Week 5 Reading Response 2

Zwier's assumption that wearing a button that states god is not a democrat or a republican is not divisive maybe holds true at a Christian college, but could be considered divisive elsewhere. It is a good way of making clear that the students want to show that they make a distinction between a religion and politics. Because the school is a Christian university, it is only fair to assume that the students attending are Christian so talking about god in a commencement speech might not seem unfair. The real problem they have is making assumptions about where people stand politically based on their religion. It is also important that Zwier points out that the use to the visual argument is to show that all students don't associate being Christian with being republican and that political alignments have nothing to do with religious ones in most cases. Wearing the buttons does not have nearly the same implications that boycotting the whole graduation would. Boycotting the graduation sends a strong statement that the students are very offended by the idea that George Bush would associate Christianity with the republican party. That statement is much stronger then the comparatively quiet yet strong statement that the buttons make. By boycotting the whole ceremony all together the students would be implying that it is so deeply offensive that Bush makes the connection between the republican party, his administration, and Christianity that they want nothing to do with either Bush or the graduation ceremony. The buttons are a good way of letting people know that they don't want to draw the same connection, but are not so offended by it that they are not willing to participate in anything having to do with said connection.