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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Edwin replies: I am a newly credentialed secondary school (high school)teacher (my second career). I happen to be Catholic, but I received my credentialing training at California Baptist University in Riverside. They were not only tolerant, but open and friendly. My only concern was at the widespread simplification of the complexities of the Medieval and Renaissance Roman Catholic Church by student-teachers. It is not that the College taught this, but rather that it was simply a "given" that there was a "true Early Christianity," a "decadent Catholicism," and then the rectification and reformation brought on by the Protestants. I saw this as a kind of a theory of religious (r)evolution. :) During my required observations in high school classrooms, my Baptist colleagues taught that the Catholic Church was the instrument of the evil Inquisition and Crusades, and that (all) the Popes were worldly princes using religion as a whip, and that the Roman Church itself said that the only way to heaven was to pay the priest (for indulgences and other sacraments (sic)). Power and control was all that was important to the Roman Church, so only Priests were allowed to read, and scientists were declared heretics. In my observations, I also noted that many of the students were hispanic and a good number overall may have been Catholic. I quietly asked these teachers about what they were teaching, and they simply responded that they were not teaching religion, they were simply teaching what everyone knew to be true. And although I used the Baptists as an example, the worst example was an avowed atheist who taught choral music, and would launch into a diatribe of the hypocrisies of the Christian Church every time they would sing a period religious piece (as he said, "just to keep things in perspective..."). So, if you guys at the college level wonder why your students end up on your doorstep with little regard for the medieval Church, well now you know. Edwin ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html