Support our tolerance or spend the rest of your life in time out! Political Correctness: The New Fundamentalist Religion I came to know Jesus in a very evangelistic church. By that I mean they wanted people to come to a saving faith. To know Jesus. But they were also fundamental in their practice of the faith. The guy who prayed with me the day everything changed- and it did!- told me to get baptized and to tithe. That was the counseling. I had no idea what it meant to be Christian. But I heard from members, and a leader or two, that I had to get rid of any secular (non-Christian) music. It was deemed satanic and worldly. It would keep me from following Jesus. I found out that I had to turn down the loud music in my car as I got near church. Not out of politeness, but because people would judge me for listening too loudly. I learned that my hair needed to be shorter (somewhat ironic now). That PG movies were iffy and R movies were downright sinful. Even if I was OK with it, someone might see me going into the theater and I might make them stumble. Same with secular music. Same with so many things. Avoid the appearance of evil was our motto when we could find enough text-proofing scripture to support whatever rule was being made. Of course, the very verse that was used is a KJV mistranslation. OH, dont get me started on why the KJV was supposedly the most accurate translation available (its not. Not even close). Heres the Greater Point: There lots of rules about what you can and cant do. And people looked really good on the outside. But those rules never served to change the heart. They just created people who knew how to LOOK Christian (whatever that meant to that group at that time). And that crap always sucks. At least, Jesus seemed to think so: sons of hell, I believe he said. Enter Political Correctness. I know I can say certain things. Im no longer allowed to use certain slang. There are ways Im supposed to act. I still remember the awkwardness. Get ready to judge me here! I was with a group of college kids and wed just eaten at a Chinese buffet. I smiled and spoke with an Asian accent as I said, You no come back here, you stupid round eye. You eat ALL my food. All day buffet not mean all day for you. You go home now! The response? Eyes shifted uncomfortably away. Silence until someone changed the subject. Even now, you might be upset that I would have said something. Want to call me a racist. (EDIT: I have learned that this doesnt play well in our day. So I cant imagine repeating the error. But I do miss a time in which we laughed more- esp. at ourselves. Lord knows, I aint nothing but a stupid cracker whos got no rhythm. And Im OK with that...) Im not racist at all. There was a time we laughed at stereotypes because they were, after all, just stereotypes. And I mean, we laughed. I dated more than one Hispanic girl in high school. They would have called themselves Mexican. Because, yknow, they were. But now I need to make sure I say it right. Or else I risk being, once again, a racist. Yet I HATE racism. Because I grew up with attitudes that were judgmental and wrong. And Jesus changed my heart. Listen! Stop here. Pause. I changed because...JESUS changed my heart. Not because I was taught to use the right words, say the right things, act the right way. Or risk being shunned by the politically-correct secular church of my society. But because Jesus became the center of my life and began weeding out of me that which grieves him. Racism was a part of that. More, we know we have to have the same causes, believe the same things. Or risk a backlash and possibly the loss of friends. If you want to take care of the earth because God created it and gave us dominion over it, great. But if you question the near-religious orthodoxy of our culture in relation to Climate Change...well, a murderer might fair better. At least he had a past that helps us understand why he did it. So we have the Fundamentalism of Political Correctness. It changes no hearts. The racists are still there- in every race, by the way. But theyve learned how to speak. And their anger builds. Because their hearts havent changed. We are pummeling free thought in the name of the Great Good of the Religion of our Culture. I agree with Jesus: the Priests of this religion are just as much Sons of Hell as the Pharisees of old. I believe we ought to question it all. Our faith can handle. Our culture needs it. And we werent designed by God to blindly accept whatever we were told. So, political correctness...and I say this in love!...bite me.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:15:45 +0000
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