... at least according to Steve Noble.
Let me explain, as I think there's been a misunderstanding. After I and
other bloggers put the lie to Called2Action's claim that the Wake County Schools were requiring 12 year olds to read The Color Purple (not true), I got an email from the great and powerful man behind the curtain himself, Mr. Steve Noble.
And here is what he said:
Steve Noble/Called2Action wrote:
Interesting posts on your blog...but you might want to look into the alternative or supplemental reading lists, as well...
There is also tremendous variability from one school to the next - teachers and/or principals have ultimate control. The lists you referenced only show the core readings - I believe you will be amazed at the variance that is actually out there. The fact that the few books we have referenced are not on the lists you found on the WCPSS site should tell you something...those are not the only lists in circulation. The facts are simple: these books were assigned, regardless of whether they appear on the WCPSS website or not.
The School Board has agreed to provide the parents with the exhaustive lists (as required by law). Those lists will then be investigated and questionable books identified.
Do you think the school system should inform parents before books like The Chocolate War are given to students? If a teacher in high school or middle school were to show an r-rated movie in class without parental consent, would that disturb you? NC-17?
Contrary to some of your reader's opinions, this is not a "witch hunt". These parents simply want to find out if there are any more books in the system like the ones they have encountered. If there are, they need to be identified and parents should know that they are in use so they can be on the lookout for them. I believe that's a reasonable goal...I hope you do, too.
Respectfully,
Steve Noble
ps. I will continue to be civil towards you, even though we obviously are on opposite ends of the spectrum! Also, I have to ask one final question: would you be willing to share your opinions on Christ with me?
Thanks so much...
(emphasis mine).
Now, I'm not sure what these parents will do once they are "on the lookout" and discover "questionable" books. But that's not the point of this post.
What I found interesting about this email was the casual, oh-by-the-way-here's-an-innocuous-P.S. way in which Mr. Noble inquired about my "opinions on Christ."
How do you answer that one? My opinion on Christ? My opinion? My opinion, the relevant one anyway, was that people ought not to challenge books. That's what I thought we were engaging each other about. But in the way of all demagogues, Mr. Noble had to turn the subject to the ground on which he felt most comfortable.
Too bad for him that I have actually thought about my faith, as many liberals have. I hate to disappoint him, but not everyone is so easily characterized as a porn-loving hedonist with sixteen wives and a concubine, bowing to the altar of Baal while dropping acid and breaking church windows. No, that's not me.
So, I responded. And I did so earnestly, as I hope you will agree. This is long, but it's worth it, because you will see that the response I received back was so very very Called2Action. I hope you will see which of us dropped the "be civil to each other" promise first, and which of the two of us ran out of other cheeks first. Anyway, here's my response:
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 22:18:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: (Me)
Subject: Re: blog
To: "Steve Noble/Called2Action"
Thanks for reading, and writing.
First, as you can see from my blog, I take issue with your organization's characterization of the issue in several ways. Your email stated that 12 - 15 year olds were being required to read Beloved or The Color Purple. There was no mention of any other book, including The Chocolate War. The fact is, no middle school class is required to read those two books. They are works suggested for study in AP English. Second, you stated, repeatedly, that the Wake County Public Schools were requiring these books to be read. They simply are not, and, as Keung mentioned in his story, if a student or parent objects to a book, they can obtain a subsitute.
Third, to equate the suggested reading lists with required reading is simply willful obfuscation. The very existence of those lists, and their ease of access, belies your claims that the books are somehow hidden from parents. Your ActionGram was misleading and, unfortunately, typical of Called2Action's tactics. Your link to the websites of the organizations in Virginia, Arkansas and Kansas shows clearly the agenda behind this action. It's the latest in a LONGGG history of attacks on uncomfortable books - and it's been going on forever. Which is why I posted that wonderful scene from Field of Dreams. Footloose covered the same subject matter, but I didn't want my readers to suffer the horror of remembering Kevin Bacon dancing. :-)
I trust teachers. My parents are teachers, and like most teachers they love the children they teach. It is more than a job, it is a sacred trust, and they treat it as such.
As a parent, of course I am keenly interested in what my children learn. My kids are very young, but as they grow older and are exposed to the world, I will be with them, explaining and preparing them. One of the things they'll have to learn to do is read books and confront opinions and images that challenge them. When he's 12, that challenge might be "The Chocolate War," who knows? For me it was "Cry, the Beloved Country" and "Black Boy," which shook my Southern worldview down to its roots. That was a very good thing. One of my jobs as a parent is to instill in my son a belief system and a critical world view that can experience, survive and adapt to such challenges.
Finally, I am not insulted or embarrassed to answer your question about my "opinion on Christ," though I trust that it will remain between us.
Let me put this as bluntly as I can - I tend to do that. Mr. Noble, while I do not doubt your faith or your devotion, it is my opinion that Jesus Christ would have severe difficulty with what your organization does.
Like anyone's, my faith is often challenged by death, war, destruction, hate, racism, and disease. But God and I have come to terms over those issues, after some pretty strenuous arguments. The answer I received was something like: "you don't like it? Go do something about it. I have given you science, and nature, and your brain, and a perfect example. Now go do what I told you to do."
I am not an evangelical Christian. But I am a Christian. Evangelicals, I guess, would ask me if I have a personal relationship with Christ. Yes, I suppose I do, though conversion experiences and charismatic Christianity have little appeal or resonance for me.
I have been involved in the Church since birth. I am Presbyterian, although with a bit of an ecumenical bent. I do believe there is a plan, but I tend to think we have the free will to wander off the reservation, and it is only through Grace that we are brought back to the plan.
I believe in the Resurrection, though I have no idea how to explain it, or how much of the language in the Gospels is figurative, or which of the four accounts is more accurate. (I also know that both Christmas, as we know it, and Easter, as we practice it, are adaptations by the early Church of pagan rituals, which were used to explain the concepts of Christianity to pre-literate people. They have now become beloved traditions - and I greatly enjoy them. But my faith is not so tied up in those traditions that I am offended by a store clerk wishing me a Happy Holiday, when she has no idea if I am Jewish, Christian, Agnostic or Zoroastrian.)
The joy of my spiritual life is in music and work with youth. I love to work with church youth groups, which I have done often. Other than the birth of my children, the most moving experiences of my life have been on mission trips with youth. I believe that service was best exemplified by Christ when he washed the feet of his disciples. I believe it is the mission of Christians to serve the world, not attack it. I am not sure where I read it, but I remember reading a book in which a minister described Gandhi, a Hindu, as perhaps the most Christlike man of the 20th Century. I like that.
I believe in a loving God, not a vindictive one. I believe all people - ALL PEOPLE - are created by God, and like that sign in my Mom's kitchen, I believe God don't make no mistakes. Including gay people. I believe God would be far more likely to appreciate good stewardship of his Creation, which we are abjectly failing to do, than he would be to appreciate policing the number of cursewords or references to gay culture on a TV program.
I believe Christ, by example, by word, and by continuing inspiration, has shown us how to live a Godly life, and, like everyone else, I continuously fail to live up to that standard. Take a listen to David Wilcox's song "The Carpenter." That's how I think Christ works. Not by protesting classic works of literature.
I have criticized you often, and probably not in the most Christian manner, but I am deeply offended by those who clothe their own politics in the robes of religion, and then attack those who disagree with their politics as being somehow less Christian. I believe, like Jim Wallis has written, that God is not a Republican . . . or a Democrat. There is a difference between having your politics informed by your faith and confusing your politics with your faith. I can vehemently disagree with your politics without doubting your faith. While you may claim you can do the same, those with whom you have allied yourself, such as James Dobson and the American Family Association, have clearly stated to the contrary. I believe such opinions are dangerous to the fabric of our Democracy, which has been the greatest ensurer of religious liberty in the history of the world. And you should know that I intend to challenge such attitudes at every turn.
I would love it if you could turn your obvious organizational talents away from divisive political issues and towards serving the least of these, as the man we both recognize as the Savior of the world instructed us to do. I know you have stated to the N&O and others that you believe those issues are not meant to be tackled, but that instead it is a Christian's job to defend the core "truths."
The problem is, your truth is your truth. It is not necessarily going to be recognized by your fellow citizens as THE truth. And in a necessarily secular democracy, which honors and respects the practice of all faiths (or those who practice NO faith at all) one person's sense of religious truth cannot be the foundation of public policy. When government does something that goes against your personal religious belief, feel free to so state, but demanding that government abide by the tenets of your faith - in its dealings with ALL people - is a prescription for theocracy and failure. And believing that government, or society, when it disagrees with you, is thereby attacking your religion, is just self-aggrandizement.
I guess that's a big enough can of worms for one email.
Thanks for writing. I appreciate the gesture, I really do.
And please issue a correction of your initial ActionGram. If you do that, I will mention it as a hopeful sign on my blog, and I'll lay off in the spirit of reconciliation.
Peace,
(Me)
Now, I think you'll agree that was a pretty upfront and candid letter. And I wrote it with the intent to engage in a dialogue, to do what the Carpenter did in that song I mentioned, and to take the wood of the fence and make it into a bridge.
I was greeted with silence. Then came....
The endorsement email, which I discuss below. The endorsement of Vernon Robinson. A man who harbors beliefs so antithetical to those I believe to be expressed in the New Testament that his name would burn off if written on a hymnal. But I digress.
So I responded, and I called him out for not responding to my earlier email, and for having the audacity both to imply that his political opponents were evil and to endorse a reprehensible waste of human grey matter like Vernon Robinson. I asked him why he didn't endorse a perfectly solid Republican like John Ross Hendrix.
To which the ever Christlike Mr. Noble responded (and here's where I guess he ran out of cheeks):
[DrFrankLives],
I'd like to reference one point from your email last week. You stated the following:
"I would love it if you could turn your obvious organizational talents away from divisive political issues and towards serving the least of these..."
Who is the least? Would you argue that it is not the unborn child, knit together in the womb by the very hand of God? Jesus clearly pointed us all to care for the very least in society...and that whatever we do to them, we are doing to Him. Is it a woman's right to kill the unborn child, created by God? One point before you answer: less than 2% of abortions are the result of pregnancy via rape or incest.
If we can't agree on this point, there is little chance that we will agree on much of anything else, theologically. I have encountered many people who describe their faith as you have...it always bring to mind the following scriptures:
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12
...having a form of godliness but denying its power. 2 Timothy 3:5
Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?". The answer for me is simple. Truth is what is revealed in the Word of God. Jesus said that there is no other way to Heaven besides him - I believe that. You obviously think the bible is to be loosely translated with statements such as, "I believe in the Resurrection, though I have no idea how to explain it, or how much of the language in the Gospels is figurative, or which of the four accounts is more accurate." So some of the Gospel record is inaccurate? Or what about, "I remember reading a book in which a minister described Gandhi, a Hindu, as perhaps the most Christlike man of the 20th Century. I like that. " But what about the fact that Gandhi, indeed a great man, did not claim Jesus as Savior? According to Jesus, Ghandi won't be in Heaven. A hard truth, but true nevertheless (if you believe the Bible).
You see, ...my view of Truth comes solely from the Bible...your view seems to come from many different sources. I suppose you find most of us "evangelicals" to be unenlightened, dogmatic, and hateful. Christ predicted that, too. I don't hate anyone...and it is not my place to gauge the condition of any person's heart relative to their faith in Christ. I believe that you are truly a caring person and that you do seek to know what God would have you do. We are to engage all aspects of life with our Christianity...We are to be Salt & Light, and that manifests itself in all areas of life.
As much as I would love to engage you every time the opportunity arises, I simply do not have the time. I am helping set up a Greg Laurie Harvest Crusade (patterned on Billy Graham crusades) for the Raleigh area next year. You can check them out at www.harvest.org . Perhaps you will find some worth in my efforts on that cause. Nothing is more important than spreading the Gospel of Christ...for it is ultimately only through a changed heart, and a right relationship with Christ, via the power of the Holy Spirit, that this world, or any individual, can experience true hope & joy.
Respectfully,
Steve
Did you get those ever so subtle digs? If not, I have highlighted them above in black bolded text. I am headed to death. To hell. With Gandhi. Because I come to different conclusions when reading the Bible than Mr. Noble does.
These are the people who want to control who you elect and what you read. They want to condemn you for not believing as they do. If you recognize that the Gospels were written by men who were transcribing oral tradition from 75 to 300 years after the facts depicted, you're evil. If you point out where the stories in those Gospels differ on some facts (like how many people were at the tomb with Mary Magdalene, for instance), prepare to burn.
They send their children to school with the instruction to shout down kids that might be gay. Regardless of their protestations to the contrary, they are hateful.
And they, so far, routinely lose elections in Wake County. My job? To make sure that keeps happening.
So to Mr. Noble, I say this. Pardon me, sir, but on my way to hell, I'm going to try hard to live life the way Christ told us to. Rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, trying hard to love my neighbor as myself, and trying, though not nearly hard enough I know, to make life better for the least of these, my brethren - you know, the ones who are actually here and breathing - the hungry, the poor, the naked. Remember that part?
So, I don't have time, Mr. Noble, to stand on a street corner and shout my faith that I may be seen by men. You do that just fine. I don't have time to accuse others of violations of whatever section of ancient Hebrew criminal code I can dig out of Leviticus. Christ left that to the Pharisees. And so will I.
Have at it.
In the meantime, you keep serving as the N&O's attack chihuahua, ready to be the righteous angry man at the drop of a reporter's pen. You keep investing your followers' energy and zeal in petty protests designed to garner more headlines than souls. The rest of us will move on without you.
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