FWIW, I have taught Humanities courses at the community college level, and am used to reading such papers. This is simply my reaction, based upon a quick perusal of the assignments and the student's submissions.
1) Mechanically, the papers are well done for the level of the course. (I would prefer APA, but old-fashioned footnotes are OK, especially if that is what the professor requires.) The rotgut writing that is generally turned in by community college students is nowhere evident here, and one thanks God--her professor would not, but I would--for small favors.
2) The professor's assignment is untenable. It is designed, not for critical thinking, but or uncritical regurgitation. He wants students to write what he wants them to think, not where their analysis of the information leads. That is despicable at the college level, and he deserves to be required to completely rewrite his course subject to department approval, not to please the Christian community, but to ensure a true objectivity in the course material presentation.
3) The student made a valiant attempt at wriggling around the confines of the assignments, in order to present a more objective analysis of the issues being considered in the assignments. She succeeds at wriggling, presenting her positions in ways that technically fulfill the assignment while in practice avoiding the professor's indoctrination, and for that she is to be commended.
4) Where she fails is as you point out: she has little (I wouldn't say none as you do, but little) understanding of the depth of Christian history and how it is intertwined with European history in the Christian era, c300-1800 AD. But that is not her fault--it is because of such ignorance that one becomes educated, so as to remove the ignorance.
It is precisely at this point that the professor is supposed to step in, and present the historical and cultural information as objectively as possible. In this regard, I would be willing to stipulate that the professor has every authority to present his/her beliefs, as long as s/he presents them as beliefs, is willing to provide evidence and reasoning for those beliefs, and to discuss other possible beliefs, also on the basis of evidence and reason. The PSC professor, however, eschews his responsibility, and replaces it with an indoctrination-by-force, leaving the student who wishes to find other information and/or interpretation on her own. It would be absurd to expect such a student to be able to figure out in a short period of time, while juggling a number of courses, arguments that would be the equal of those gained over a long period of time, such as would occur during the years of undergraduate and graduate study. But the professor has created a setup situation here, where it is much easier for the student to not think, to simply regurgitate, finish the course, and then spend the rest of his/her life convinced that cultural history is a bunch of Marxist crap made up by leftist nutcases, rather than the glory of humanity discovering the glory of divinity.
5) To call a 16-year-old evangelical an "anti-Catholic bigot" is a very strong assumption. What is much more likely is that--again--she has little understanding of the depth of Christian history. And I say that as a Lutheran, convinced that the medieval Western church hierarchy certainly had its cesspools of both theological and moral depravity, with God raising up prophetic voices both within and outside the church--not simply those who ended up as Protestants such as Luther and Calvin but many others--including, I might add, Julian of Norwich who was one of the subjects of the assignments. What this student needs is someone to sit with her, discuss the middle ages with her, point her to some of the primary as well as secondary sources so she could see that in the cultural glory of the middle ages can be found the glory of the same God who spoke through Aquinas and Francis, through Julian and Thomas a Kempis, and such historical threads as the step-by-step from Augustine to Luther who stirs up Ignatius to send Xavier around the world so that in Japan such men as Oda Yuraku and Takayama Ukon could bring Christ to the tea ceremony.
The PSC professor would have none of this. But I must see him, not as the Scourge of Satan, but as God sees him, as someone for whom Christ died and rose again. I cannot reach him, and neither can the 16yo, because he refuses to be reached--but God can reach him, as He reached into Saul, and Augustine, and Patrick, and Julian, and Joan, and John Newton and Franz Liszt and Ethel Waters and Dave Brubeck and Bob Dylan and Dave Mustaine, and as one untimely born, He reached into me. So in my prayers today, I pray for the professor who rails against the light, for the student who needs to be equipped for the battle ahead, for Free Republic that it stand for freedom and against meanness in both senses of the term, and for me, that God will deal with me in accordance with His mercy and not His anger.
I’m certainly not looking for an argument, but one of your comments struck me:
“...so she could see that in the cultural glory of the middle ages can be found the glory of the same God who spoke through Aquinas and Francis, through Julian and Thomas a Kempis...”
If someone believes “God spoke through Aquinas and Francis, through Julian and Thomas a Kempis” all of whom believed in the Catholic Church, transubstantiation, the sacraments, the veneration of Mary, celibacy of the clergy, communion of saints and veneration of saints, relics, etc., then how can that same person be a Protestant and logically or theologically consistent?
Has anyone thought contacting the professor, and or the college’s administration or president and discussing the issue, and or complaining of the ethical and or morale relevance of the indoctrination of this professor’s students, and the damage he does to the educational process? A good way to illuminate this it to let the professor and the school know exactly what a failure this situation is the for school and the professor. He is a hateful, fervent Marxist/Atheist using his position to espouse his belief system, counter to what a professor in his position should be doing morally and ethically. What level of hate does this main have for Christianity and or Christians? As a student, if I had an issue with an overbearing professor, I countered in class with logic, and went to speak to the dean of the school if needed, and would go the president’s office. Good for the student for standing up to him.
Lj Russum. Professor of Humanities. Phone: 863.669.4958. Internal Extension: 6345. Email: lrussum@polk.edu. Office: LMD- 8018, Lakeland Station
Eileen Holden, President, Office of the President
Phone: 863-297-1098
Internal Extension: 5098
Email: eholden@polk.edu
Office: WAD-216