Living Inside the Bible (Belt)

8/14/2019 Living Inside the Bible (Belt)

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Living inside the Bible (Belt):teaching, preaching, and practice

In her article Living Inside the Bible (Belt) Dr. Shannon Carter candidly as-

sesses her own limits of tolerance for traditional conservatism through which

evangelical Christianity resonates seems to embrace familiarity above all else,representing difference not as a benefit to embrace and learn from but as a threat

to overcome (572). While other academicians have argued to incorporate stu-

dents faith into the rhetorical situation and offset it by creating and using tension

as a means to critically analyze the way their faith can connects with other dis-

courses, Carter suggests using rhetorical dexterity, an approach that trains writ-

ers to effectively read, understand, manipulate, and negotiate the cultural and lin-

guistic codes of a new community of practice (Lave and Wenger) based on a rela-

tively accurate assessment of another, more familiar one (574). Although the

academy can be hostile to persons

of faith and persons of faith can

be hostile to the academy, Carter

argues that rhetorical dexterity

may reconcile the one with the

other instead of requiring stu-

dents to replace their faith with

the ideology of the academy and

thus avoid the pitfall of a defen-

sive rather than reflective dis-

course. Practi- cally speaking,

Carter not only argues for this in

her article but practices rhetoricaldexterity by ex- ample in her

pedagogy as evidenced in

her students writings. Car-

ters students are clearly com-

fortable with ex- pressing and

critically analyz- ing their faith.

By providing these stu-

dents this kind of non-

combative and non-hostile en-

vironment, they can engage more readily in the discourse and avoid such nega-

tive situations as Carter articulates from one of her students experiences in an-

other classroom:

Once I turned in a paper in which I used Biblical passages as an argument. I

failed. After meeting with the teacher, I got the feeling that the reason I failed came

directly from my choice to quote the Bible. I did nothing but remove the quotes

and my paper received an A. Even in a personal opinion paper, I was not allowed

to use evidence that appealed to me. I am outraged by this incident to this day.

This is quite a different situation to the rhetorically dexterous one that Carter

fosters:


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One-Page Analysis: Up until now, I have conducted eight interviews and acquired

more than six sets of fieldnotes, all from CSO meetings and Bible studies, or field-

notes on the interviews. I have one last interview scheduled for Monday, Novem-ber 30, 2009. With the culmination of this interview, I think I will have enough in-

formation to draw some striking conclusions. Some recurring themes that I have

already picked out include the misconceptions about the Catholic faith from a

non-Catholic and Catholic point of view. The source of faulty information seems to

come from uneducated Catholics. Catholics are the ones presenting the faith to

other denominations. If Catholics are uneducated and present their faith incor-

rectly, they are giving false impressions to other people that judge our religion.

People may not want to become a part of Catholicism because they have seen how Catholics act and dont want to be a

part of that activity, when in fact, that isnt what Catholicism

is about at all. huge theme that I see over and over again

is the need for entertainment. This stems mostly from non-

Catholic people, but even one Catholic I interviewed found

the mass boring.... Interviewing these people was very

fun because for thirty minutes to two hours I got to get in

their world and mindset. Diversity is everywhere, and I

think my project shows a wide range of religious diversity. I

interviewed Father George, and that was very interesting.

The parish of St. Joes is old and the origin fascinated me.

It started when a railroad came through Commerce, then

known as Cowhill. Once the population started to develop,

one of the families that came here for the railroad decidedthe town needed to have mass, and so the mother opened

her home for masses. A priest would come in from other

towns, and a small community of people would gather in

this home. The masses would grow and then subside, de-

pending on what was going on with the town. In 1955, a

building was set up on Cooper and Monroe as the Catholic

church. It became a parish with a full-time pastor in 1979,

and new renovations have just been completed for the

new circular structure. I thought this history was interest-

ing. From a small home to a church, and still growing.

Next, I need to interview Dr. Joe Webber, campus minister

for St. Joes. I have this interview set up for Monday, November 30. I think he will give me the final insights I need to draw

strong conclusions. He is studying to become a deacon, so he is very wise in knowledge of the church. I am excited for

the results of this interview. I also need to code my entire research portfolio one last time before I sit down to make a first

draft. This will freshen my memory of all the information I have collected and help me to put my thoughts into words. Af-

ter the interview, I will begin to draw conclusions and find a way to present those in an orderly fashion for my final pro-

ject.


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Moreover, within this framework students can more readily identify the appropriateness of their faith-based opinions

and ideas within the rhetorical construct. Because we are concerned with practices that replicate the community, as

well as with the community as a whole, it is useful to examine evangelical Christianity as both a community and an activ-ity system. According to this theoretical framework...using the Bible as evidence for a personal opinion paper (as Alex

has) may be understood as unacceptable when evaluated by the communities of practice associated with the academy,

but as completely acceptable and even mandatory when evaluated by those associated with their faith (581). Carter

also addresses the problems that arise

when students posit arguments from an

evangelical perspec- tive within the acad-

emy. While I accept a more liberal worldview

as ultimately more conducive to values

like pluralism and equality, it is important

to examine the ways in which a more conser-

vative, faith-based worldview may, in fact,

coexist with the end- stages of cognitive

development as articu- lated via William

Perrys model: relativism and commitment (583). By acknowledging appropriateness and literacies based upon the

situation, social or rhetorical, we can deter potential conflicts from escalating and inhibiting the affective filter in the

classroom. Additionally, as Carter states, By treating academic literacies as a dynamic sign system and academic dis-

course as an experience in overlapping communities of practice, I might have taught James to develop the flexibility and

awareness he needed to negotiate

the increasingly complex literacy

contexts he might encounter

throughout his college career,without sacrific- ing that primary

sense of self- hood he derived

from his Bible (588). Teaching

students to thor- oughly explore

context and evaluate their

own ethnocentric backgrounds can

help them to ar- ticulate their

viewpoint to the reader who may

or may not have the same literacy

history. Finally, through the prac-

tice of negotiat- ing the multiple,

rapidly changing literacies stu-

dents develop a deeper understand-

ing of the way literacy lives in a particular contextamong the people who reproduce themselves through a particular

set of literate practices (time-based, situation-based, agent-based) (592). By moving into the written and communica-

tive practice of rhetorical dexterity students are able to approach different literacy practices from a position that neither

judges those practices nor engages in them but rather observes and seeks to understand those practices for what they

are and may prepare them for other studies, perhaps even a study in ethnography.

Documents

Living Inside the Bible (Belt)