This is hilarious and saddening all at once. A teacher is sued for “ranting” about how “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth”. Instead of being thankful that his teacher, traditionally a source of truth and wisdom, is opening his eyes to the eternal swindle that is religion, some kid is suing him.
The article goes on to say that the student accuses the teacher of :
Corbett causes students who hold religious beliefs to feel like second-class citizens because of their protected religious expression, beliefs and conduct.
Well, I have a confession to make: this is my full-time job.
They further accuse the teacher of saying “inflammatory” statements like:
In the industrialized world the people least likely to go to church are the Swedes. The people in the industrialized world most likely to go to church are the Americans. America has the highest crime rate of all industrialized nations, and Sweden has the lowest. The next time somebody tells you religion is connected with morality, you might want to ask them about that.
Since when is the truth inflammatory? My guess is that people who need to insulate themselves from the harsh realities of the world by immersing themselves in some absurdly hypocritical Middle Eastern religion will find anything that lets in a glimmer of truth “inflammatory”.
They say the classroom isn’t the place for this. If not the classroom, then where? The television sure doesn’t provide any truth, it’s sole purpose is to make you stupider so that you’ll be a more docile worker bee: get a job, spend money on useless commodities, consume, breed, have kids so their body parts can be harvested for future wars, worship $chosen_deity, pay taxes, die. Throw in a few more useless articulations and you’re set. The radio is destined for junk heap, no? The Internet is perhaps our last hope, and even it contributes more distractions than any other medium. Books are always great, but you’d be hard pressed to find one man in a hundred who’s read Dickens, Kipling, Thoreau…ad infinitum, for pleasure.
Anyway, all that aside, this man’s name is James Corbett. If you don’t realize the significance of that name, let me enlighten you. One James Corbett was the world champion in heavyweight boxing. Yet another James Corbett, by far the most legendary was a big game hunter who killed man-eating tigers and leopards. On his own, in the dark jungles of India at night, without aid, helpers, machine guns, helicopters, safari guides or what have you that the namby-pamby big game hunters of today consider essentials.
He remained unrivalled in the British Empire for his marksmanship and daring. Also, the most important fact is that he did not hunt for sport, unlike your average dot.com millionaire from Milwaukee who spends his first million bringing home that Serengeti pelt. Conversations probably went like this in the distant jungles of north-eastern India:
“Jim, we need you. A man-eating leopard has defied all efforts and actually EATEN 400 people so far”
“Alright, I’ll bring my trusty Enfield”
Well, at least James Corbett has his name going for him. We all know he can’t win, the forces of evil and stupidity and misogyny and racism and hatred are far too strong for one good teacher. But it was a good shikar and one that made all the stolithropists cheer!
Original news article here.