As someone who has practiced glossolalia, I would disagree with Anne Rowe Seaman that the practice itself could be adduced as evidence of sexual abuse, which I never suffered. I particularly appreciated Virginia Vitzthum's observation, "You wish he and his brethren could find a god who wouldn't demand the compartmentalizing that tears them apart."

Exactly. A Pentecostal former girlfriend flip-flopped, for a while, between e-mailing me provocative photos of herself, and sending me admonitions to "get right with God."

It's interesting that the Old Testament hero King David, who denied himself very little when it came to enjoying the company of the opposite sex, was called "a man after God's own heart." His transgression was in murdering to get a woman he wanted; there is no record that the Almighty was displeased by his taking numerous other wives and concubines.

-- Michael Huggins

Virginia Vitzthum doesn't grasp that sexual addiction, Jimmy Swaggart's "demon oppression," is clearly a symptom of what is known as "animated depression," a virulent form of clinical depression. She fosters the idea that all depressed people are "low functioning," when many are highly charged, compulsive individuals who, in order to mask feelings, require frequent doses of stimulation.

-- Karen Blumenthal

Play "Misty" for me
BY DAVID ALFORD
(12/10/99)

The more I read David Alford's columns, the less I like him. So far this year, he's admitted to sleeping with a student and to not doing the reading that he assigned his class; he's referred to a student as "dinosaurish," and he's exploded at his class because the level of discussion wasn't to his satisfaction. I, too, am an educator of college students, and can only hope that Salon's readers don't think him typical. Most educators I know are far more professional than to ever dream of conducting themselves in the manner Alford seems to find acceptable. My parting words to him, since this is his final year -- good riddance.

-- David Campbell

I'm quite offended at the author's emphasis on physical attributes in describing his student. It seems as if he needs to jab at her to this day. "Jowly" might have something to do with self-esteem problems leading to this girl's dangerous tendencies, but the description isn't used in such an objective fashion. Instead, we get "dinosauric." Someone should sic Camryn Mannheim on this guy.

-- T.E. Lyons

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