by Martha I. Fernandez
Editor in Chief
Breaking down the walls of fear, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore will provoke self-examination at this semester’s Fasnacht Lecture set for March 5 at 11:30 a.m. in Founders Auditorium.
Dr. Moore, a faculty member at the Claremont School of Theology where she teaches theology and religious education, plans to illustrate society’s unwillingness to talk and cope with gender and cultural issues through her lecture “Wisdom, Teaching and the Fear of Knowing.”
“We’re afraid of knowing how much of the world we really don’t know,” said Dr. Moore.
She plans on exposing fears by “looking at contemporary times that will reveal the fear of knowing.”
Among the topics she will address are race and gender issues such as the O.J. Simpson verdict and the Christian controversy over Sophia, a female image of God. Dr. Moore will also share conversations she has had that reveal the fear of knowing.
“I had been having a lot of discussion about certain areas that people would prefer not to study,” she said about why she chose the topic.
“What I am looking at are common incidents and reflecting on what they tell us about ourselves,” Moore said.
She said she showed a clip of the Simpson verdict in one of her classes and witnessed the strong feelings it evoked. Moore said women in the class identified with Nicole [Brown Simpson], while African Americans had a strong empathy for Simpson.
“There are all kinds of tensions within people of race and gender that we don’t always pay attention to,” she said.
“We’re afraid to know we are racist,”she said. “We’re afraid to face some of the gaps between one group of people and another group.”
In her lecture, Dr. Moore hopes to encourage self-examination, suggest ways to face fears and seek wisdom.
According to Don Flora, church relations director, the Fasnacht Lecture was instituted in 1985 with an endowment in honor of Harold Fasnacht, former University of La Verne president. He said the goal of the event is to educationally stimulate the University community.
Flora said, “One of Fasnacht’s emphasis was in the area of ethics and values in all facets of education.”
