalist’s jobs to not just find the facts, but to find the truth. And the truth here is words have a heavy weight. A needlessly offensive word (such as “bullshit” or “pansy”) can take a message from being an open discussion to a polarizing debate. And that’s something everyone active in the media would do well to remember.

Park embraces international diversity at annual event

Janek Sunga at the International Fashion Show during International Education Week. Photo credit/Babu Batchuluun

Over a cacophony of whoops and cheers bouncing off the high dome walls, in front of a rainbow swirl of international flags proudly waved by international students, senate president Jordan E. Korell addressed the crowd packed in Breckon Sport Center on Nov. 19.

“These are just a portion of the countries represented here at Park University,” said Korell. “We are a community of nations… And while we are all from different places on Earth, I am proud to call everyone here my friend.”

With a cheer that seemed to raise the roof, the International Festival began.

Get the signal? CAB puts spotlight on date rape

How well can you read the signals of the opposite sex? This was answered for about 20 students at Sex Signals: Real Life Funny Sort-Of-Improv Show About Sex And Stuff sponsored by Campus Activities Board. The presenters, Sharyon Culberson and Eric “Pogi” Sumangil, set up situations and used audience input to create the scenes. Each audience member was given a slip of paper with big red letters reading “STOP”.

“When you feel uncomfortable, or feel like we’re uncomfortable, I want you to hold up your STOP sign, okay?” said Culberson.

Culberson and Sumangil ran through various party scenarios, varying whether the male or female was the aggressor. In one scene where each played the stereotypical gender role described by the audience, Sumangil continued to hit on Culberson long after every STOP sign in the room was held up high.

Administrators discuss plans at Town Hall

Sixty students attended Student Senate’s Town Hall November 5 to discuss parking, food, green initiatives, financial aid, and program elimination with a panel of administrators.

“We’re in the second year of a two-year strategic plan,” said Dr. Michael Droge, president of Park University. “We’re hoping to have our 5-year plan in place by 2012. Basically, the plan determines what Park wants to be when Park grows up, over the next few years at least.”

Ashley Allee: ‘There’s still a long way to go’

Ashley Allee. Photo credit/Joshua Evans

According to American biologist Alfred Kinsey, approximately one in every 10 Americans is gay. Others estimate the figure is closer to one in five. Even using Kinsey’s more conservative estimate, 1,300 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students may be spread across Park University’s 43 campuses, and two GLBT students may be in every Parkville daytime classroom.

Senate to host third town hall event

Park Student Government Association is hosting their third biannual Town Hall meeting today at 12:30 p.m. in the McCoy Meeting House. The Town Hall meeting is an open forum event where students can address questions and concerns to a variety of Park University administrators, including representatives from Student Life, Residential Life, Dining Services, Campus Safety, and Financial Aid. Dr. Michael Droge will be presenting the opening remarks, as well as sitting on the panel.

“According to the Senate constitution [Article III, Segment D], it’s our purpose to act as a liaison between students and the administration,” said Jordan E. Korell, sophomore and president of PSGA. “This Town Hall meeting is just one way of fulfilling that promise to the students.”

‘Philosophy about more than the existence of chairs’

Park University does not have a philosophy major, or minor. All Park University students have bright futures. Therefore, philosophy majors do not have bright futures. This kind of equation statement is called logic, a passion of new full-time philosophy professor Adam Potthast.

Kind of like math, Potthast’s philosophy is based around argument. It’s a far cry from the stoner-kid philosophy concepts seen in every college movie ever.

“Substances actually make you worse at philosophy,” says Potthast. “There are the crazies that want to argue about the existence of chairs when you’ re not looking at them… I’ m pretty sure chairs exist, and the more important issues are about right and wrong.”

Park soccer falls to William Jewell College

The primal beat of tribal drums set the pace of the urgent screaming of the 800-strong crowd in Greene Stadium at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Park Pirates faced off against their arch-rivals last Sunday featuring both Lady’s and Men’s Soccer. Despite the losses suffered by the Pirates, Park students cheered until their throats were raw.

“It was exciting and intense,” said Reisha Fregoe, sophomore mathematics major. “I think they performed really well.”

Real Life GI Joe Fighting To Serve

Photo credit/Joshua Evans

 

When Decius A. Sanders was a little boy, he dreamed of being a real-life GI Joe.

“I think every kid is like that,” Sanders says. “Every kid wants to see the world. Every kid wants to play war and be a soldier. You end up learning stuff you’d never imagine.”

The sandy-haired junior broadcasting major was well on his way to being a living action figure in his fourth year as an ROTC cadet, when everything he worked so hard for was jeopardized by his own body.

When parking could be deadly…

Angelica Hodgdon walks back to Copley Quad from Chestnut. Photo credit/Joshua Evans

If Angelica Hodgdon falls down, she will die. No ifs, ands, or buts about it – the freshman secondary education major wouldn’t stand a chance.