“So in a sense, his “free speech” was violated in the overly broad definition used by some posters here.”
No one on this thread uses this absurd definition of free speech. He’s free to say what he wants, and the congregation is free to let him go.
@Cobrat While I would agree there are effective and ineffective ways to communicate, I don’t think it is a Pastor’s job to stay away from “touchy/sensitive” topics. Quite the opposite. I would imagine this applies to leaders in other faiths as well.The Bible is filled with pages and pages dealing with quite difficult and challenging topics. In fact, I appreciate when a sermon challenges me to look at my own life in ways maybe I don’t always want to. I know I certainly struggle at times with forgiving and I have never had to deal with the types of atrocities you mentioned. But I still need to hear it.
Trying to circle back to the main theme here. It seems to me we are becoming increasingly unable as a society to have civil and constructive discussions about the touchy and sensitive topics we face. That should concern all of us.
So in other words, these AA advocates don’t understand causation and are not very bright,
The Chinese dry cleaner I go to has somewhat poor English, but I learned that her husband came over first, bought the business, and saved for two years until he could afford to bring the rest of the family over. Their son came over knowing no English, but he recently graduated from Harvard.
Apparently the lack of generational wealth did not stop them, nor did the lack of English. Just hard work, in a two parent family that values education. Variations of this story exist for immigrants since the country was founded.
So, why are they able to succeed?
The act of immigration itself selects for people of high motivation.
…and had some resources, too.
Of course, but for immigrants from non English speaking countries, there are immense challenges even after arrival. I think you would be hard pressed to say they have it easier than people who were born here and speak fluent English.
Very proud of the students.
I’d say the challenges are different.
no no do not blame this on the “soft majors”, many of whom will graduate to be the professors to teach your kids. Anyone who thinks being a philosophy or anthropology etc major is easy clearly knows nothing about the discipline. Are you really gonna look at the Princeton/ other Ivy english professors in the eyes and tell them that they teach “soft majors”??? not likely. Just because you don’t have the capacity to realize the value of the humanities does not mean that they are “soft” options. Its super cool that you are proud of your daughter or whatever but your post is devoid of any substance. Honestly, we wouldn’t even have these protest problems if more kids were taught classes in social discourse. We need the humanities now more than ever.
Ours is a nation born of immigrants from all walks of life. Each has had to forge their way through adversity to access the great hope which is America. No other group has been given multigenerational hands up. Get over it and start making your opportunities instead of being victims or go back to what you were taken from. Mistakes were made in the past but so they have been in every nation back through thousands of years. Humanity continues to evolve. The good news is the blind are now enlightened-so get over being victims. Nothing like AA has been offered before.and shouldn’t be in place forever. Erasing the past won’t change it.
Traffic jams are racist, I want them gone. The world owes me a police escort to my every destination.
It was uncomfortably cold today, the Earth is racist.
Some of my food went bad in the refrigerator. racism, other races’ foods last twice as long.
Really? You don’t have privilege because some people won’t take your opinions about race as seriously because you are white? For someone who is always complaining about “STEM uber alles”, you seem to have to have a hard time understanding the concept of privilege.
Your posts remind me of another true story:
Some time ago, a couple of coworkers together with a couple of ex-employees (we have had a lot of ex-employees in the past few years – the previous CEO almost ran the company to the ground before he took a golden parachute – a very common scene in the business world here) organized a “let’s get together” lunch. One coworker somehow invited his sister (who works for another nearby company) to the same lunch together. He is her elder brother.
Strange as it is, they do not share the same language other than the English. I was told by the sister (who happened to sit next to me) that quote some time ago, their family had the financial resources to send only one of their family members to the US and they decided to send the elder brother first (the elder brother was still quite young at that time, I guess.) According to the young sister (who may be in her late 20s), it was only after the elder brother settled down and saved enough money that he could support his younger sister to join him (maybe as an international student first) here. The siblings seem to be very close to each other, even though they really did not grow up together. During the lunch, they sat next to each other. It was somewhat funny that the elder brother would keep putting food on his sister’s plate without telling her he would do so first but the sister would not mind at all. At one time, the sister teased her brother about his poor language skill, when somebody said something about “freeway” in the language she knew but he was totally lost. It was an interesting sibling relationship – not growing up together at all (according to what the sister told me) but still close to each other. It seems their “family” in the US consists of just these two family members, both unmarried yet.
“Apparently the lack of generational wealth did not stop them, nor did the lack of English. Just hard work, in a two parent family that values education. Variations of this story exist for immigrants since the country was founded.”
Well finally someone says the magic word “2 parent family”. In all the brain straining huffing and puffing that goes on here a nugget of truth emerges.
Blame everything except the breakdown of the basics, the 2 parent family.
And your lovely “war on poverty programs” LBJ.
That’s an achievement you sentimental “protestors of the 60’s” who so admire the youth protests of today have a direct hand in causing.
Be proud. You’ve won that pesky culture war and a huge chunk of you are still at it teaching in higher ed !
We all know that data on successful outcomes for children raised in a single parent home is so INSPIRING !
The horrifying rate of single parent homes in the black community is being emulated by the white community now. Looking at the marriage rate of young people as its been trending and the delay in the age of child rearing we can’t be surprised that in a generation your precious IVY league schools will be 90 percent foreign students. hahaha
At long last equality… 
Not necessarily. The value of a dry cleaning business on leased premises is frequently not much more than the value of the equipment, and he could have purchased the operations and equipment on a pay as you go scheme which paying rent for the real estate. People who emigrate to this country aren’t restricted by the economic box that many Americans put themselves into.
And the act of being dependent on government selects for people with low motivation.
Truth.
It is not the fault of the whites that there are single parent black households.
An issue is that too few African Americans have “good” jobs that are held by the top 40% of the whites. I do not claim that this is the fault of the whites but just point out the fact.
Forget about the theory of “the pie could get bigger” first. Say, there are a fixed number of good jobs and the African Americans do not have access to any of these good jobs. How can we resolve this problem – if this is indeed a problem at all.
The access is there to whomever makes the effort to become qualified.