Putting Political Correctness in the Big Picture

[HKHaugan]

When that venerable graying English rock group, The Rolling Stones sang, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” they were tapping a deep heart longing. A country song mourns a regret about “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” Add TV re-airing movie classics like “What’s It All About Alfie?” which ask the basic despairing question about human purpose. Love, personal peace, purpose, meaning and significance top the list of lost humanity’s 'looking' for 'satisfaction' that can only be found in God alone. They are spiritual issues that the secular mind tries to modify with politics, psychology, picket lines, rebellion and riots. They don't work no matter how many centuries they have been tried. They are heart issues and only a changed heart can begin the process of recovery where they are concerned. If we really take the Bible seriously as God's very own Word, Creation was spiritually begun and is sustained spiritually. It follows that to understand the Big Picture---spiritual reality---we've got to think spiritually, personally and relationally. Any thing less is a distraction.

The smokescreen of political correctness, revising history to justify present immorality, denying the problem of sin and evil, the rise of atheism and social unrest are nothing new. They have been a part of the human problem since Adam and Eve. You can read the basic dynamics in Genesis. They arise in every new generation. As far as human nature is concerned, nothing has changed. It's still each individual born separated from God and the need to restore that relationship.

What has changed is the development of technology and the size of earth's population. There are more people with the same human issues but magnified by the technology that brings it all into our homes in seconds after their occurrence. The pressure is more intense on the individual mind, heart and spirit. Social, political and economic problems that used to be years in the making now can shift in days if not moments. The options facing our choice process have multiplied way out of proportion to our ability to handle them. And, that is true in every area of our daily life. The world has become an overwhelming experience for each of us. That is, if we have no foundation, no solid footing, upon which we stand in response to what is taking place around us.

Zeroing in on political correctness we find it all through history. There has always been the dynamic of conformity to the opinions of others, especially those in positions of power. There has always been manipulation of public opinion through fear. What is different in our time is the use of electronic technology by anonymous individuals and groups to spread that fear. Look at how leadership in all our social, political, religious, educational and economic institutions cringe and crumble at the slightest hint of random accusations. A spirit of defensiveness takes over and spreads throughout a culture.

This is where the firm footing of faith is the counter measure. When we live Christ we are thinking, speaking and doing what we believe He is calling us to be in any next moment. Faith clobbers fear. Political correctness is the spiritual fever of fear that infects the cultural atmosphere. Three simple spiritual steps stand against this gate of hell.

First, our personal testimony to His presence in our lives is our foundation that no one can take away. Prepare it, declare it and share it. Review it, renew it and redo it. Make it clear, have no fear, He's right here.

Second, our reinforcement of this foundation with prayer, reading His Word and prayer-sharing our lives with others in the Body. This shapes our view for whatever lies ahead.

Third, we then consciously set our minds to be spiritually alert wherever we are. That is to be Holy Spirit conscious. He will give us what is necessary for the moment.

Follow these three steps every day and nothing can prevail against you.

Therefore, three 'makes.' We make ourselves available to make the truth of Jesus available in every next moment available to make it His moment. You are creating that moment as an image of the Creator. These are spiritual, personal and relational moments in the context of eternity. You and I are images of God from whom each next moment is a gift in which our eternity is a here-and-now witness for a Creator who is creating a new humanity in us, reshaping us and reforming us to continue being creative eternally. We are being lifted from fear to faith, from religion to relationship, from trying to save self to being saved from self, from slavery to what others think to being freed to think what God thinks. That means our every next moment is our moment to be approached spiritually, personally and relationally. There is no room, time or moment for us to worry, be anxious or to procrastinate. It's time to step up to the plate. That's what ends the fever.