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Professors and Pharisees in Modern Culture

I can not agree more with the following article!! Way to tell it Mr. Adams, well done~~ 🙂

Professors and Pharisees

by Mike Adams 7-22-10

Recently, someone wrote to me complaining of a “recent and dangerous trend” of attacks on intellectuals coming from “those on the right.” The writer’s ostensible purpose was to shield intellectuals from “attacks.” His real purpose was to shield them from criticism.

Nothing could be more dangerous than shielding today’s intellectual, particularly the secular university professor, from criticism. It is precisely because they are so coddled and shielded (read: tenured) that they have become modern day Pharisees.

Jesus was not nice to the Pharisees. In fact, He had this to say to them:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23: 27-28).

David Wheaton, author of University of Destruction, correctly points out that there were two principal reasons why Jesus reserved his harshest judgment for the Pharisees.

  • The first was that they were proud.
  • The second was that they were liars, or false teachers.

It has long been understood that academics are a proud bunch. But few realize just how dishonest academics have become. This hasn’t always been the case. But the increasing secularization of higher education has reduced the felt obligation of academics to adhere to the truth. In fact, many question the very existence of truth, perhaps as a way of avoiding condemnation for refusing to tell it.

For ages, professors have been guilty of advancing ideas before they were supported by evidence. Today, they are guilty of the far greater misdeed of continuing to advance ideas long after they have been refuted by evidence. Examples of this trend are numerous.

Today, feminist professors continue to advance the idea that there are no innate differences between men and women despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. They continue to advance the idea of widespread gender discrimination in pay despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Liberal Arts professors continue to promote the idea that there is widespread racism in the loan application process despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. They liberally continue to promote the idea that there is widespread racism in the application of the death penalty despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. (In reality, most of those who commit murder are black while most of those who are executed are white).

Sadly, this trend is not limited to the social sciences and humanities. It has infected the hard sciences as well. Intellectuals continue to promote the idea of global warming despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Even those caught in the act of fudging data are unwilling to relinquish their cause.

Apparently, no wealth of evidence is so great that “intellectuals” cannot suppress it in order to preserve their role in finding a “solution” to our collective “problems.” Yet their prideful lies are all uttered under the guise of serving the best interests of “society.”

Those who sincerely believe that recent attacks on academics have been too harsh should turn their attention to Proverbs 6:16-19, which says:

“There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.”

Of whom do you think first when you read about “a lying tongue” and “hands who shed innocent blood”? Is it the feminist professor who tells her students that having an abortion is no different from picking a scab?

Of whom are you reminded when you read about those who sow “discord among brethren”? Is it the 88 professors at Duke University who wrote a letter condemning their own students for a “racially motivated rape” that never happened (and refused to recant after it was shown that they were wrong)?

Why did the Duke Professors perpetuate the lie? Was it simply a matter of pride? The parallels between the Pharisees of Jesus’ time and the intellectuals of our time are simply too numerous and too chilling close to ignore. Yet most ignore them.

Psalm 14:1 says that

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.”

These seem like harsh words but many have observed that the flood of strange and foolish ideas flowing from the ivory tower has followed closely on the heels of the efforts of intellectuals to expel God from the academy.

Today’s intellectual should not be offended by the notion that he is a fool, rather than someone with special knowledge deserving of special recognition. In fact, today’s intellectual is more likely than ever to proclaim that every idea is equal to the next. So the idea that he is wise can be no better or worse than the idea that he is a fool.

Before we elevate the intellectual to a position that is above criticism, we must remember that every human being has ideas. And this should serve as a reminder that the professor’s sole justification for existence is that his ideas are better than ours. And we should judge the value of the intellectual’s ideas in light of the consequences they have for our own lives.

I take recent academic proclamations of moral relativism as an invitation to critique the academy. And I advise students who hear a professor proclaim that all ideas are equal to drop his class immediately. If he believes such a thing his ideas are no better than that of a student. He is therefore intellectually unfit to be a professor.

Of course, the professor who insincerely proclaims that all ideas are equal is unqualified for a different reason. He is a liar and, therefore, morally unfit to be a professor.

The recent trend of intellectual allegiance to postmodernism and moral relativism is overwhelmingly insincere. Ironically, the intellectual feigns a disdain for judgment because it gives him an air of moral superiority. That is why the intellectual lies and pretends to adopt beliefs he professes to be no better than others. He does it so he will appear to be better than others.

If the postmodern intellectual is right about one thing it is that he is no better than the Pharisee. That is why he is deserving of harsh condemnation rather than ritualistic devotion.

For further reading: Intellectuals and Society, by Thomas Sowell; University of Destruction, by David Wheaton.

Mike Adams’s Biography
Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” On Campus.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeAdams/2010/07/22/professors_and_pharisees/page/full#

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Schools ramp up the war on traditional Christian beliefs

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES – The Washington Times

6:06 p.m., Friday, July 23, 2010

“JOSEPH SILVERMAN/THE WASHINGTON TIMES The reputation of Notre Dame University is under attack for the second time this year because a group of students were funded by the school to attend the National Equality March for gay rights in Washington last Sunday. Pro-life and Catholic organizations criticized the school for inviting President Obama to speak at its commencement ceremony in May and receive an honorary degree.

Universities claim to be havens for diversity, but this political correctness does not guarantee freedom of thought. Tolerance is reserved for those who stick to the liberal line. Those who deviate from the approved set of views can expect to be set upon by angry student activists and reproving academic bureaucrats.

Two recent examples of “thought crime” illustrate the academy’s low level of tolerance for divergent views. The University of Illinois fired nontenured adjunct professor Ken Howell from teaching and also from a job at the on-campus Catholic center for correctly stating Catholic doctrine on homosexuality. Mr. Howell had been teaching courses such as Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought at the school for nine years. During the spring semester, he explained in an e-mail to a student that according to Catholic doctrine, “A homosexual orientation is not morally wrong just as no moral guilt can be assigned to any inclination that a person has. However, based on natural moral law, the Church believes that homosexual acts are contrary to human nature and therefore morally wrong.”

A hypercritical student radical determined this was “hate speech” and complained to religion department head Robert McKim, who fired Mr. Howell. Apparently, the professoriat will condone no deviations from political correctness regardless of the context or the facts. The unavoidable message to student activists is that they need not go to the trouble of engaging in intellectual exchanges with those who disagree with them; they simply can have the other side of a debate tossed off campus.”–-Click here for the whole story

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/23/no-faith-in-universities/———————————————————————————————–

Possible Related Links:

http://www.grace4u.org/newtest/matthew/Matt23-1.htm

The Pharisees,  Sadducees,  and Scribes, religious leaders of Jesus’ time, were always showing hatred and antagonism toward Him. Partly, they were jealous, afraid that people would follow Him instead of them causing them to loose authority and power over the people.

They hated him so much that they wanted to kill him and plotted his death as they could not believe He was the Messiah because they looked for a powerful national figure.

http://www.visualbiblealive.com/religiouspictures/Pharisees/2/

http://www.bible.ca/d-jewish-sects-pharisees-sadducees-essenes-zealots.htm

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Anti-Christianity in Jewish Sacred Literature

Today, most evangelical Christians regard Israel with respect and gratitude—not only as our “democratic ally” in the Mideast, but as the earthly source from which Christianity sprung.

Yet a realistic appraisal of modern Israel reveals a very different reality: Israel is neither democratic nor benevolent toward Christians.

http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/christiansinisraelrepost.html

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