S1E11: Worldviews, Ideology, and Cuban Exiles
Jeff and Marcos Ruiz, in Little Havana, Miami.
Our thesis for the show: We want to encourage all educators to help students view the world clearly, which is more important than learning so-called “worldviews.”
Christian education in the US tends to sell folks on the idea that they offer train students in a “Christian worldiview.” Setting aside the question of whether they've got the right version, on this show we question the fundamental issue of whether that's a smart or healthy move in the first place. Then, in the second segment (at time marker 01:15) we discuss with our friend Marcos Ruiz (host of the El Lector Podcast) the ways in which Fidel Castro took over the minds of an entire island nation.
This photo was taken by Marcos’ father before leaving Cuba. He never returned. We did, and it looks like the apocalypse hit this neighborhood.
For a discussion of how the history of Lutheran higher education is slightly different from the “integration of faith and learning” common to most evangelical colleges and universities, check out a chapter Jeff wrote with Russell Dawn, called “A Genealogy of Lutheran Higher Education.”
TW: in our discussion of cultural hegemony we bring up the ugly practice of female genital mutilation.
We mention a story about a creeper named Bikram who tried to capitalize on the Western yoga craze. Here’s a news story about that.
You can read about a Nazi cult in Chile called La Colonia Dignidad here.
Check out parts one and two of the old Virtue in the Wasteland podcast Jeff and Dan van Voorhis did with Marcos through their trip to Cuba.
Marcos mentions a documentary on the art of creating ruins. He also refers to Guiellermo Cabrero Infante, and his brother Sabá, who made the documentary for which we prove an extended clip at the bottom of this page.
We recorded here in the Miami backyard of the Ruiz family, formerly owned by Ivan Tors who created the show Flipper and married actress Constance Dowling. Their son Peter Tors was in Caddyshack, and invited Bill Murray and Chevy Chase to do cannon balls behind where Stacie is sitting here.