[Vision2020] Historians in the News

Nick Gier ngier at uidaho.edu
Thu Jan 25 11:31:09 PST 2007 

Greetings:

As usual, I learn from Keely every time she 
writes wisely about Christianity.  For what it's 
worth, you can read about the reasons why I did 
not use the term "fundamentalism" in my book God, 
Reason, and the Evangelicals at 
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/gre.htm.  Click out 
the first chapter, as well as any other chapter 
that may interest you.  You can also read why I 
think the term "evangelical" does not fit Doug 
Wilson at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/evang.htm.

In the book I'm now writing "The Origins of 
Religious Violence," I've found that calling 
Muslim radicals "evangelicals" just doesn't sound 
right, so I have returned, as all other scholar 
have done, to "fundamentalism" to describe the 
parallels I detect between "Christian 
nationalists and reconstructionists" and Islamic 
fundamentalists.  You can read my essay "Chilling 
Parallels between Christian and Islamic 
Fundamentlists" at 
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/parallels.htm.  Doug 
Wilson & Co. are exhibit #1 in the case I make there.

Nick Gier, intolerista par excellence
Intolerance is a virtue if one is intolerant of 
bigotry, discrimination, dishonesty, ugly manners, and deception

At 11:10 AM 1/25/2007, you wrote:
>Well, I'd love to hear from Genovese himself on 
>this one.  I'm sure he would also agree with me 
>that  "fundamentalist" is not an accurate 
>description of Wilson's theology.  Wilson's 
>theology generally embraces the historically 
>agreed-upon fundamental doctrines of the 
>Christian faith, but adds to them some doctrinal 
>perspectives that historical and contemporary 
>"fundamentalists" would find repugnant.
>
>The term "fundamentalist" means much more than 
>assent or opposition to specific doctrines, 
>however.  From both a historical and a religious 
>perspective, it also encompasses a worldview 
>that disdains modernism, higher education, and 
>culture while exhibiting a fairly rigid legalism 
>(don't drink, don't smoke, don't dance, 
>etc.).  I could argue that Wilson dislikes 
>modernism in some forms, seems to find nothing 
>of value in either higher secular education or 
>even evangelical seminaries other than his own, 
>and spends a lot of time mocking contemporary 
>culture, but your daddy's fundamentalists would 
>be aghast at his enthusiasm for the finer things 
>of gastronomy, art, literature and bacchanalia.
>
>That said, William Ramsey is one of my heroes 
>for his work in exposing the academic dreck that 
>is "Southern Slavery As It Was" and "Black and 
>Tan," and for calling a paleo- or 
>neo-Confederate spade a spade.  Thanks, Dr. Ramsey.
>
>Now, let's hope Dr. Genovese will enlighten us 
>and then face honest critique from whatever side 
>he angers with his views.  Any hope that Wilson 
>himself would repudiate his earlier work seems 
>to be as unlikely as, well, a slave in the 
>American South feeling affirmed and secure in 
>his participation in the quintessential American 
>example of Biblical Christianity Wilson insists was the case.
>
>keely
>
>
>
>
>From: "News of Christ Cult" <news-of-christ-cult at lycos.com>
>To: <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] Historians in the News
>Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:52:33 -0500 (EST)
>
>    http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/31873.html
>
>Historians in the NewsEugene Genovese:  An Idaho 
>pastor accused of racism claims Genovese backs his view of slavery
>Source: Email to HNN by William L. Ramsey, 
>assistant professor of history at the University 
>of Idaho  (11-15-06)Fundamentalist
>Pastor Douglas Wilson of Moscow, Idaho, may have fallen short in his
>first attempt to overturn the last fifty years of academic scholarship
>on slavery, which he has described variously as “abolitionist
>propaganda” and “civil rights propaganda,” but he intends to win the
>war. A supportive comment from !
>  Eugene Genovese on the back cover of
>Wilson’s new self-published book on slavery, Black and Tan, appears to
>be the center- piece of the new battle plan.
>
>
>
>The “blurb” has been doing yeomen’s duty in fundamentalist and
>neo-Confederate circles for the past year, but it saw its first service
>in mainstream public dialogue recently when Pastor Wilson published a
>guest editorial in the November 5 issue of the Moscow-Pullman Daily
>News. Angered that historians from the University of Idaho, myself
>included, remained critical of his happy portrait of southern slavery,
>Wilson pointed out that his work has now received a positive “academic
>response.” Eugene Genovese, he claimed, “one of America’s first-rate
>historians,” had concluded that Wilson “has a strong grasp of the
>essentials of slavery.”
>
>
>
>Concerned that the nationwide curriculum might now be obsolete, I
>visited the Daily News offices and req!
>  uested a follow-up investigation.
>Does Genovese also endorse, for i
>nstance, the original pro-slavery
>pamphlet, Southern Slavery, As It Was, which I myself dismembered in a
>review that can be found here?
>Or has Genovese merely endorsed the watered down version that he edited
>in order to get the Confederate partisans up to speed, which I
>dismembered here? The
>confusion is genuine, since Wilson’s pledge that he has discontinued
>publication of Southern Slavery, As It Was, is only correct with
>respect to his own garage. The pamphlet continues to be published
>verbatim in its entirety by Bluebonnet Press in the textbook, The War
>Between the States, which is currently being marketed on the front page
>of Wilson’s website to unsuspecting home-schooled children.
>
>
>
>Will the Daily News follow up the story? Will their tell-all interview
>with Eugene Genovese sink our national historiography? Will he refuse!
>
>to answer his phone?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Juanita Flores
>
>Advocate for the Truth from Jesus
>
>
>
>
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"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the 
application of it to human affairs."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates 
in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
  --Mohandas Gandhi

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of 
any system cannot be discovered by dividing it 
into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed 
on the whole and on the interconnection between 
the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut 
between science, religion, and art. The whole is 
never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." --Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm

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