Calvin College Is Still Wrong

The one thing I’ve learned from this: not to go to Calvin. I mean, really, a town that has been this annihilated by porn…is obviously a town of completely sick and demented individuals.
:p

They can’t allow The Murder Junkies to play there either.

So in the 60s a public intellectual can write an essay titled “The pornographic imagination” and everything’s fine, but 50 years later a band can’t play because it has the P word in his name. Nice.

We have a band in Spain called “The Verse Rapists”. I guess they wouldn’t find it hard to get contracts in every Catholic school in the country.

I am wondering if the usual prohibitions and inhibitions about most everything relating to sex that is common within Calvinist and many Xtian groups would tend to make “porn-related emotional damage” more extreme or traumatic in this group’s perceptions?

Does seem a weird decision.

Members of the Calvin community have been deeply hurt by beetles, which have devastated both trees and vegetable crops…

The only reason “porn addiction” seems like such a terrible thing is because of the rigid, inflexible traditional view of marriage and sexuality: You are married to me, therefore, you will only have sexual desires for me. Just another example of how religion hinders humanity, here shutting down a good portion of human sexuality.

People manage all the time to be in committed, loving, sexually healthy relationships, even when one or more members look at porn. Sometimes, watching porn together can spice up a sex life. Only when that sexual activity crashes into traditional ideas of sex and marriage, when one partner gets jealous of the other for having desire for a third party, is it a problem.

I dunno. I mean, I guess there could be some people who build up unrealistic expectations because of porn and suffer for it, but I really don’t think it’s pornography that leads to broken marriages or divorces. I think the problem is deeper– jealousy, a warped view of human sexuality, unreasonable expectations– and blaming porn for it is just convenient.

Come on, this is a COLLEGE. You know, attended by young adults who should be able to make their own value judgments through critical eval…

Oh, wait. This is a Christian school engaging in turning out another generation of intellectual veal: soft, tender, easy to kill, and a taste treat for predators.

@Jeff:

The hypocrisy goes beyond that when you have slime like former Gov. Mark Sanford dipping his wick in his Argentinian mistress, blaming his wife for the ‘lack of desire,’ and then trying to make himself out as being the same as King David.

Oh come now people, why so negative?
We all know it is better to deny reality, than to face it.
Isn’t that the christian mantra;
“Deny the problem and it will go away.”

Hmm, they sure seem to like Canadian bands with strange names.

If I saw this as an article printed in The Onion, I swear I’d think it was “legitimate” farce.

In a very real sense, it is impossible to caricature this sort of stupidity.

@Richard P:

Isn’t that the christian mantra;
“Deny the problem and it will go away.”

Actually, it seems you are instead referring the atheist’s mantra. The Christian ‘hymn of hope’ is to acknowledge the problem (namely our sin) and accept the solution…which is Christ’s substitutionary atonement for said sin. Then instead of living in denial, we can live with hope.

It’s quite refreshing, really.

Jason

God Dethroned should play there. Hmm, maybe it wouldn’t be their thing.

How about Bad Religion?

Yes, for a magical non-existent problem (sin) a magical non-existent solution (Jesus).

Considering atheists tend to face reality readily, warts and all, and insist on finding real solutions to actual problems, while refusing to plaster smiley-faces over inconvenient or unpleasant truths or wallow in the mud of comforting illusion, I’d say that atheism’s mantra would be the farthest possible thing from “deny the problem and it will go away”. That would be christians every time. Screw therapy or social programs or even sitting down and laying out all your resources and trying to pinpoint your actual trouble and create a plan to fix it–no, it’s always because of sin, and jebus is always the only cure! Believe in the Ultimate Human Sacrifice, and magic will happen to fix you!

Of course, magical non-existent problems supported entirely by the wishful thinking and assertions of other people are not problems at all, and therefore do not require solutions.

It’s as if I’m having trouble with finding a job and instead of helping me confront the actual reasons I might be having trouble and then fix them, you tell me “well, you’re house is obviously infested with leprechauns, and everyone knows that leprechauns love to ruin people’s lives”. And then tell me I’m “denying the problem” because I need more than your assertion of leprechaun infestation and I refuse to start leaving out a dish of Irish whiskey while singing a bawdy Irish song of Faerun glory to the leprechauns every night to appease them.

If only I could understand that all my problems are caused by leprechaun infestation and would commit myself to whisky-and-song appeasement, all my troubles would go away.

Uh… what the hell. Porn “addiction”? People “harmed” by porn?

It’s only harmful if you make it harmful, by hiding it and sneaking around like it’s something bad.

And can someone please explain what the deal is with Christians and the whole, “SEX IS EVIL” thing?

@Bob:

“Oh, wait. This is a Christian school engaging in turning out another generation of intellectual veal: soft, tender, easy to kill, and a taste treat for predators.”

That’s hardly true. While I don’t agree with my alma mater’s decision in this instance, believing it to be inhospitable and short-sighted, Calvin does a remarkable job of encouraging thoughtful engagement with artists and thoughtful decisions about sex and culture.

It’s foolish to let a single (admittedly stupid) decision shape one’s hasty slurs about 4,000 students, 300 faculty, and an entire community.

Crash Test Dummies are pretty well known for their Christian outlook. Album called “God Shuffled his Feet”; album art often done in the mode of the old masters who depicted biblical scenes; lyrics sometimes which have allusions to biblical stuff (Peter Pumpkinhead comes to mind). Not surprised there.

Crash Test Dummies are pretty well known for making terrible music.

Woohoo Grand Rapids!!! Always appreciate when my hometown gets in the national news, especially when it involves uptight Christian Reformists!!!

Side note, I will probably go to their Orbit Room concert now. Wouldn’t have went to Calvin though.

@AJW

I have tried to stop looking at it for years and I haven’t found a good way that works.

In other words, you’ve gotten so used to visual stimulation while masturbating that you find it difficult to maintain sufficient arousal without it? Or is it more like a drug addict, where you just need to see porn at some regular interval regardless of whether or not it’s to assist in masturbation? I ask for this distinction because I’d only really label the latter a matter of addiction – the former seems a far more complex situation than “porn did this”, and other factors may be involved (perhaps as you’ve aged your normal levels of arousal have gone down, and more stimulation is required than just what you can imagine – though this line of thought raises the question of whether imagining sex is really any different qualitatively from watching sex).

Also, I’ve had relational issues with women since I began looking at it.

Yes, but is the problem here that watching porn is making it difficult for you to find women you know sexually attractive (for short or long periods of time), or is the problem here that the women you are attempting to date have negative conceptions of porn and are negatively judging your use of it? The former is porn causing you a problem, the latter is the women causing the problem.

Wow, for a “friendly” site, everyone sure is angry! I don’t see what’s wrong with a religious school acting on their beliefs. Remember, they’re not imposing it on anyone except themselves.

On a side note, I’ve found that Catholics have one of the most interesting and “liberated” views on sex that I’ve ever seen. Check out Theology of the Body. Hardly repressive! Porn is viewed negatively not just because of what the people watching it do, but even more because the people in the videos are real people who are being treated as objects and sold as a commodity. There is no real human love between viewer and viewed. The people in the videos (men, women, and even children) are treated not as human beings, but as something to be bought and used up. Hardly a healthy concept.

@AJW I believe you and would suggest that you try learning more about the beauty of sexuality instead of trying to will yourself out of your attraction to pornography. I don’t think you will be able to will yourself out of it. You will need to have something more beautiful and more attractive to replace it. Only the “truth will set you free,” so I would suggest checking out a beginner’s guide to Theology of the Body (by Christopher West perhaps). Good luck and hang in there. You’re worth it.

Wow, simply disagree with what a Christian says, and suddenly you’re “angry”! Only outright accomodationism will suffice at minimum to not be considered “angry”. Project much?

Guess what? Telling us “the school has a right” has absolutely no meaning here, because the fact that they have the right to do that does not preclude the right we have to disagree vocally about it. How does it make us “angry” to simply exercise our rights to disagree, while the school is not “ignorant” but is just exercising its rights? Why not go all the way and invoke a Palinism and declare that we’re infringing on the school’s rights by criticizing their decision, as if the First Amendment means any overchristianized nutjob who says or does anything must be shielded from any and all negative commentary and everyone must smile and agree?

Get this straight: The school has a right to make an insanely ignorant decision. And we have the right to say it’s an insanely ignorant decision. Just because someone is exercising a right doesn’t mean they have a right to be protected from negative opinion. And just because someone is exercising a right doesn’t mean everyone else needs to shut up and like it. And helpfully reminding us that “the school has a right” will not end the conversation on the subject.

There is no real anger here. Only indignation and amazement that someone could have such tender feelings over a simple word in a band’s name, all by itself, that they would cancel a great concert. And even if there is anger, it is fully justified, considering an institute of professed higher learning feels the need to censor to protect the students and community from the horrors of hearing a word found commonly in any dictionary.

Anger is not a bad thing in and of itself. As Greta Christina said in her brilliant essay, it’s the lynchpin of all advances of social change and civil rights. Without anger, women would have no right to vote and would still be owned by their husbands and barred from higher education and real careers as a matter of course. Without anger, black people would still be property, or considered to be 3/4 of a full human being. It is perfectly okay to get angry when there is something to be legitimately angry about.

To be angry that a college would censor a musical group’s performance over their name is perfectly legitimate anger. A college is supposed to be the place where people grow up and stop demanding that the world cater to their feelings and beliefs, and where people are supposed to learn about the world in all its greatness and diversity and face all of it unflinchingly–or at least, learn to cope with the fact that you are not the measure of all things. Colleges are, in many ways, the last bastion of higher learning and fearlessly free thinking. For a college to do this kind of thing suggests they are more interested in converting themselves into babysitting services and indoctrination mills instead.

On the other hand, the anger of community members over the use of a particular word is not legitimate anger. It’s a bunch of children making petulant demands that other people cater to their feelings and beliefs in every possible way. Much like JulietEcho’s example above of her grandfather throwing a temper tantrum because the church mentioned the word ‘wine’ in a newsletter, even though it was just in the name of a salad dressing. He demanded that the church not mention the name of a salad dressing in order to cater to his feelings of hatred toward alcohol. He demanded that others must tailor their very words to suit his personal beliefs and feelings, as if he were the very measure of all things, around which all things must spin.

What the school just did is equally as absurd, protecting people from a word because some might experience hurt feelings when they hear it.

I’m a current Calvin student who just lost my Christian Reformed faith a few months ago. I’m planning on transferring for many reasons but now also because I can’t stand having to seem religious all the time anymore.

I know someone who is on the Student Activities Board and I can tell you that this “new” reason is them trying to cover their butts with BS. Basically, the director of Student Activities has been trying to get the New Pornographers to Calvin for about five years now. When their name went public on the schedule, some of the more uptight alumni freaked out and started sending angry letters. He tried to write back to them all to explain the innocence of the band’s name, and begged the board to let the band stay, but the board decided there were too many angry letters and that it was impossible to write back to everyone quickly enough, leading to the original explanation, “It’s impossible to explain the irony of the band’s name to everyone.” This new reason about people susceptible to porn is totally tacked on.

Most of the students I’m friends with were really ticked off. This had nothing to do with what we wanted or even what many among the lower administration wanted, like the guy who got them booked in the first place, who nearly cried when the school board forced him to cancel. We lost a ton of money on it too. And made international news because they’re a Canadian band.

Calvin is dealing with a LOT of controversy recently… Out of all the evangelical Christian schools, it’s definitely the most liberal, but it’s gotten WAY more conservative relative to the rest of the world since my parents’ generation went here. I will miss a lot of my friends here but otherwise I can’t wait to transfer.