Walter Olson’s guest post, below, hit a nerve with me — I guess because the sad trend he writes about casts my two adopted daughters, and my family, as both less whole and less wholesome than “regular” (biological) families.

Evidently, the National Organization for Marriage wants it that way. Although my own marriage (straight and strong, 18 years and counting) presumably passes muster with NOM, I don’t plan to sidle up to the organization anytime soon. I’ve written in favor of marriage equality many times, which presumably puts me on NOM’s shit list (and, not to be too holy about it, it is on my shit list too). That’s all fine.

But here’s my problem (and Walter’s): Big chunks of the religious right have gone from supporting adoption to using it as a opportunistic weapon against gay marriage. And that hurts families with adopted kids — whether the parents are gay or straight. That’s not fine. This one, for me, hits closer to home than ever.

So here’s what I’ve decided: If people honestly decide to argue that my family somehow falls short in moral standing, or lacks legitimacy in any way, I’d like to invite them to emerge from their digital lair and engage me and my wife and kids face to face.

Please understand that this is not a mere gauntlet slap, but an effort to exchange ideas and perhaps spread some clarity. How about it, NOM?

That’s a photo of my girls (and that’s me on the left). Look at their faces and then, any of you, please come to our home and explain to us why we are not a real family, and why my marriage isn’t as genuine as yours. Or we can do this by Skype, if you’d prefer.

Seriously, consider this a social offer. Come visit if you can. I’ll cook. We’ll talk. I will try to meet any of your objections with logic and reason; and when our brains begin to throb and our throats get sore, we’ll switch track, and the four members of my family, me included, will simply be living proof of our familial love. Observe us for a few hours. We won’t mind.

I hope you will then report back to your base what you found.

Open invitation. Anytime, anyplace.

The Florida professor who offended millions by allegedly making students “stomp” on a piece of paper with the word Jesus on it has broken his silence.

No doubt he’s got plenty of time for interviews now that, after a deluge of death threats, his university has decided to place him on leave.

The mid-March kerfuffle at Florida Atlantic University happened when the instructor, Dr. Deandre Poole, who taught an intercultural communications class, asked his students to write the word Jesus on a sheet of paper and then step on it. One Mormon student refused and was suspended by the university. Soon, outside protests came pouring in, including a scathing letter from Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott. The school then apologized for both the disciplinary action and the professor’s exercise.

So far, we’ve had little but the student’s version of events to go on, but now Poole (photo) has told his side of the story to Inside Higher Ed.

And what do we learn?

• Far from being a Jesus-mocking heathen, Poole is a lifelong church-going Christian and former Sunday-school teacher who describes himself as “very religious.”

• The student exercise, Poole says, involved stepping (not “stomping,” as Fox News and others alleged) on the sheet of paper.

• The exercise was meant to demonstrate that some students would feel inhibited about stepping on something that 15 seconds earlier had been a random, insignificant piece of paper. This would give everyone an opening to discuss symbols and their meaning.

• Poole says it made no difference to him whether the students stepped on the paper or not. Most didn’t, and that was fine, he explains, as their discomfort was intended precisely to jumpstart the discussion.

• The suspension of the angry student was the result of the student’s aggressive behavior after class, claims Poole. The young man allegedly slammed his fist into his palm and told the instructor he wanted to hit him (although the student’s attorney denies this ever happened). Alarmed, Poole notified campus security and filed a report on the student.

In revisiting this Christian tempest in a teapot, we can see that at the very least, things are a little less clear-cut than the Christian-right outrage machine made them seem.

Now let’s look at what America’s very own Taliban had to say when they contacted Poole.

He said he has received hate mail and death threats, some of them coming in forms particularly hurtful to an African American. “One of the threats said that I might find myself hanging from a tree,” he said. [H]e has had some days that he did not feel safe at his home and so stayed elsewhere.

On Friday, Florida Atlantic University announced that the threats against the professor had become so numerous that

Poole has been placed on paid leave because his safety could not be assured on campus.

Yet again, the love of Jesus’ followers shines through bright and clear.

[photo via Inside Higher Ed]