The New First Amendment: Freedom of All Religions -- Except Christianity

THE RIGHT ANGLE: The New First Amendment - Opinions

Sometime last summer, as I was wasting away my life in front of a computer, I came across a rather humorous political cartoon drawn by Mike Luckovich. It showed an image of the Constitution with the words "Except for Homos - G.W.B" scrawled across it in what looked to be black crayon. I'll admit, it was funny and I laughed. But looking back on that cartoon, I'm starting to get a similar picture, only this time it's the Bill of Rights and "Except for Christians" is neatly penciled in next to the First Amendment.

Recently, a fellow UNCG student stopped me on campus and told me about a rather unconventional lecture they had endured in their Anthropology course. It seems that while this professor was teaching them about the Yanomamo culture in South America, they had taken it upon themselves to preach to the class about the evils of America and Christianity. The lecture included a discussion on how missionaries had traveled to the Yanomamo tribe in the mid to late 1900's and brought with them what proved to be fatal diseases including malaria, influenza, and even the common cold. This is, of course, historical fact, and no one should be offended by it. What bothers me, however, is that this teacher then ranted for 45 minutes on why they felt the missionaries were out of line in even traveling to South America in order to spread the Gospel.

According to this student, the professor spent a good majority of the class time talking about how the missionaries had no right to try to force their culture on the Yanomamo. They went on about how the missionaries taught the group to speak English, again stressing that the infiltration of this group by Western culture is an abomination. What the professor failed to even acknowledge is that the missionaries visited the group with only the best of intentions. These are people who believe so strongly in their religion that they would risk their lives to make sure people all over the world have a chance to hear their story, and yet, to hear this professor speak, you would think they travel around the world with the sole intention of killing off as many people as possible.

The missionaries did not teach the Yanomamo tribe English in order to destroy their culture; they did it so they could better preach Christianity to them. I find it appalling that a professor, or anyone for that matter, could actually criticize missionaries for simply trying to do what they believe is right. As a matter of fact, missionaries are probably some of the most selfless people in the world. They are actually more concerned with trying to give others a chance to hear about their religion than anything else.

Of course, not content with simply putting down Christianity, this Anthropology professor took it one step further: they likened the entire fiasco to the war in Iraq. This professor commented that they believed Bush going to Iraq to spread democracy was a cover, and that he was really in Iraq in order to spread Christianity. Of course, this is ridiculous, but then again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how asinine that opinion is. What they are NOT entitled to is the right to teach it to a class as if it were fact rather than a viewpoint.

Christian views are simply not welcome in the classroom, and I've known that ever since a teacher in high school informed us that she was not allowed to tell us that she believed in God. But actually attacking Christianity and its followers is going a step too far. It's one thing for a professor to bash the man that a majority of the country voted for in November, but it's a completely different thing to attack an entire religious group. I wonder how the university system would react if a professor bashed Buddhism or Hinduism as part of his lecture.

Perhaps someone needs to send this professor a copy of the Bill of Rights and tell them that if they wanted to go around preaching their opinions, maybe they should have become a missionary rather than a professor at a state-supported university.