A story from the Church Times here makes entertaining reading for those of us who were active Christians at college, and had to endure the incubus of university “theology” students — impious, drunken, debauched, vicious and perpetually determined to corrupt or insult Christians. Apparently the secular establishment won’t pay the bills any more!
UNIVERSITY theology departments are facing a turbulent autumn with rounds of staffing cuts and closures.
The Student Christian Movement (SCM) said that it was “very concerned” over the plans of some universities to axe courses and shed staff. Redundancies are likely to occur in departments across the country, as the higher-education sector suffers from swingeing government spending cuts.
The “Student Christian Movement” is a tiny group of non-Christians, the dead remnant of pre-WW1 student work which abandoned its principles then, and withered in consequence. Christian students at UK universities belong to the Christian Unions.
I suspect that most Christians will be pleased to read this. After all, I can’t count the number of anti-Christian TV programmes, always introduced by a “theologian”, which were dedicated to showing how Christianity was rubbish. Now those people will have to go and find an honest job. Who says the recession is all bad? It’s a great cleanser of nonsense. As Auberon Waugh used to say, it’s sad but one can’t help laughing.
We do need to remember, tho, that all this is not theology; it is bad theology. It isn’t theology at all, in truth — but heresy dressed up in a spurious cloak of intellectual achievement, and funded solely for the purpose of bashing the Christians. There is such a thing as real theology.
But the trick of convincing people that believing in Christ is unintellectual is an ancient one, back to Celsus and Julian the Apostate. At least the death of these horrible departments — and just why should we as taxpayers pay for fake faculties? — can only be a good thing. I wish Oxford and Cambridge schools of Divinity were next. They serve no public good that I can see.
You are absolutely right: I cannot remember any TV programme, whether British or American, on Sky digital that does not throw doubts on Christianity and her founder. All these programmes are either presented by, or relied on, “theologians”, sometimes from prestigious universities, who are not Christians. It is clear from the programmes what the producers are out there to achieve as they consistently present one point of view which is anti-Christian, without allowing any Christian theologians to have a say … on the other side of the pond some call this “balanced and fair”.
Your memory is mine.
Most Christians regard “theologians” as enemies, for just this reason.
Still, good to know these state-funded haters will be on the dole soon and obliged to earn an honest living.
A couple of years ago (or so) here in the US, the chair of a religion dept. in a university in North Carolina wrote an online article about Western Non-Interpolations (a special collection of textual variants), in which he referred to Westcott, the textual critic, as “Wescott” 13 times, including in the title. Naturally, since then he’s been on TV and has had a new book published. Incompetence and anti-orthodoxy are not exclusive to state-funded British universities.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
Incompetence is met with everywhere, sadly, and not only among heretics. Some Christians make me cringe. And no-one will suppose that heresy is limited to UK universities, who has to counter the effects of the obscurantism Bart Ehrman is fostering in atheist minds (whether he intends to or not; the obscurantism towards the idea that texts of any kind can be transmitted is real).
The global mistake sounds like the effect of a global search and replace to me.
I am familiar with and always enjoyed the phrase “western non-interpolations”, thanks to Metzger on the NT which sits downstairs.