Monday Frankenstein Post

Behold!  My terrible and frightening blog post, stitched together from the words of others!!

"Whereas, the having slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences; Be it enacted, that all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe, in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money."

(Excerpt from South Carolina Act of 1740)

"That all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting-house or houses, &c., in the night; or at any SCHOOL OR SCHOOLS for teaching them READING OR WRITING, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY; and any justice of a county, &c., wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge or the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage, &c., may issue his warrant, directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblages, &c., may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such slaves, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding twenty lashes."

(Excerpt from Virginia Revised Code of 1819)

"To avoid arousal more generally, women were instructed to get plenty of fresh air, avoid stimulating pastimes like reading and card games, and above all never to use their brains more than was strictly necessary.   Educating them was not simply a waste of time and resources, but dangerously bad for their delicate constitutions.  In 1865, John Ruskin opined in an essay that women should be educated just enough to make them practically useful to their spouses but no further.  "

(At Home by Bill Bryson, Chapter 15)

"Women's present education is entirely irrelevant to the life they have to lead. It is not only a waste but often a definite disability" 

(Report of the University Education Commission, Government of India, 1948–49, Vol. (i), Chapter XII, pp. 401)

"In fact, only in modern times have women dreamt of going to university, but the idea has now become so normal that even Catholics, whose Faith guards Nature, may have difficulty in seeing the problem. However, here is a pointer in the direction of normalcy: any Catholic with the least respect for Tradition recognizes that women should not be priests - can he deny that if few women went to university, almost none would wish to be priests? Alas, women going to university is part of the whole massive onslaught on God's Nature which characterizes our times. That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls."

("Girls at University" by Bishop Williamson, 2001)

"In my experience, the real problem isn’t simply a failure on the part of Evangelicals to engage the world of thought. Evangelicals earning higher degrees and publishing their findings in the wider intellectual community isn’t what’s needed.

The real scandal of the Evangelical mind is that we are not allowed to use it.

Calling for Evangelical involvement in public academic discourse is useless if trained Evangelicals are legitimately afraid of what will happen to them if they do.

A more basic need is the creation of an Evangelical culture where the exercise of  the Evangelical mind is expected and encouraged.

But, with few exceptions, that culture does not exist. The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that degrees, books, papers, and other marks of prestige are valued–provided you come to predetermined conclusions."

(The Deeper Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: We Are Not Allowed to Use It, Peter Enns)

Be very afraid of those who do not want you to think or those who are OK with you using your mind, but only up to a point.  No one who asks you to tells you that you're allowed to take your thoughts and reason so far but no further does it for your benefit.  This is something that is only done to create a whole class of easily controlled, easily manipulated, powerless people.  Don't let anyone do it to you.  I repeat, when someone is trying to take away your freedom of thought they are up to no good! 

Go where the truth takes you.  See how deep the rabbit hole goes.  You owe it to yourself.

Grrr, Arrgh.