Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Oh no, not another letter to the Globe

Yup, here it is. I'm also working on a column on something I know very little about, humble astrophysicists. Stay tuned!
Here's the link. Don't blame me for anyone who decides Cornel West should be read outside of the hip-hop media! http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/25/fabricated_fears_about_hate_crime_legislation/

To all but the most credulous reader, Cornel West's column defending "thought crime" legislation ought to be anything but comforting. Intentionally, or by inexcusable neglect, West and Sylvia Rhue have dismissed a wide body of literature on gay politics and theology that is anything but hateful. This literature, full of thoughtful criticism, and not shying away from difficult question such as "Well,what if people really are born gay?" comes from a wide variety of traditions, including Judaism, Catholicism,conservative Protestantism (Walter A. Elwell:Evangelical Dictionary of Theology), mainstream Protestantism, (Robert A. J. Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Homosexual-Practice-Texts-Hermeneutics/dp/0687022797/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1496179-4277215?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190846077&sr=8-1 ), and psychotherapists working in secular settings.By baldly and indiscriminately labeling opinions he personally hates as "condemning and dehumanizing"Prof. West signals to lovers of liberty his intent to eventually allow their prosecution as "hate crimes." If not West and his sort, leave it to those the mere thickness of a condom farther left to fabricate a connection between a sermon one day and a fight in a nearby bar the next. For all his faults, Larry Summers' wisdom in allowing Harvard to "lose" CornelWest and his shoddy lack of scholarly inquiry to Princeton has been vindicated.