(Story Update) Death Threats for ‘Stomp on Jesus’ Professor

[The Straight Story]

Death Threats for ‘Stomp on Jesus’ Professor


The Florida professor who offended millions by allegedly making students “stomp” on a piece of paper with the word Jesus on it has broken his silence.

No doubt he’s got plenty of time for interviews now that, after a deluge of death threats, his university has decided to place him on leave.

The mid-March kerfuffle at Florida Atlantic University happened when the instructor, Dr. Deandre Poole, who taught an intercultural communications class, asked his students to write the word Jesus on a sheet of paper and then step on it. One Mormon student refused and was suspended by the university. Soon, outside protests came pouring in, including a scathing letter from Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott. The school then apologized for both the disciplinary action and the professor’s exercise.

So far, we’ve had little but the student’s version of events to go on, but now Poole (photo) has told his side of the story to Inside Higher Ed.

And what do we learn?

• Far from being a Jesus-mocking heathen, Poole is a lifelong church-going Christian and former Sunday-school teacher who describes himself as “very religious.”

• The student exercise, Poole says, involved stepping (not “stomping,” as Fox News and others alleged) on the sheet of paper.

• The exercise was meant to demonstrate that some students would feel inhibited about stepping on something that 15 seconds earlier had been a random, insignificant piece of paper. This would give everyone an opening to discuss symbols and their meaning.

• Poole says it made no difference to him whether the students stepped on the paper or not. Most didn’t, and that was fine, he explains, as their discomfort was intended precisely to jumpstart the discussion.

http://moralcompassblog.com/2013/04/02/step-on-jesus-prof-on-leave-after-death-threats/

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Poor guy. The religious crazies can't understand that lesson.

[alp227]

6. Here's a tough question: What would Jesus do to Dr. Poole?

Speaking as an secular humanist, I think the politicization of religion by the Moral Majority and the Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson types REALLY poisoned religion in this country. Would Jesus REALLY threaten those who simply wrote his name on paper and damaged the paper?

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Why did the Univ. suspend the Mormon student

if this was just a teaching exercise and the Prof. did not care if they stepped on the paper?

[dpibel]

3. Follow the link!

It's in the story.

[Capt. Obvious]

4. he threatened the teacher

[Capt. Obvious]

5. Waiting patiently for the first fatwa envy to show up

[deutsey]

7. I like Bill Hicks' response to angry "Christians" who threatened him

over what Hicks said about Jesus during one of his shows:

"I actually did that act one night in the south. Then, after the show, these three rednecks came up to me. 'Hey, buddy! We're Christians and we didn't like what you said.' I said, 'Then forgive me.' "