Deification

Pretty sure I've lost my mind now, but I never cease to be amazed with the tendency we humans have to deify other humans, but I'ma follow along in the trend. We already know that African Americans tend to deify our pastors, acting like they're mini-gods.

Now I'm going to talk about my students. It occurs to me that the deification process goes on there, as well. I am a teaching assistant and Professor in courses at a local seminary. Maybe I'm crazy, but it looks to me like the students there are into deification, as well.

It's like the prof is a god -- he has all the power, and what he says goes. Everyone wants to get into his good graces, to make sure they please him and to do his will. When I'm the professor, I get the same treatment -- students always want to know what I think about whether they're doing things right or not. There appears to be a complete abdication of personal thought, responsibility, or reasoning -- it's all about being inside the good and perfect will of the deity.

As the TA, there's a similar (but distinct) phenomenon: they profess to want to follow my instructions to find out what the deity wants, and there's the deification to my face, but there's lots of chatter and murmuring about why or whether I really require various things. There's also the widely held (mis-)perception that no one can access the deity except through the mini-deity, even though I encourage my students both to challenge me and to approach the prof when they have questions, concerns, and issues. But the thing that had me losing my mind is the Hosanna/Crucify phenomenon. Students who will come up in my face singing my praises are, many times, the same students who will write (I'm hoping unintentionally) nasty, self-pitying emails, begging for extensions, revisions, or other special consideration, never taking into account the fact that one person has to suffer through reading dozens and dozens of (adjective deleted) exams.

What I'm saying is that they treat the prof like a god, and they treat me like a jesus, complete with the false adoration, turning on, and turning against.


In the midst of all this, I'm trying very hard not to react (because technically I can flunk a student, which could potentially have disastrous emotional, vocational, and economic consequences). I can't react to the fact that they resist activities designed for their growth. I can't react to the fact that they're too scared to jump in and learn something new. I can't react to the fact that they resist my efforts to teach them. I can't react to the fact that they're sometimes bitter or mean or hostile or just scared which makes them appear like all that. Nah, I have to exercise something like godly wisdom (of which I have a measly portion), look beyond their perceived faults, and meet them at their points of need, always recognizing and always grateful that I know a big-G God and a big-J Jesus who have extended more than that measure of grace and mercy to me...

Now to go get my lunch. I'm starting to really resent meetings. My knee is better, and I want to go to the gym tonight, but have meetings...