JeffreySalmon

Cuse Athletics. Furman, Northern Illinois, Catholic U grad.

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

A good read on AI and free speech. Thanks Ellison. https://t.co/nHQ0Ii89nn

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Last week I discussed 5 ways the FFSA benefits Furman. Then the FIRE survey comes out and proves my point. #1 and 4. Where is our thank you note? https://t.co/SP4gbjzEy0

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Here’s my take on how universities benefit from independent alumni groups dedicated to free expression. Alumni need to organize. https://t.co/0VEjPQYEyM

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Word has just come down that St. Paul’s Cathedral in London—the second most important church in the Anglican world—has imitated Canterbury Cathedral in permitting “raves,” nightclub-like entertainments, to take place in its confines.

The usual reasons for acquiescing to this have been trotted out: reaching out to the young, trying to get with the times, etc. But this development simply shows that the leadership of the Church of England has lost any sense of the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular.

Across the centuries and across the cultures, our ancestors seem to have intuitively grasped the importance of this demarcation. Whereas the secular is the arena of ordinary experience and activity, the sacred is another realm, a different dimension.

Accordingly, in the properly sacred space, one is lifted out of the conventional and introduced into the numinous. This is why Christian cathedrals are filled with images of the saints and angels and why their interiors are meant first to disorient us and then to reorient us toward the divine.

It is also why, in the initiation rituals of primal peoples, a young person is purposely ripped out of the ordinary and introduced into the mythic and mystic dimension. And it is why, throughout the Bible, sacred spaces are carefully set apart from common spaces.

The contemporary West is, quite literally, the first culture in human history that is in danger of collapsing the sacred into the secular, or better, losing any sense of the difference between the two.

This is doing enormous damage, especially to young people, whose lives have been flattened into a preoccupation with money, worldly success, and material things.

The Church indeed should go out into the secular space to find those who have wandered away from God, but it should then lead those wanderers back to the holy.

Having “raves” in the nave of one of the most sacred spaces in the Christian world is, I’m sad to say, another sign of our pitiful surrender to ideological secularism.

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Good Question!! https://t.co/uyQgxYLR6k

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Let’s hope the Furman faculty is listening. https://t.co/l8z3iImSni

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Along with many others, I was appalled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s giggling dismissal of “Woke 1” as “crazy.”

In case you’ve forgotten, she herself was one of the most passionate advocates of de-funding the police, tearing down statues of American heroes, establishing racial quotas, dividing the country between oppressors and oppressed, etc.

I quite agree that these policy recommendations and policies were “crazy,” but she has to own up to endorsing them.

More to the point, Woke 1 was not only misguided; it was cruel.

One of the bitterest fruits of Wokeism was the cancel culture that resulted in armies of people losing jobs, reputations, and careers because they didn’t correspond to the reigning orthodoxy.

I happen to know several people whose lives were devastated by Woke crusaders.

But now it’s just “ha-ha, wasn’t that crazy.” No, it was brutal and inhumane.

[Robert P. George @McCormickProf]

I'm delighted to report that Bradford P. Wilson has been confirmed by the United States Senate as the 12th Archivist of the United States. Dr. Wilson formerly served as Executive Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Read my latest letter to President Davis https://t.co/xMaUvpzaY9

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Thank you ACTA for this superb article. https://t.co/CzMiXWlQUs

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Interesting take from a current student. https://t.co/KqCQjYJtnu

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Would Furman do this? https://t.co/bLOmGF0hi4

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

We plan serious coverage of this presidential search. https://t.co/O3ePoYTqcl

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Like many others, I have been alarmed by the success of certain politicians in our country who identify as extreme socialists or communists.

This is not a matter of classical liberals triumphing over standard-issue conservatives; this is the victory of people who stand athwart the fundamental principles that undergird our country.

There are many reasons why I detest Communism, but I want to draw attention to just one issue of supreme importance.

Karl Marx said that the first critique is the critique of religion. He meant that, before a complete re-working of the politics and economics of a society can take place, religion has to be taken down.

This is because religion, as he saw it, is the “opium of the masses,” a drug taken to dull our sensitivity to the suffering caused by economic exploitation. As long as the suffering populace is lured into complacency by fantasies about God's providence and the promise of eternal life, they will never rise up and throw off their chains.

But there is a second reason why the elimination of religion is of paramount significance for Marx.

Communism aspires to be a totalizing system, involving the government's control over education, entertainment, communication, politics, and especially economics.

What stands resolutely athwart this ambition is religion, which declares that all of these societal expressions are finally under the judgment of God. So, if you want Communism to succeed, religion has to be stamped out.

If you doubt me on any of this, I would encourage you to read the recent histories of China, Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Venezuela. Revisit those histories and tell me I'm wrong about the attack on religion.

Might I encourage my fellow believers in God not to be complacent in the face of this very troubling development in the American body politic?

[Mike Waters @MikeWatersSYR]

While the Syracuse men's basketball team will play an exhibition vs. UConn at Mohegan Sun on Oct. 13, the women's teams from both schools will play an exhibition on Oct. 12.

[William Schambra @WilliamSchambra]

We’ve lost a champion of grassroots democracy and a great man.

The Woodson Center Mourns the Passing of Founder and President Robert L. Woodson, Sr. - Woodson Center https://t.co/enpR7cUqpt

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Please check out my latest letter to the Furman President. https://t.co/41h5GH4HtW

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Some possible good news https://t.co/fXXjf237QJ

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

https://t.co/piJfsZQTyA

[JeffreySalmon @JeffreyTSalmon]

Read my latest thoughts on viewpoint diversity. https://t.co/6gixohKyJp