Dear John and everyone else,
I think I was misunderstood when I mentioned that a
student had quoted the Bible in an essay. I did not intend
to criticise either the Bible or Christianity in their
entireties. In the incident to which I was referring the
passage used was quoted specifically to condemn
homosexuality and I think in the context of that paper was
inappropriate. John Canning does has a good point though.
There is a danger of assuming that Christianity is a
fundamentally right wing perspective. This is not the case,
yet in some political contexts, documents such as the Bible
are put to extremist ends. I am thinking here of, for
example, "Christian Identity" which underlies much thinking
of the US far right. Michael Barkun (1997) "Religion and
the Racist Right" is a good assessment of how these
connections have developed over the past century.
Euan Hague
Geography Division, School of Sciences,
Mellor Building, College Road, Staffordshire University,
Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE, U.K.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|