Politically correct colleges are actually harming their students by trying to protect them from ever being offended. Trigger warnings and censorship in education, next on BreakPoint.<\/p>\n
On many college campuses, a movement is afoot to shut down statements or topics that might offend some people, or that will \u201ctrigger\u201d unpleasant feelings or emotions. They\u2019re called \u201cmicroagressions.\u201d And what qualifies as a \u201cmicroagression\u201d that may \u201ctrigger\u201d someone these days can get downright ridiculous.<\/p>\n
For example, earlier this year at Brandeis University, an Asian American student group put up a display with comments such as, \u201cAren\u2019t you supposed to be good at math?\u201d and even \u201cI\u2019m colorblind! I don\u2019t see race.\u201d Well, even this was too much for some other Asian students, who said the display itself was offensive \u2014 and had it taken down. Meanwhile, the University of California system has deemed many statements, including \u201cAmerica is the land of opportunity\u201d and \u201cI believe the most qualified person should get the job,\u201d to be offensive.<\/p>\n
Now you can\u2019t make this stuff up, but it\u2019s no laughing matter.<\/p>\n
In The Atlantic, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt note that \u201cThe ultimate aim, it seems, is to turn campuses into \u2018safe spaces\u2019 where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make some uncomfortable. And … this movement seeks to punish anyone who interferes with that aim, even accidentally. You might call this impulse vindictive protectiveness. It is creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up, lest they face charges of insensitivity, aggression, or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lukianoff and Haidt correctly observe that such foolishness is anathema to the very idea of higher education \u2014 that the campus should be a place where tough questions can be asked without fear or favor, and where students are taught not what to think but how to think. They point out that the effort to shield people from what is unpleasant or what they fear actually can make phobias worse.<\/p>\n
They write, \u201cAccording to the most-basic tenets of psychology, helping people with anxiety disorders avoid the things they fear is misguided … What are we doing to our students if we encourage them to develop extra-thin skin just before they leave the cocoon of adult protection?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good question we need to ask in the church, too. Censoring everything that makes our kids uncomfortable prepares them for a world that simply doesn\u2019t exist. Christian Smith\u2019s research on the religious beliefs of young people and the pallid \u201cmoralistic therapeutic deism\u201d that many of them have withdrawn into suggests that we must not only help them develop a Christian worldview, but a robust Christian worldview, one that\u2019s big enough for the brokenness, the struggle, the challenges, and the tensions of the real world.<\/p>\n
Steve Garber, in one of my favorite books on education, \u201cThe Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior\u201d, describes what a \u201cbig enough\u201d worldview looks like. First, he says, we need to see the Bible not as a collection of rules and maxims but as a single story of God\u2019s plan of redemption of all things, and where our role is in that story. Second, Garber says, a \u201cbig enough\u201d worldview won\u2019t constrict our options as believers but will instead open the doors of our imagination in all areas of life.<\/p>\n
Third, and this is a big one for young people, a \u201cbig enough\u201d worldview will help us confront all issues of life. How different from the cramped visions of political correctness on our campuses today! And fourth, Garber says, a \u201cbig enough\u201d worldview is measured not just by our formal doctrines and creeds \u2014 as important as they are \u2014 but how it impacts our lives. After all, our worldview is not revealed by what we say, but how we live.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Politically correct colleges are actually harming their students by trying to protect them from ever being offended. Trigger warnings and censorship in education, next on BreakPoint. On many college campuses, a movement is afoot to shut down statements or topics that might offend some people, or that will \u201ctrigger\u201d unpleasant feelings or emotions. They\u2019re called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3767,3766,3764,1005,2106,3765,2062],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}