It is Easter now. It starts at sundown on Holy Saturday. Happy Easter.

Lately, the sidewalks at MTU have been engaged in a raging theological debate. On Monday, I think, most of the panels said “I believe in John.” This was very mysterious and cryptic indeed. I didn't ask anyone what it meant, though. Eventually, I was eating, and I noticed a pamphlet on the table among the hundreds of different ones currently there. It described a meeting of the “Campus Crusade for Christ” or some-such. The organization is too ecumenical for my taste. (Where I come from, ecumenical means Protestant) The meeting was to be on the Apostle John or on the Gospel of John. The pamphlet claimed they were the same person, but most historians and theologians would disagree with this pamphlet. The name of the meeting would be “I agree with John.” Thus, I understood.

Over the next few days, several of the other sidewalk panels said other things: “I agree with Darwin,” “I agree with Nietzsche,” and “I agree with Voltaire.”

Then, the sidewalks were cleaned and it was over. The end.

I met someone who was wearing a neon-green “I agree with John” t-shirt. I asked them why they chose John specifically to graffiti all the sidewalks. I think it was deliberately to be cryptic, because if they had chosen any of the other gospels, it would probably have been more obvious what it was about: “I agree with Mark,” “I agree with Matthew,” and “I agree with Luke.” Those aren't common names like John is. She didn't know.

5 comments:

sistrurus said...

I still don't get it. John McCain or John Kerry?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Why is there no link with Nietzsche?

Henry David Raphael Eckert said...

Leo, I fixed it.

Unknown said...

I just realized this 7 years late, but Voltaire believed in God. The whole "If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him," is actually an argument for believing in God, not a cynical putdown of religion.

Silly engineering students!

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