“From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My Name will be great among the Gentiles,” says Yahweh Sabaoth.
(Malachi 1: 11)
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A Proud “Liberal Progressive”
I was a professor at the University of Virginia for 25 years. I lived in a cloistered “liberal progressive” environment and breathed the rarified air that “liberal progressives” call their own. Today, I’m a chaired professor emeritus at UVA. That’s not just an honorary title.
I joined the UVA faculty in the fall of 1979. Three years later in the fall of 1982, I was an associate professor with tenure. In the fall of 1987, I was a full professor. In the fall of 1992, I was a chaired professor. That was 12 years before I retired.
In other words, the academic rank “chaired professor” was not an honorary title bestowed on me at retirement. I was one of the highest-ranking professors at UVA for almost half of my career. I’m telling you this, because it will help you to appreciate what I have to say.
In August 1979 when I arrived in Charlottesville, I had a proud “liberal progressive” colleague who was being considered for promotion to associate professor with tenure. He was promoted and tenured that year.
He taught organizational behavior. He saw himself as superior in every way. His Ph.D. was from UCLA. He thought that set him apart. He had a bad habit of spewing out platitudes as though they were pearls of wisdom. Many times, he told me that he was a “humanist”.
Humanism is “an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.”
In the fall of 1981, I was appointed assistant dean. In the fall of 1982, I was appointed associate dean and promoted to associate professor with tenure. My administrative responsibilities brought me into direct conflict with my “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague and revealed something about his true core values.
In the spring of 1983, a student in his senior year was diagnosed with cancer and had to spend many weeks in the hospital. He was able to do his academic work, but he had to do it from the confines of a hospital room. I talked with his professors and asked them to prepare plans for him to complete his degree requirements without attending class so that he could graduate with his class. With one exception, all of them were happy to help. The lone holdout was my “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague.
At UVA, graduation is a big deal. Graduating students march down the Lawn in procession. It’s a ceremony the likes of which most students have never seen. The only graduation exercises that compare with it are the ones you see at military academies like West Point. Denying a student the joy of participating in graduation with his class is regarded as a severe penalty. That’s what my “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague wanted to do to our student with cancer.
My “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague’s justification for withholding his support was that organizational behavior is experiential. In other words, the student had to be in class behaving in order to satisfy his requirements.
I appreciated my colleague’s argument, but our student was in the hospital being treated for an aggressive cancer. He wasn’t a slacker looking for a way to avoid his work. I explained to my colleague that there are exceptions and that we needed to find a way to help our student graduate with his class. My colleague’s response was an emphatic “NO!”
Nothing I could say would change his mind. He wouldn’t even consider options. But there was one thing I could do.
Part of my associate dean job was to present the graduating class to the faculty for a vote. At UVA, we actually voted on awarding degrees. Most of the time, it was simple and easy, because most of our students completed their work and met our requirements. There were exceptions. Our student with cancer was one of them.
I told my “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague that he had the authority to deny our student the right to graduate with his class, but that when I presented his case to the faculty, I would let my colleague explain his rationale to the faculty.
The look on my colleague’s face was sheer fright. He didn’t have a problem being obstinate with me in my office behind closed doors. In fact, he enjoyed it, but the thought of telling the whole faculty in public for the record what he was telling me in private off the record was more than he could bare. He relented and came up with a plan that solved the problem.
There is more to this story. As I explained, my colleague was promoted to associate professor and tenured the year I arrived at UVA. Three years later, we had the same academic rank; I was tenured; and I was part of the team running the school. He thought of himself as being superior to every faculty member in our school including me. He was acting out. He was showing me who was boss. He had the right to do that, but I had rights, too. When I explained my rights to him, he had a change of heart.
My proud, “liberal progressive”, humanist colleague with a UCLA Ph.D. remained an associate professor until shortly before I retired as a chaired professor. I’ll never forget the day when a new dean was appointed who wanted to do something for my colleague. By that time, I was the senior faculty member in my department, and our new dean came by to explain that my colleague was “writing a book”. If he completed it, our new dean thought that he should be promoted to full professor. The dean needed my support. If I said “no”, that would quash any hope for my colleague’s promotion.
I told the dean that I would support my colleague’s promotion if he completed the “book”. He did complete the “book” and was promoted. The “book” turned out to be a simple manual of no consequence, but the dean wanted to promote him anyway. I said, “Fine.”
Switching Gears
A Facebook friend posted this article: “The world’s largest king penguin colony has collapsed, losing nearly 90 per cent of its population”.
This is the first comment: “Sad and scary.”
This is my Facebook friend’s reply: “Yes, indeed. The indifference from our leaders to the plight of the natural world is appalling.”
That elicited this response: “POtuS’s idea of ‘nature’ is a golf course….”
This is my Facebook friend’s response: “no kidding.”
Then he added another response: “The best way to immobilize Trump would be to put him in a room full of mirrors….he never met one he didn’t like…. and a table with a tray full of Big Mac cheeseburgers. He would never leave.”
That provoked a response from another person: “Also a tv with only one channel…Fox ‘News’.”
According to the very short article with a no supporting detail, “The cause of the population collapse remains a mystery, with scientists speculating that climate fluctuations or disease could be to blame. In 1997, a particularly strong El Nino weather event pushed the fish and squid on which king penguins depend further south, beyond their foraging range.”
The article is about climate change and the possible effect it is having on the king penguin population. Climate change is real. The king penguin population is probably being affected by climate change, but how do you make the jump to President Trump as the culprit unless you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome?
Donald Trump has been president for 2 years. Climate change is a natural process that has been taking place since creation.
“Liberal progressives” like to point their fingers at man-made CO2 emissions as the cause of climate change despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. The most dramatic climate change periods in Earth’s history took place long before humans knew about the wheel, but “liberal progressives” can’t resist the temptation to blame President Trump for the “problem”. That’s lunacy.
Climate change is not a problem. It’s a fact. Humans didn’t create it, and humans can’t stop it. Either we adapt to climate change or we cease to exist.
Sea level is rising and threatening people who live in coastal areas. Sea level isn’t static. It changes constantly. Sea level 10,000 years ago was about 500 feet below sea level today. Did humans cause sea level to rise? No. Can humans stop sea level from rising? No.
If you build your home beside the ocean, you are taking a big risk. If you want to blame someone when the ocean creeps into your house, blame yourself.
“Liberal progressives” are beginning to weary me. They think they are superior intellects, but they are ridiculously foolish.
Switching Gears Slightly
I don’t expect this to resonate with “liberal progressives”, but most ordinary people will get it:
Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man. Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!” As He spoke to me the Spirit [the Spirit of Yahweh also known as the Holy Spirit] entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Adonai Yahweh.’ As for them, whether they listen or not—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house. But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.”
“Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it. When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe. (Ezekiel 1: 26 to Ezekiel 2: 10)
Ezekiel saw Yahweh, and according to Ezekiel, He had “the appearance of a man.” The Messiah is the human manifestation of Yahweh. Ezekiel saw Yahweh’s human form and spoke with Him.
Yahweh has appeared many times throughout history. Several of those appearances are recorded in the Tanach. See His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition.
Yahweh said to Ezekiel, “I am sending you to the sons of Israel.” The sons of Israel are the Children of Israel. They are not just Jewish people. Jews are descendants of Judah. Jacob/Israel had 12 sons. Judah was one of them. Ezekiel’s message was for all of Jacob’s/Israel’s descendants.
Humans are rebellious. Most humans see themselves as gods who are in control of right and wrong. Using the king penguin example, how can a sane person lament the decline in the king penguin population and blame President Trump for it while enthusiastically supporting a woman’s “right” to choose?
That so-called “right” has resulted in the cold-blooded, premeditated murder/execution of more than 60,000,000 unborn Americans without due process. It’s constitutionally and morally repugnant, but “liberal progressives” are willing to die for it, or at least I think they are.
The fact that people like me have to say this makes me angry. It’s blatantly obvious. A dimwit should know it without having to be told.
Then Came Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Thank Yahweh for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is a gift that keeps on giving. She is showing the American people just how stupid “liberal progressives” are, and she doesn’t have enough sense to know it.
No one can present AOC’s case better than she can. See “Ocasio-Cortez stands by concentration camp remarks: ‘I will never apologize’”.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
