At 11:02 AM 6/9/2006, James Cassell wrote:

>Hi Tina,
>
>When asked, I tell students I'm agnostic. That runs off most of them. The 
>remaining few ask what the word means; after my explanation, they usually 
>wander off too. (I suspect being older, male and a touch cranky helps.) 
>Thus far, despite  a several year stint in the bible belt, no one's tried 
>to convert me.
>

Why not take advantage of the Da Vinci Code and tell them you're a 
Gnostic.  They will RUN away, either because they don't know what means, or 
because they DO know what that means.  Or just start shouting about how the 
Catholic church suppressed the truth, and the later Christian churches have 
joined in the conspiracy (be sure to shout).  Works for me....

By the way, I taught for 7 years at U of Alabama Huntsville, and the only 
time religion affected my job were when 1) a fundamentalist threatened to 
raise claims of religious persecution if her grade wasn't changed, and the 
cowardly School of Administrative Science persuaded me to do it, and 2) an 
Iranian student insisted on repeat office visits to convince me that 
"sociology" based on acceptance of Sharia is the only way to go (after that 
encounter, fundamentalist Christians seem tame in comparison).

(I personally practice Sharona, having learned it from The Knack.)

(And I'm in the same categories as James, although the crankiness is taking 
its summer hiatus.)




Gerry Grzyb, Chair
Sociology Department
UW Oshkosh
920-424-2040



--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Teaching Sociology" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to