Posted on 12/07/2005 4:23:48 PM PST by Senator Bedfellow
Embattled religious studies professor Paul Mirecki has stepped down as chairman of the University of Kansas’ Department of Religious Studies.
Mirecki remains a tenured professor at the department. No successor has been named.
In a written statement, Barbara Romzek, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, said she accepted Mirecki’s resignation today.
“Professor Mirecki said he thought it appropriate to step down and did so on the recommendation of his colleagues in the department and I have accepted his resignation,” Romzek said. “This allows the department to focus on what’s most important — teaching, research and service — and to minimize the distractions of the last couple of weeks.”
Mirecki came under fire after e-mails were uncovered in which he mocked aspects of Christianity. He initially attracted attention when he announced he would teach a class this spring about intelligent design and creationism. That sparked immediate criticism from conservatives who supported the Kansas Board of Education’s recent move to insert criticism of evolution into state science standards.
Mirecki’s critics then discovered e-mails from a listserv operated by the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics in which Mirecki mocked various aspects of Catholicism and fundamentalist Christianity.
Last week, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said he found the e-mails “repugnant and vile.” Mirecki apologized for the e-mails and the course was withdrawn.
On Monday, Mirecki told Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputies he was attacked by two men early Monday morning. Mirecki told police the two men were closely following his vehicle south of Lawrence, and when he got out to confront them, the two men beat him with a metal object. Mirecki was treated and released from Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Mirecki told friends and reporters his attackers made reference to the recent controversy.
Mirecki has taught at KU for 15 years. He has a doctorate in theology from Harvard University and specializes in ancient Mediterranean cultures, religions and languages.
Were those actually written by the professor? Are they serious or sarcastic? In either case, they are very poorly written, very rambling. It is amazing what passes for reasoned thought among the "academics."
also know as a "hasty decampment"--
In other words, we'd lose big. Better head back to the Instant Messaging watercooler and debrief.
And since Nebraska competes with Kansas for students and faculty, yeee-haw! Come to Nebraska. We won't beat you up if you don't go to Church!
Open-minded. Yeah. Right. Kinda like The Klan is open-minded. The definition of atheist is to be close-minded to the idea of God or gods.
A man who designs a course for the sole purpose of ridiculing other people's beliefs does not belong in the classroom. It isn't a bunch of "religious fundamentalists" who did this guy in. He did it to himself, and his colleagues apparently agree that he should step down as chairman of the department.
He hasn't got it together as much as Churchill.
Yay. Shoulda been fired, but this is a start. I love the way these problems just take care of themselves.
Amazing the response when they've been exposed.
I guess they have to put the whole forum on virtual ignore when they've made such idiots of themselves, or retreat to nattering about the fine points of this genome disgronification or that other disgronifier--as if they're really scientists, at all, and not some DU posers.
That's a very interesting way to describe his fellow faculty members.
From the article:
“Professor Mirecki said he thought it appropriate to step down and did so on the recommendation of his colleagues in the department and I have accepted his resignation,” Romzek said.(Emphasis mine.)
Sure. And fundamentalist state senators threatening the Department and the University had nothing to do with it.
If you think either he or his colleagues acted as free agents in this matter, I have some nice land in Florida to sell you.
Life for professor jerks who bully students may become considerably less free.
Quite possibly self-inflicted.
If you read Michelle Malkin, it's a virtual certainty. If you read the Daily Kos, to even suggest such a thing shows you are a horrible human being. I honestly don't know, but in the absence of any other evidence, I'll probably take the man at his word. I think something probably happened to him. What, when, how and where, well those are a bit more uncertain.
What amuses me is that some people are accusing him of being a media hound, while others are saying it's suspicious he won't talk to the media. And both sets probably agree the media are a bunch of lying hacks who will twist whatever he says to fit their agenda, so, surely, he'd be a damned fool to say anything to them.
And if you do your own research, you find that a southern location as described in the reports of the attack make no sense. The University is N of his home and the location of the alleged attack is SE of his home away from places to eat breakfast, unless the meal is straight off the hoof. The nearest IHOP is West of his residence(3102 KS-10 Lawrence, KS 66046). When I first saw the location of the attack, I assumed he lived out in the country and was travelling towards the city. Gathering other information makes my initial assumption look fairly incorrect. It also gives indication as to why the professor is now mum.
He says he went out in the country to clear his head. And the best breakfast place in Lawrence, opening at 6 a.m., supposedly is right down on the southern edge of town.
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