Releases : Humanities

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- A professor of philosophy and religion studies at the University of North Texas says the scandal surrounding Ted Haggard--who resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals following allegations of sex and drug use--should not have any long-term effects on the evangelical church movement.

"I do not think this will affect the evangelical movement as a whole," says Dr. Joe Barnhart. "Organizations do not fall because of individuals. The church, and the faithful, will go on. It may cause some followers to reevaluate their faith. But, you should not judge a person's faith by the activities of their church's members. There is a difference between hypocrisy and weakness."

Haggard resigned after allegations made by a former male escort that the two had a three-year sexual relationship that included the use of methamphetamine.

Barnhart says if history is any indication, Haggard's ministry--the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs he founded in 1985--may face a rocky future.

"Jimmy Swaggart's ministry never fully recovered from the sex scandal that enveloped him, and remember that Jim Bakker went to prison for the financial scandal that brought down his ministry," Barnhart says.

Barnhart is traveling, but may be reached at (940) 387-3290.

Witches and witchcraft:

The old, female witch with warts and a hooked nose, wearing a black robe and pointed hat and riding a broomstick, is one of the most recognized symbols of Halloween. Dr. Richard Golden, UNT professor of history, says this image came from the age of witch hunting in Europe, which started around 1430 and ended approximately in 1750. During this period, some 35,000 to 50,000 people -- mostly old, poor women -- were accused of witchcraft and legally executed, says Golden, the editor of the four-volume "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition," which was published earlier this year.

The encyclopedia includes more than 700 entries from 172 distinguished witchcraft scholars from 28 nations. The entries cover key trials, folklore, magical practices, influential texts and witchcraft theorists, as well as the accused and their persecutors.

Golden, who spent more than five years editing the encyclopedia, says that during the age of witch hunting, some poor women were often first accused of witchcraft after they went door-to-door begging for charity. If a family turned a woman away and a misfortune struck the household shortly afterward, the family might say the woman was a witch who had played a "trick" by throwing a curse to kill or injure a family member or livestock, or to spoil food, he says.

He also says those accused of diabolical witchcraft, or contact with the Devil, were believed to fly at night on animals, demons or brooms to witches' gatherings, or Sabbats, where they worshipped the Devil, practiced cannibalism and infanticide and worked evil magic in order to overthrow Christian society. This a reason why many of today's costumed witches carry brooms, he says.

Office phone number: (940) 369-8933
Home phone number: (972) 317-4969
rmg@unt.edu

Spooky music:

From the screeching violins on the "Psycho" soundtrack and the tinkling bells of the opening theme of "The Exorcist," Dr. Andrew May, director of the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia in the University of North Texas College of Music, can explain why horror film music can send chills up your spine.

"Spooky suggests ghosts; and its cognate, ‘eerie,' suggests things being out of proportion, against expectation, outside of the normal bounds of experience. Imagine hearing a voice -- or before radios, hearing music -- when there's no one there," he says, giving music from "The Phantom of the Opera" as a classic example.

"The image of Lon Chaney at the organ in the film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel is a reminder that the organ itself is the eeriest of traditional instruments. A lone performer sits at a keyboard, while sounds come from all around the space; we hear a colossal sound, magically disembodied and magnified from the human who controls it," he says.

Silent films helped create our present-day expectations of spooky music, May says. Musicians would use sheet music, catalogued by mood or situation, to create a musical setting for the film.

"Some pieces became stock items for romantic, adventurous or horrific scenes," he says, "and these may have had a role in defining our repertoire of spooky music."

What is it about the composition of the music that makes it so spooky? May lists several things:

"Extremes of high and low register or both; dissonant or unusual harmonies, particularly those that slide chromatically between keys, or away from any key; strange timbres; and extreme, shocking contrasts of dynamic -- for example, a quiet, tense harmony suddenly broken by an explosion of furious, dramatic music," he says.

May is a violinist, computer music researcher and composer who has written pieces for orchestra, chorus and wind ensemble. His music has been performed in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland, Germany and England and throughout the United States. He is best known for chamber music in which some of the performers are computer systems, which he sometimes calls "playing with ghosts."

The Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia will present a concert called "Ghostly Presences" at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 (Monday) at UNT's Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater, located in the Music Building. The Music Building is on the southeast corner of Avenue C and Chestnut Street on the UNT campus.

Office phone number: (940) 891-6816
amay@music.unt.edu.

Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead:

In Mexico, Mexican-American communities and some Latin American nations, Halloween is followed by a holiday that remembers the dead not in a spooky or morbid fashion, but in a joyful fashion. Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, on Nov. 1 and 2 is a national holiday in Mexico.

Dr. Alicia Re Cruz, UNT associate professor of anthropology, says the tradition has deep historical roots in Ancient Mesoamerica.

"In the Mesoamerican system of thought, death and life are not considered opposites. Death is considered the essence for life, and vice versa," she says.

Mexican people celebrate the holiday "as the day to welcome those relatives' souls in their lives and as a way to pay homage to their ancestors," Re Cruz says.

"It is a celebration -- a recognition that the dead are also part of the family and the community. This symbolical articulation of death and life is well represented in the fact that food is brought to the cemetery and in communion, symbolically shared by everyone," she says.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2663
arecruz@unt.edu

As you plan your coverage for the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001, consider these University of North Texas experts who can discuss a variety of topics related to the event.

Economic Impact of 9/11:

Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein, professor of applied economics and director of director of UNT's Center for Economic Development and Research, is an expert on public policy, business and economic trends. He has often been quoted in The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times and international publications as an economic forecaster for the U.S. and abroad.

Cell phone number: (214) 707-1834 (first option)
Office phone number: (940) 565-4049
E-mail address: budw@scs.unt.edu  

Talking to children about 9/11:

Dr. Sue Bratton is the director of the UNT Center for Play Therapy, the largest play therapy training program in the world. The center counsels children dealing with difficult situations by helping them to express their feelings through toys. Bratton is also an associate professor of counseling at UNT. An internationally renowned expert and respected lecturer, she has extensive experience in individual and group play therapy, activity therapy, and filial/family play therapy. She served on the Association for Play Therapy board of directors for six years and is a past president. Dr. Bratton is also co-author of the textbook, "Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): A 10-Session Filial Therapy Model," and the CPRT Treatment Manual and CD-ROM, and "The World of Play Therapy Literature," as well as numerous research publications and book chapters on the topic of play therapy.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2063
E-mail address: bratton@unt.edu

Dr. Garry Landreth, Regents Professor of counseling, development and higher education, is the founding director of the Center for Play Therapy and is a licensed professional counselor.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2916

Emergency response to 9/11:

Dr. David McEntire, an associate professor in UNT's emergency administration and planning degree program, traveled to New York City two weeks after Sept. 11 with two other faculty members in the program to study the activities of private businesses in responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center. They determined that although more than 2,800 people in both World Trade Center Towers died, thousands more exited safely before the towers collapsed, thanks to emergency management plans set in place for businesses following the 1993 bombing of the center. They also studied the significant role that private businesses played in responding to the disaster by donating office space, increasing security, restoring communications and providing food for search and rescue teams.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2996
Home phone number: (940) 321-2440

Dr. James Kendra, coordinator of UNT's emergency administration and planning degree program and an assistant professor, traveled to New York City two days after Sept. 11 with a colleague and a field team at the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center, where he was then a researcher. He and his former colleague recently received a three-year $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to research the successful evacuation of 300,000 to 500,000 people from lower Manhattan via water transport to New Jersey, Staten Island and Brooklyn. He also studied the reestablishment of New York City's emergency operations center, which was located in the World Trade Center and was destroyed on Sept. 11.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2213
E-mail address: jmkendra@unt.edu

Terrorism:

Dr. Robert Taylor, professor and chair of the UNT Department of Criminal Justice, is currently a consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice on the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Program and the U.S. Department of State Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program. He is internationally known for his knowledge on terrorism and lectures extensively throughout the United States and the world. His specialty is the Middle East and Southeast Asia, concentrating on the al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiya, Hezbollah and HAMAS groups. He is a former police officer and major crimes detective and has several leading textbooks in the discipline. He has conducted numerous international and national media interviews.

Office phone numbers: (940) 565-4475 or (940) 565-2562
Cell phone number: (972) 529-7890

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Middle East:

Dr. Adrian R. Lewis, associate professor of history and chair of the UNT Department of History, is a former infantry officer and instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He retired from the Army with the rank of major and is the author of the forthcoming "The American Culture of War: World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom." He is also currently writing a book about the Mediterranean Theater during World War II.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2288
Home phone number: (972) 317-3992

Dr. Geoffrey Wawro, director of UNT's Military History Center and the Major General Olinto Mark Barsanti Professor of Military History, can discuss al-Qaeda, U.S. policy and strategy in the Middle East and current capabilities of the U.S. military. A professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., before joining the UNT faculty last year, Wawro is the host and anchor of the History Channel and History International programs Global View, Hardcover History, Hard Target, History's Business, and History versus Hollywood. He is writing a book called "Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East from the Balfour Declaration to the Bush Doctrine."

Cell phone number: (214) 514-7224

Dr. Emile Sahliyeh (ee-MILL s-LAY-yuh), professor of political science, is the author of "The PLO After the Lebanon War;" "In Search of Leadership: West Bank Politics Since 1967;" and the forthcoming "The Predicament of Democracy in the Arab World." He has also written chapters in several anthologies on Middle Eastern politics. A former Brookings Institute fellow in Middle Eastern studies, Sahliyeh has presented invited papers, lectures and workshops at the Brookings Institute, Defense Intelligence College, Harvard University Center for International Affairs, U.S. State Department and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Sahliyeh is frequently quoted by the media in regard to incidents in the Middle East, Israel and Palestine.

Office phone numbers: (940) 565-2314 or (940) 565-2276
Home phone number: (940) 320-2020

American foreign policy related to 9/11:

Dr. James Meernik (MIR-nick), professor of political science and chair of the UNT Department of Political Science , is the author of an article on domestic politics and the political use of military force by the United States that appeared in "Political Research Quarterly," and an article on public opinion and support for U.S. presidents' foreign policies that appeared in "American Politics Quarterly."

Office phone number: (940) 565-4233

The Patriot Act, Constitutional rights and military tribunals:

Dr. Kimi Lynn King, associate professor of political science, researches civil rights and liberties, constitutional law, the American presidency and foreign policy issues. She is a former fellow at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Office phone number: (940) 565-4984
Cell phone number: (940) 597-4802

Middle Eastern perspective of 9/11:

Dr. Nancy Stockdale, assistant professor of history, researches the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the histories of Palestine and Israel, Israeli-Palestine conflicts and Islamic-Jewish relations. She specializes in women of the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is the author of an upcoming book on encounters between English and Palestinian women from 1800 to 1948.

Office phone number: (940) 565-4209
E-mail address: stockdale@unt.edu

Immigration policies after 9/11:

Dr. Idean Salehyan (eye-DEAN suh-LAY-he-on), assistant professor of political science, published an article on U.S. asylum enforcement in the "Journal of Peace Research" and an article of refugees and the spread of civil war in "International Organization." He also has expertise on transnational activities of terrorist groups and is currently working on a project which examines transnational rebel organizations and the opposition activities of diaspora groups. He is fluent in both Spanish and Farsi.

Office phone number: (940) 565-2317
Cell phone number: (619) 301-8444
E-mail address: idean@unt.edu

Monday, Sept. 11, will mark the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Two University of North Texas psychologist s say the anniversary, which is expected to receive extensive media coverage, will reactivate feelings of grief, including anger, sadness, depression and denial, in those who lost family members and friends on that day, and those who were safely evacuated from the Pentagon and World Trade Center. However, they have different opinions about the anniversary's impact on other Americans who witnessed the events via television.

Dr. Bert Hayslip, Regents Professor of psychology at UNT, and Dr. Charles Guarnaccia, associate professor of psychology, have published several articles on bereavement in "Omega: Journal of Death and Dying."

Hayslip believes that because Americans have become used to hearing about the events of 9/11, they will not necessarily experience feelings of grief on the fifth anniversary. Instead, the day "will bring back whatever feelings people had at the time" that they heard about the terrorist attacks, he says.

"People will probably feel a sense of vulnerability and helplessness," he says.

He adds, however, that without an event to reinforce those feelings -- such as the recently foiled terrorist plot to blow up passenger jets flying between the United Kingdom and the United States -- the feelings pass quickly for most people.

"It's what happens, rather than the anniversary of the day when it happened, that triggers those feelings," he says.

Guarnaccia, however, says that although those who lost loved ones on 9/11 are going to be the most deeply impacted by the fifth anniversary, "there will continue to be a sense of national loss" on Sept. 11 this year and subsequent years1, and almost every American could feel grief about the day.

"We were all impacted to some degree on that day. The event was different from an isolated tragedy, like an auto accident or a heart attack that kills a family member," he says.

He gives the example of a friend who has lived in lower Manhattan for more than 30 years and worked in one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center before 9/11. Guarnaccia says his friend has experienced avoidance for almost five years.

"She did not lose anyone close to her on 9/11, but she will still not stand anyplace in Manhattan where she could previously see the towers. She doesn't want to be reminded that they are no longer there," Guarnaccia says.

He notes that the fifth anniversary may trigger "flashbulb memories" of 9/11 -- memories created from experiencing a significant historical event.

"Many people will recall where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the terrorist attacks, who called them about it, and who they called," he says. "A whole society can be bereaved."

Hayslip and Guarnaccia agree that this year's release of two movies about 9/11 -- "United 93" last April and "World Trade Center" just two weeks ago -- may or may not help people work through some of the feelings of loss.

"I think many recognize the movies as an attempt to make money out of a tragic event, but others may say the movies reinforce a sense of the events not being forgotten," Hayslip says, adding that no movie could ever fill the void left by the deaths on 9/11.

Hayslip may be reached at (940) 565-2675. Guarnaccia may be reached at (940) 565-2657.

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Is it the end of the world as we know it? The current fighting in the Middle East is generating new interest in Christian eschatology--the study of Biblical prophecy as it relates to the "end times" before the return of Jesus Christ. It's even the focus of the popular "Left Behind" series of books. A professor of philosophy and religion studies at the University of North Texas says believers have been looking at this question since before the time of Christ.

Dr. Joe Barnhart says, "The beginning of the apocalyptic literature goes back to the book of Daniel, written around 164 B.C. Early Christians picked this up, and you can see it in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Under the Roman Empire, people felt oppressed. Since they didn't have any real power, they dreamed of a better world and of the destruction of their enemies."

Barnhart says the early Christian church was split on how soon Christ would return, and it can be traced through the writings of the New Testament.

"Some of the early Christians thought that the second coming of Christ was right around the corner. (The apostle) Paul certainly thought that, around 50 A.D. But that view is not shared by other writers of the Gospel." In fact, Barnhart points out in the gospel of Mark that Christ refuses to say when the world will end.

Barnhart says the views about the "end of the world" are diverse. Generally, they are divided into premillenialiasts and postmillenialists, based on their interpretation of the 20th chapter of the book of Revelation. Barnhart says it's inevitable that there would be many differing views on the "end times," just as there are many differing views on the interpretation of the Bible.

"The Bible is not just a book. In many ways it's an anthology," Barnhart says. "You could say the Bible serves like an inkblot test--it tells you more about the reader than it does about the source."

Barnhart may be reached at (940) 387-3290.

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Dan Brown's bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code," set to be released as a major motion picture on May 19, has generated much-needed excitement in art history, says a University of North Texas expert.

"You can go on ‘The Da Vinci Code' tours in Europe, and that's great," said Dr. Kelly Donahue-Wallace, assistant professor of art history at UNT. "People that are excited about works of art are going to work to preserve them and become sponsors of museums and donate. I think Dan Brown is doing a great service to art history."

Donahue-Wallace has expertise in European Renaissance and Baroque art and has taught classes in Italian Renaissance art. She holds a doctoral degree and a master' s degree in art history from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and a bachelor's degree in art history from the University of California in Santa Cruz.

"The Da Vinci Code" has come under harsh fire from critics who have said the book contains historical inaccuracies. But Donahue-Wallace says any inaccuracies should be forgiven for the greater good to art history.

"This book had everything -- religion and drama and excitement and art and famous institutions -- and it managed to hit the entire world as a subject of interest. In doing so, it opened itself up to scrutiny that is unfair," she said.

Donahue-Wallace can be reached at:

E-mail: kwallace@unt.edu

Phone: 940-565-3529

"The Da Vinci Code" is an entertaining read but doesn't present an accurate picture of history, says Joe Barnhart, professor of philosophy and religion studies at UNT.

"If you want to learn how to write a novel, you can learn from it," Barnhart said. "If you want to learn about Jesus and first-century Christianity, it's way down the list."

Barnhart has written several articles on the problem of the identity of the historical Jesus and is now writing a book on the topic. He is co-author of "In Search of First-Century Christianity" and is a former president of the Southwest Division of the American Academy of Religion, which recently presented him with the Distinguished Scholar Award.

Barnhart says no good evidence exists to support theory that Jesus was married and had a family, a theory presented in "The Da Vinci Code."

"The real problem with this is that trying to nail down the identity of the historical Jesus is exceedingly difficult. There are about four different views of who Jesus was, but you cannot harmonize these views," he said. "The scholars who have devoted years of their lives to studying the origin and development of Christianity regard this (Brown's) view as mostly fanciful."

Barnhart recommends other writers, such as G.A. Wells, David Dungan, Dale Allison, John K. Riches, or Marcus Borg for more fruitful studies of early Christianity. But Brown, he says, "is a really good writer, and he knows how to tell a yarn. "

Barnhart can be reached at:

Home: (940) 387-3290

Cell: (940) 391-6615