As if I needed another Dunning Kruger case to make me question the value of my Utah State diploma, in waltzes (in the Spring 2022 edition of Utah State Magazine) Bliss W. Tew, Class of '78 (majoring in gods know what, probably remedial bugger eating) bitching about USU trying to increase diversity and wondering (Tucker says, "People are asking!") if there isn't a conspiracy because Why Be You (which he apparently also has some abomination of a degree from) is doing something similar, and concluding it must all be the result of Critical Race Theory (even though he knows no more about CRT than any other shrieking, fascist broflake).
Tew is a climate change denier. And an anti-vaxxer. And an ammosexual. And on top of that, he's a John Bircher, which means he's a fascist and a racist (Since my father has been a Bircher for over a half-century, I have some knowledge of the topic.). So his opinion can't be considered surprising. But it is disappointing he's walking around with a degree from an institution one of my degrees is from. And it's even more disappointing that institution platforms mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers whose primary goal is the destruction of American education and democracy.
Then there is the news I got last week. I attend the Episcopal Church, but I was confirmed Presbyterian (as in what is now Presbyterian Church (USA)) and I keep track of what is going on over there. A few years ago they revised the Canons to amend the definition of marriage from "the union of a man and a woman" to "the union of two people", basically green-lighting same-sex marriage. In spite of that I am in no way considering returning for the simple reason the PC(USA) seems to be doing a shitty job of policing the Canons. For example even in a liberal place like Seattle, University Presbyterian is apparently allowed to have only a limited and questionable adherence to same-sex marriage (It apparently has only a limited and questionable adherence to prima scriptura over sola scriptura as well, but I'll leave that for another day.).
Reich Wingers have been fleeing the PC(USA) for decades, the biggest schism being when the Presbyterian Church in America split to become a major player in the Reformed, Religio-Fascist TULIP Patch. About 10 years ago another group split over LGBTQ+ rights and formed the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO, since renamed Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians but retaining the acronym because why not, I guess). I guess I have to give these folks some credit for packing their bigotry off elsewhere rather than being crypto-bigots in a denomination they shouldn't be in.
Anyway, I learned last week an old friend jumped that fence. He was a classmate at Michigan Law, nice guy, Grateful Dead/Rolling Stones fanatic, very liberal. Practiced law here and then in Seattle, and then a few years ago dumped that and went to seminary, becoming a Presbyterian minister. Came back here and was assistant pastor at First Presbyterian. Then earlier this year PC(USA) released him, and he went over to ECO. Makes me wonder just what he was preaching at First Pres since he'd already bought ECO theology while he was there. It also makes me wonder if my alma maters were actually engaged in education or just in the planting of philosophical time bombs. Or perhaps they were just miserably inept at identifying and defusing the time bombs that were already there. While not bothering to do much education either.
