Institutionalized
The Church Education System has set up classes for in depth study of the scriptures. These classes at the College and University level are called "Institute." I don't go to our local Institute class. Why not? I'm not particularly a fan of the teacher. However, I determined that this semester I should probably start attending Institute classes, and so, I promised myself, I would.
Tonight I went, just like I promised.
I don't like the teacher, as I don't enjoy his style of teaching, and I certainly don't like the way he conducts his class. Tonight was no exception. In fact, tonight typified why I can't stand him.
He started out the class with a "quiz" for which all the answers were completely subjective. They don't get more subjective than "True or False? Members of the LDS faith esteem the Bible higher than members of other faiths." Um... some do, some don't. You certainly can't tell me that there is documented proof of either of those. After that exercise in offensiveness we started discussing The Creation. I figure you can't really screw up The Creation. We have, like, three accounts in the scriptures of The Creation. It's pretty straightforward.
I thought wrong.
He asked what we know about The Creation, and after getting many responses he asked, "What else do we know about The Creation?" I figured at this point he'd turn to the best sources we've got: Genesis. Once again, I thought wrong. We did turn to the scriptures, and read "The morning and the night were the first day." Yeah, that's it. Nothing new. In fact, something so not new we could all quote it from memory.
He launched into a rather deep doctrinal discussion of The Creation, and after 20 or so minutes of un-sited commentary (and some side discussion with the girl next to me on how a discussion like this really should have lots of scriptural references) I raised my hand and asked, "Do we have cross-references for this?" "Yeah," he replied flippantly, "It's called 'the scriptures.'" Annoyed, I responded as politely as I could, "Yeah. Which ones?" He laughed at his 'joke', and didn't answer my question. He didn't even attempt to answer my question with any degree of seriousness. I was livid.
The lesson went on, and he continued to teach without ever turning to the scriptures. As the class wore on I nearly walked out a number of times just because of his inane and incorrect teachings. Near the end of class he asked if the Church has an official stance on Evolution. There were a few murmurs of 'yeses' and 'noes,' and I just knew he was going to say something totally wrong. The Church's official stance is 'we have no official stance.' Which I proclaimed loudly from the back row. "No," he said, and proceeded to quote from a declaration from the First Presidency given in 1909 in response to Darwin's On the Origin of Species. What it boils down to is this: The Church says we were made "in the image of God." Fair. But to rule out all evolution based on that? I don't think so. I mean, we are evolving that is without dispute!
I barely made it through the class without walking out. I can't believe that he has been allowed to teach for more than two years. I'm very much tempted to go next week, record his "lesson" and quote heavily from it in a letter to CES to get someone to address his lack of teaching skills. I wonder if it'll work?
Tonight I went, just like I promised.
I don't like the teacher, as I don't enjoy his style of teaching, and I certainly don't like the way he conducts his class. Tonight was no exception. In fact, tonight typified why I can't stand him.
He started out the class with a "quiz" for which all the answers were completely subjective. They don't get more subjective than "True or False? Members of the LDS faith esteem the Bible higher than members of other faiths." Um... some do, some don't. You certainly can't tell me that there is documented proof of either of those. After that exercise in offensiveness we started discussing The Creation. I figure you can't really screw up The Creation. We have, like, three accounts in the scriptures of The Creation. It's pretty straightforward.
I thought wrong.
He asked what we know about The Creation, and after getting many responses he asked, "What else do we know about The Creation?" I figured at this point he'd turn to the best sources we've got: Genesis. Once again, I thought wrong. We did turn to the scriptures, and read "The morning and the night were the first day." Yeah, that's it. Nothing new. In fact, something so not new we could all quote it from memory.
He launched into a rather deep doctrinal discussion of The Creation, and after 20 or so minutes of un-sited commentary (and some side discussion with the girl next to me on how a discussion like this really should have lots of scriptural references) I raised my hand and asked, "Do we have cross-references for this?" "Yeah," he replied flippantly, "It's called 'the scriptures.'" Annoyed, I responded as politely as I could, "Yeah. Which ones?" He laughed at his 'joke', and didn't answer my question. He didn't even attempt to answer my question with any degree of seriousness. I was livid.
The lesson went on, and he continued to teach without ever turning to the scriptures. As the class wore on I nearly walked out a number of times just because of his inane and incorrect teachings. Near the end of class he asked if the Church has an official stance on Evolution. There were a few murmurs of 'yeses' and 'noes,' and I just knew he was going to say something totally wrong. The Church's official stance is 'we have no official stance.' Which I proclaimed loudly from the back row. "No," he said, and proceeded to quote from a declaration from the First Presidency given in 1909 in response to Darwin's On the Origin of Species. What it boils down to is this: The Church says we were made "in the image of God." Fair. But to rule out all evolution based on that? I don't think so. I mean, we are evolving that is without dispute!
I barely made it through the class without walking out. I can't believe that he has been allowed to teach for more than two years. I'm very much tempted to go next week, record his "lesson" and quote heavily from it in a letter to CES to get someone to address his lack of teaching skills. I wonder if it'll work?
posted by granola girl at 10:15 pm
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