About fifteen years ago one of my freshman English students turned in a theme arguing that Jesus was Black. Her evidence was much like the above. It was a bad theme, unsystematically argued and full of poor diction, bad grammar, the usual for poorly prepared college kids.

When I failed the paper, the presentational errors corrected and explained, and with as encouraging a comment as I could think of, the student insisted the real problem was that I didn't believe Jesus was Black, so I was too bigoted to grade her fairly. But she did offer to "turn the other cheek" and not complain to my chairman. I urged her to do whatever she thought was right.

The point is that one shouldn't discuss religion unless one is prepared for some genuine give and take.