Who is Adrienne Brown (and why did she stick a Lifesaver in her nose?) is a far, far FAR left writer and facilitator, a supporter of almost every toxic Leftist delusion you can imagine, from Black Lives Matter to transformative justice, from defunding the police to abolishing prison. Her very existence is testimony to the power of the Great Stupid in 21st Century America, which naturally includes the embrace of DEI by previously respectable institutions.
College Fix has an account by a student at Yale’s Divinity School, included one of Brown’s writings in its Before the Fall Orientation. The three-day orientation included a series of discussions and activities preparing incoming students for the year ahead, followed by small group discussions. At one point, students were rquired to read aloud, line by line and one by one, from Adrienne Brown’s “Radical Gratitude Spell,” which is this:
you are a miracle walking
i greet you with wonder
in a world which seeks to own
your joy and your imagination
you have chosen to be free,
every day, as a practice.
i can never know
the struggles you went through to get here,
but i know you have swum upstream
and at times it has been lonelyi want you to know
i honor the choices you made in solitude
and i honor the work you have done to belong
i honor your commitment to that which is larger than yourself
and your journey
to love the particular container of life
that is youyou are enough
your work is enough
you are needed
your work is sacred
you are here
and i am grateful
Brown introduces the twaddle (which reminds me of Stuart Smalley’s affirmation prayer from “Saturday Night Live”: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”) by describing it as “a spell to cast upon meeting a stranger, comrade or friend working for social and/or environmental justice and liberation.”
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day (suggested by JutGory):
Is this an appropriate exercise for the Yale Divinity School to require in its orientation?
Let’s not get too hung up (like College Fix) on Brown sometimes referring to herself as a “witch.” I find little evidence that her use of the term is meant literally, just as the platitudes above don’t qualify as a “spell” by any common meaning of the word.
The student writes,
“This context of Brown, her work, and her particular spiritual inclinations was not given to students before participating in the reading. As such, the group reading of the spell took on an undeniable coven-like feeling, with students unable to fully consent to the pseudo-ritual knowingly, despite the Circle Rules. A second-year student, who requested to remain anonymous, expressed to me a deep concern over this act by the orientation staff. The student called the provided spell “bizarre,” and “gross,” especially for students to not be told of the author or intentions behind the spell before being led to participate….Under the name of inclusion, acts of pagan spirituality are being blindly normalized in educational spaces, Yale Divinity School being a prime example of such.
I suppose the question here ultimately boils down to, “If it’s called a spell, does that make it a spell?” If somebody handed me that thing without a label, I’d assume that Rod McKuen knocked it out on as a publisher’s deadline approached. As Abe Lincoln once said, “Calling a dog’s tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”
Or does a mandatory reading of what would otherwise be seen as just standard New Age feel-good blather become sinister at a divinity school by the mere use of the label “spell”?
My view? Using throbbing junk like the “Radical Gratitude Spell” in a graduate school of any kind is incompetent regardless of what it’s called.
Ethics Alarms 
If you need additional context in order for a bad poem to be unethical, it’s probably not unethical.
Requiring students to read a bad poem out loud? That’s the real problem here.
(Is Folder Junkmail distinct from Junkmail Folder?)
Uhhh don’t know why it switched my name around. Same guy!
Paganism aside, that is some awful writing. It’s so sappy you could tap it to make pancake syrup. This is what Yale has on offer these days?
Awful but sufficient to made a bundle in DEI Land.
Yeah, this is entry level witchcraft. Then they move it up to the ‘manifesting’ stuff, where you can call things into being by saying them, like God, because you are a god (reference Oprah).
Witchcraft is really big in schools. Search ‘witchcraft for kids’ on Amazon.
The seminaries are lost. They can’t really be Christian, not at Yale or any other large school. So, they turn out ‘Christian ministers’ who hold up signs saying ‘We are all Muslims’ or who preach that if Jesus were here today, he would say “Blessed are those who end their pregnancies’. Once the Churches caved to state pressure to not just recognize gay marriage, but to recognize homosexual relationships as righteous, no Christian principle could stand.
I was at a church that hired a minister fresh out of seminary. It was a church of mostly very poor people and this minister wanted to preach to the church because they learned Liberation Theology in seminary. So, this ‘white savior’ preacher starts telling eveyone how blessed they are because God only likes poor people and the poorer you are, the better God likes you. Needless to say, the minister got quite an education from that congregation. This person was shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find out that people don’t like being poor and don’t think it is a gift from God!
The words, “a stranger working for social or environmental justice” are the tell. Churches no longer save souls and focus on eternal life. They’re just social justice Warriors. Churches are gone.
In the context of a spell:
Well, spells aren’t real, wither it be some ancient pagan ritual or something out of Harry Potter. There are no magic words someone can say to change who you are. From a Christian standpoint, the Bible’s stance on magic is not that it exist, but that it is used deceptively. Often used to lead people against God. By that definition, I could see this being used as a “spell” but even the wording of what is said doesn’t seem to accomplish it.
I think its just fluff. I’m suspicious of the messenger, but the message seems like one of those things that sounds good, loving, and inclusive, but offers nothing substantive. If it was something some TA read to welcome students, I doubt anyone would have given a second thought, so I have to ask myself: what benefit is it to have students read it, out loud, one by one?
They are trying to accomplish something and until we know what that is, then I think its fair to be suspicious of why its being read. Most colleges at this point haven’t given us reason to trust them.
As part of the incoming class’ orientation it is compelled speech and is not just unethical, I would suggest that it borders on fraudulent inducement. Were students told they would have to recite this indoctrinating poem as part of the acceptance of Yales offer to provide educational services? If not, students should refuse.
I know Yale is a private organization and they have more latitude but as a private commercial entity it is still subject to the laws of contracts. One could also argue this is part of a political dogma. Whether or not it violates IRS rules for non-profits relating to political activities
last line should end with “would have to be determined”
Why did John Lennon’s song “Imagine” start echoing in my head as background music when I read that “spell”?
I think Jack’s “New Age feel-good blather” description of that spell is accurate. In my opinion, this “spell” would be useful for very young toddlers that are in the process of building their self-esteem but certainly not young adults entering into Divinity School. At this point in the student’s life, they shouldn’t be snowflakes needing that kind of blow sunshine “new age feel-good blather” transparent pandering. Why not just hand all of them a nice shiny participation trophy.
I got the impression from what the student wrote that this was a forced participation and not something that was then opened for opinionated discussion, therefore I would call it forced indoctrination. In this case I think it was wrong, and it leads me to believe that it may be a precursor for the kind of indoctrination that they are going to face in the Divinity School. HOWEVER, if this was presented to the students and then opened up a critical thinking exercise where students could express their views about what they read.
I wonder what Extradimensional Cephalopod would think of that spell.
I think the poem is pretty good for the purpose of temporarily suspending otherwise relentless self-criticism, to give people emotional breathing room. It’s not a complete approach, but it doesn’t have to be. (I hope it’s not presented as one.) It’s a balancing factor. People need both encouragement/affirmation and criticism. This is the former.
That said, I don’t think it’s appropriate to make everyone read it. Let them use it if they need it.
I can understand why the students would be apprehensive. They’re being taught how to derive profound spiritual impact from otherwise ordinary words, not to step back and critically question what they read.
i can never know
the struggles you went through to get here,
but i know you have swum upstream
and at times it has been lonely
This is therapy culture that’s run amok in the last forty or fifty years. It assumes that everyone has been damaged any number of times in their lives and they need help. And drugs. And talk therapy. And a dog. And maybe gender affirming care. Good for business as far as the Therapy Industrial complex is concerned. Train ministers to send their flocks for therapy. Ta Dah!
EC,
Thanks for chiming in.
Steve
I had no idea it was a spell. Where is all the “double, double, toil and trouble” and “eye of newt and wing of fly, I wish you a stake in the eye”? Otherwise, it is just silly blather. If that is what Yale considers exalted and high consciousness, then maybe $80k a year might not be that well spent.
jvb
I picture every line of the “spell” being written on a stickum , note adhered to the bathroom mirror.
Begone, witch! Back to the 70’s with you!
<a href="http://<iframe width="988" height="741" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CeITHRlkg4I" title="Les Crane – Desiderata (Child of the universe) 1971" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>http://<iframe width=”988″ height=”741″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/CeITHRlkg4I” title=”Les Crane – Desiderata (Child of the universe) 1971″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
^^^ Ignore this one; it didn’t embed correctly. See below:
Begone, witch! Back to the 70’s with you!
“i honor your commitment to that which is larger than yourself
and your journey
to love the particular container of life
that is you“
Aren’t fetuses containers of life that is them? Don’t fetuses commit to a journey that is larger than themselves?
It seems to me that parasitic human forms occur more often and for longer periods after gestation is completed.
I wonder if that author of that poem/spell contemplated that issue,
Unethical, no matter how you slice it.
If Brown believes in the efficacy of her spell, then this act was unethical because it is inherently unethical to coerce or trick others into participating into any spiritual practice without their consent or knowledge (ie, tricking someone into being baptized, group prayer sessions, etc). Strip out the neo-wiccan overtones, and replace them with any other religion, and this would still be unethical.
If Brown does not believe in the efficacy of this, then she’s coercing speech and compelling all the involved students to be part of her personal masturbatory ego massage session by reciting her creation (again, without their knowledge or consent). Doing this is self-absorbed, and means she is using the other students as a means, rather than respecting them as other people and individuals, which is also unethical.
overt indoctrination, don’t think just do as you are told. Unethical missionary or cult behavior. If spell unethical to coerce participation. If not spell unethical to require participation in whatever it is.
what if they had to recite the constitutional oath, without a choice. What if it was overtly religious from a recognized prganized religion.
Now, what would happen if an actual Christian was in the Yale Divinity Program (suspend the disbelief) and stated that they wouldn’t take part because of all of the Biblical prohibitions against witchcraft?
Remember, Yale was founded because Harvard wasn’t Christian anymore, Princeton was founded because Yale wasn’t Christian anymore…