Nathan Harter
What follows is a crude sketch of a college professor from British Columbia whose posture toward the world struck me as typical of a character I have seen frequently in academe. Allow me to give my impression of him.
Picture him sitting erect in the audience at a public lecture. He has a gray beard to offset the balding on top. To his left sits a beret. (Who wears a beret?) His hands are soft. His jacket is corduroy.
This faculty member is a convinced Marxist, having come of age in the era of flower power and free love, and he believes that archeology (his particular field of interest) proves that the creation of a surplus – any surplus – allows a small group of exceptionally greedy members of the tribe to accumulate a disproportion of influence and then use that influence to take advantage of the tribe. In other words, there are bad guys who created and use the institution of private property.
In his opinion, these sociopaths bought brides for sex and bought councils for power, till the entire culture shifted from hunter-gatherers toward capitalism, oppression, and permanent elites. All this he learned from digging around for arrowheads in a bog.
Now, picture our professor listening to a speaker refer to the public good being done by faith-based organizations in Haiti. The Marxist becomes increasingly agitated and asks to respond. What does he have to say?
It is his claim that evangelical organizations intend to convert the natives rather than alleviate their suffering. In his opinion, their fundraising for Haiti is dishonest. “Don’t tell me the donation goes to help the afflicted and then use my money to preach. That’s a bait-and-switch.”
The graybeard is by no means done talking. He continues.
He can’t stand the idea that the do-gooder is trying to go down there and disrupt the local culture, using a natural calamity to attack their traditional values. The Christian sows seeds of confusion and taints an innocent way of life. Feeling his own outrage now, the professor concludes this way. He says, “I tell you, it’s cultural fascism.”
Left unsaid, of course, is the unspoken assumption that Christianity is false. Also left unsaid is a belief that cultures are equivalent: one is just as good as another, so who are we to impose our values on them? To win pagans over to Christ is a form of imperialism.
What was said aloud is the ultimate pejorative that leftists have in their arsenal to fling around like monkeys flinging feces, namely that evangelicals are fascists when they witness about their faith. Now, you and I recognize this is a ridiculous abuse of language. Nevertheless, it happens over and over among irritable Marxists because they just cannot stand to be contradicted from anyone in a position of equality. These academics are just too bloody smart to admit believers as partners in dialogue. Best to call us names.
No, once you disagree with the professor, you somehow disclose a violent and pernicious character. (Don’t ask me how.) So the easiest method for demonizing Christianity is to equate its practice with the example of the Nazis. Incredibly, trying to convert others to a doctrine of love is just as evil as exterminating the Jews?
The graybeard has thought things through to his satisfaction. He couldn’t disavow decades of ideology. His ego requires that he retire in the next couple of years content that he spent a lifetime dedicated to warding off threats to a good world by slurring the foe at little colloquia, putting us in our place. He is smart, after all. He is cultured. He is important.
