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A forum for discussing matters of moment, from a curmudgeonly perspective. (The ideas posted here do not necessarily represent those of any organization with which I am a part). Rude and insulting remarks will not be published, but civil disagreement is welcome.
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- Two Public Behaviors
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- "Feminism Goes to Seed" by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis
- Modesty, Humility, and Ann Coulter--by Rebecca Mer...
- A Paucity of Categories
- Media Technologies and Christian Discernment
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About Me
- Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D.
- Nothing on this blog represents the position of Denver Seminary. I am a Christian, philosopher, teacher, writer, and preacher, who is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. My most recent of my twelve books is Philosophy in Seven Sentences. My magnum opus is Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2011). I have published ten others, including Truth Decay and On Jesus. I direct the Christian Apologetics and Ethics MA program at Denver Seminary.
9 comments:
I'm with you guys here. Americans often have trouble distinguishing freedom from license. Modesty is not culturally relative any more than justice is culturally relative. A culture may have ideas of modesty, but they must be held up to Modesty itself.
LOL - thanks Rebecca!
Surely, there are more categories.
But if Coulter was not immodest in her outfit on the bookcover, then why should she opt for any other "category"?
Of course, Dr. Groothuis will insist that she WAS immodest. He hasn't given good reason to think so, though.
It's not just a question of modesty. The rest of the problem is that her approach is self-defeating.
If you listen to her being interviewed, she is a quick, facile thinker with strongly held principles. What she is promoting and provoking, though, is not quick, principled thinking, it's just reaction.
The dress is part of it. On Leno (wearing the dress she wore for the book cover photo) she said, "I am not trying to attract attention to myself. If I were trying to attract attention I would grow my hair long and wear a sexy dress."
"What she is promoting and provoking, though, is not quick, principled thinking, it's just reaction."
Where do you get this from? Did you read the book? It's full of salient insights.
For goodness' sake, it contains like three chapters on science and Darwinism -- and they aren't just babbling discussions. They possess real content and refute real arguments coming from liberals.
It's unfair to mislabel Coulter's book with such comments.
Jesus hangs naked from the Cross and we're talking about Ann Coulter's attire?
Am I missing something here?
Mike,
Yes, you are missing something here -- probably lots of things. Start with the question of voluntary control over one's wardrobe and proceed from there.
When Coulter came and spoke at my campus recently, she wore a dress that came down barely far enough to cover her underwear. It was, frankly, somewhat embarrassing for me, as I had brought my 13 year old daughter to the event. Ann was funny, caustic, opinionated, and very fast on her feet. But her attire was definitely a distraction from the legitimate points she made.
Tom Wanchick,
I may have spoken a bit carelessly when I said "what she's promoting is . . . just reaction." I'm sure her book actually is full of salient insights, as you said. That's why I used the term "self-defeating" to describe the effect. I know she can be and is a very good thinker, yet she uses techniques--including the LBD we're writing about here--that promote reaction rather than thought. This undermines what would have thought to be her purpose, which is promoting good thinking. (And selling books--at least she's accomplishing that.)
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