“Every society that belongs to Western civilization has been based, to some extent, on a Judaeo-Christian worldview and value-system.”

“Do you see? Do you see what we have become? Do you see where we are going? You will either see what I see, or you will not. But one of us is right, and one of us is wrong.”

“America as we have known it is coming to an end.”

“[Marriage] has been compromised by the increasing insistence of the superior class that we accept certain homosexual pairings as ‘marriages’…”

“It is quickly becoming time to abandon the public schools.”

“It will only be a matter of time until virtually the whole population conforms to the Satanically inspired values and worldview of the superior class.”

“We must learn from the experience of Tim Tebow.”

~Excerpts from Jack Crabtree’s Summer Institute paper

*****

I love Jack Crabtree. He is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever known. He is not afraid to say something unpopular, and he has an uncanny ability to splice any given topic into all sorts of nuanced dimensions and look at issues from previously unused lenses. This is why I chose Jack as my senior thesis advisor at Gutenberg College. I respect Jack not only as a person, but also a thinker.

But his latest paper demonstrates none of these characteristics. Perhaps I can articulate why in a few days, but — honestly — I am so upset by what I read that I am at a loss for words. I am going to resort to memes for the time being, until I can put my feelings into cogent thoughts.

*****

When I first heard that the title for Jack Crabtree’s presentation at Gutenberg College’s Summer Institute was, “How to Follow Jesus When You Cannot Kill the Beast,” all I could think about was this:

I made sure to “like” Gutenberg’s Facebook page, to stay up-to-date on the Summer Institute. When I did so, Facebook recommended “similar” pages:

My reaction to seeing that homeschool demigod Michael Farris was “similar” to Gutenberg College made me feel something along the lines of:

But, I mean, come on. There’s no way one could compare Gutenberg, the champions of Common Sense itself, with the sociopolitical extremism of Michael Farris, right?

Then I read Jack’s paper.

I’ll summarize it for you:

About 1/2 of the way through, I was like…

About 3/4 of the way through, I was like…

By the end, all I could think was…

In conclusion, I’m not sure what to do at this point. But at least I now have a principle to guide me:

 

*****

P.S. Someone on Facebook commented on this post and said, “Best essay ever on how to react to crazy people.”

This pained me to hear, because (1) I have experienced Jack as a very rational, thoughtful person and not a crazy person, and (2) this only makes my original reaction of “this sounds crazy” more tangible.

I’m trying to figure out why my reaction is so visceral. I think part of it is, in contrast to many of my experiences in homeschooling, Jack and everyone at Gutenberg were the people that helped me deconstruct the worldview I inherited from what you and I would probably consider “crazy people.” These are the people that have represented non-crazy Christianity to me — not just that, but non-crazy conservative Christianity. I know they’ve had a similarly wonderful and healing impact on other friends of mine (who come from similar backgrounds) in this same way. I honestly owe so much to these people. So when I read these words and I recognize them immediately in the core of my being as something from a nightmare from my past, all I can think is NO NO NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING??