Politically Correct

 

On of our headline grabbing stories this week is former surgeon and Presidential candidate Ben Carson saying that a Muslim person couldn’t be President. He tried to roll back the remark and just made the matter worse (in my opinion) but supporters were quick to join the conversation, saying (among other things) that “Political Correctness is ruining this country!!”

Carson himself has a history of taking swings at “political correctness”, saying (among other things) that  p.c. culture, not his remarks about Muslim people, are to blame for the outrage following his remarks.

Really?

I will say that there have been times I think that some groups want to push the boundry of political correctness to the point where it’s difficult to talk about anything, for the most part I think what we call “politically correct language” is important and necessary. At least with the broad strokes.

Take, for example, an issue that keeps popping up now and then. The Washington Redskins. Specifically, should they continue to be called the Washington Redskins. Politically correct pro-ponents will say “no, of course not. You can’t call them the Washington ‘N–words’, you can’t call them the Washington (pardon the word) slant-eyes, so you can’t call them the Redskins.” But others will say “let the market decide. If people are mad about the name they’ll stop spending money” (never mind the fact that the people mistreated weren’t spending the money in the first place, but I digress).

Political correctness gets it right on this, treating people right, treating people equal, that is what this country is about. That is what our Constitution is about. Tradition or not, long established or not, we don’t get to use a derrogatory term for a group of people as a sports mascot. (and yes, I feel that applies to the “Fighting Irish” too, in spite of my grandfather being a huge Notre Dame fan.)

To apply it to a more pressing issue, let’s look at the Syrian refugee crisis and the American people’s response. On one hand you have a number of human rights groups saying “throw the gates open, let them come” and on the other you have others saying “no. They’re Muslims. Just no.” and you have a few sort of riding the fence saying “let them in, but we better screen them all with a fine tooth comb.”  (I say those are actually in ‘no’ camp, just trying to act concerned.)

The politically correct response is, of course, that these are people fleeing a humanitarian man-made crisis of Biblical proportions. We shouldn’t care about what they believe. Help first, deal with the rest later.

But the fear mongers want you to believe that Islam is the enemy. And everyone, men, women, children, teenagers that build digital clocks into pencil boxes, if they practice Islam, they are the enemy. And they want you to believe that there is no such thing as ‘moderate’ or ‘progressive’ Islam, Islam is the enemy, and therefore we don’t want them in our country and regardless of what the constitution says, they need to leave, even if they are American citizens.

That, not political correctness, is the real enemy. The idea that there is a ‘right’ way to think and believe and we need to remove the ‘wrong’ way, at the expense of all the people on the ‘wrong’ side…. that is what is to blame for the outcry against Dr. Carson’s remarks, not “political correctness”.

Today one of the most controversial figures in recent history is visiting the United States and our President: Pope Francis.

On the one hand, he’s made some really progressive strides in regards to the Catholic church’s positions on things like climate change, but on the other he seems to be avoiding issues like women’s rights and abusive priests. There are poeple on both sides that are applauding and criticizing the pope at the same time.

I bring it up because part of the pontiff’s visit is a reception at the White House. The President invited a lot of people. In the interest of being as inclusive (a word politically correct people love to use) as possible, to include a cross section of American people,  Obama, among the others he invited, also invited some that are part of the LGBTQ community.

Some people lost their minds. To my knowlege the Pope, nor anyone else from the Vatican, has made a statement regarding these invitations. At the time of writing this, that reception was several hours ago, I still have not heard if the Pope or the church has had any comment on the issue.

But way too many are upset. Saying that the President has taken Poitical Correctness too far.

To them I say, so what. What you call too far, I say not far enough. . What you call offensive, I call inclusive and representing the euqality every single person in the country should feel from our governemnt. Regardless of our sexual identity, our religious identity, our idenity in any way it’s defind, we all deserve to be treated equal.

And actyually, it’s in the constitution.So it’s more than something we deserve, it’s the law.

And in spite of what many would have you believe, it’s what God does. Too many believe that people need to ‘get right’ with God before they should be treated like people. But that’s not what the Bible says. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – Romans 5:8. It doesn’t say “God insisted we got right first, then Christ died for us”.

It doesn’t matter what eppole are. It doesn’t matter how they see themsleve. It doesn’t even really matter (in this sense)what they believe. God LOVES FIRST, then the rest comes later.

Love first. The rest comes later.

That is the definition of being politically correct.

Or as I like to say “correct”.