The Danger of Political Correctness

[HKHaugan]

The problem is neither politics nor correctness. That phrase is really a hidden linguistic trap. Being political is one thing. Being correct is another. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Being political is the attempt to secure a consensus by asserting one’s ideas in the arena of opinion. Being correct is the desire of every individual heart to be and look right. What we need to recognize is that the first one is horizontal and the second is vertical. One is a process and the other is a principle (see the Cross here?). But there is more to it and as believers in Jesus Christ we need to look at it more closely. We’ll get to that in a moment.

For now we need to see that the problem lies in our connecting politics and being correct thus narrowing the definition of correctness to a secular worldly concept used to dominate how we relate to others. The result is the latest cultural behavioral principle determines what is correct. An invisible pressure rules. Apply that to any group and how it shapes communication. If ‘smart aleck’ remarks are the trend then that determines correct communication. If vulgar language rules then that is dejour behavior.

The phrase ‘political correctness’ is meant to intimidate and polarize. Like many secular pressure points, fear fuels it. Thus it is used to provoke fear and employed as a social and political weapon to silence who and what we really are, what we think, what we believe and what we say. If something is not ‘politically correct’ then it is to be avoided. This gets us to ask, ‘But what about social correctness, economic correctness, religious correctness, office correctness, psychological correctness, ethnic correctness? Where does it stop?’

Political correctness has become an industry. It is a demagogue’s dream come true, his tour de force, a narcissist’s delight, a future ego-centered ‘cause celebre’ and it is a moneymaker. Professional politicians manipulate the public with it. Look at those in the media who thrive on its application. In fact the media exploit it to sell themselves.

So if you can’t find a cause create one. It’s like a card game where you play a specific card to get a response. Play the race card, the sexist card, the ethnic card, or any discrimination card. It is the heart of every political action group that wants a piece of notoriety and its fifteen minutes of fame. If you want to get attention for yourself find a subject and form a group of people who are quick to take offense, cry offense at anyone who disagrees and you get noticed. It only takes a couple of people to get attention. Then corral civil authority and the legal system to promote and fulfill your wishes. How absurd can we get?

The methodology of political correctness is offense. Choose something to be offended by and you have a cause. Exploit a real or imagined offense and groups are formed to campaign for or against whatever is considered an offense.

Everyone is going to be offended by something. Being offended has become an industry, a political tool, a fear inducer to wield as a weapon. A single word, a look, a hand motion or body position becomes suspect. It is the missile of accusation aimed to destroy whomever it is leveled against. All one has to do is to throw out the suggestion that someone is a racist, a sexist or whatever ‘ist’ is the latest fad.

Civil rights, for example, is a just cause. It’s initial emphasis is to make sure that every citizen regardless of ethnic background, skin color or social condition, has a level playing field and equal opportunity to succeed in whatever field of endeavor they choose. That changes when someone decides to maintain the perception that abuse is still going on even after the goals of equality have been met. Create an air of social paranoia by suggesting the ways in which someone is being offended. Get people to creatively read offense in every interchange, real or imagined. Everyone is offended by something so get those kinds of people together, exploit their disenchantment, get them to believe you are their champion, shift it into your cause and you have a following to maintain upset, unrest and social polarity. This is when you get financial backing and make an industry out of a cause whether it is real or not.

The hard question that we need to ask when this artillery presents itself is this, so what? What if someone calls you a name, or suggests your background, ethnicity, appearance lacks their approval, so what? Sure, we may not like it but so what? Insults, name-calling and linguistic abuse are the result of sin. So what? So what’s new? So what do you do about it?

The first thing we have to do is to put ‘political correctness’ in a spiritual perspective. As believers in Jesus Christ we know that all human interchange is first spiritual. Why? Because it is an invisible internal process in the spiritual dimension that takes place in the heart and mind. If that is so then what is it that empowers political correctness? The answer is the spirit of fear. When people speak of correctness is it not rooted in feeling fear, fear of offending someone, fear of being seen as intolerant and biased? Further doesn’t that fear cause a withdrawal from who we really are and what we really think as an image of God?

Hiding in fear is what Adam did after disobeying God in Eden. Every human being has inherited that as a result of sin. Political correctness is a spiritual issue and can only be dealt with when we look at it as such. If it is a spiritual issue then what is the answer? There are three things that we can look at as we approach the subject.

First, it is a spiritual issue not a secular one. Political correctness is motivated by fear and fear is a spirit that can use the emotion of fear as its toy. How I look to those around me. How others judge me. Fear dominates that concern. The devil is the one who employs the spirit of fear to separate us from God and one another. That’s what he does.

Second, ‘correctness’ needs to be defined. To be correct is to be right, spiritually right, right with God. To be right is what the Bible calls righteousness and what is righteousness but trusting Jesus Christ? We are justified, that is, made right through faith in Him. Being right is letting Jesus control every next moment. Genesis shows us Abraham was counted right before God because he was faithful. Hebrews 11 gives us a list of people who were right because they were faithful.

Third, if we are concerned about being right we have the Holy Spirit as our ever present guide. He leads us to think Jesus and His love to release our fears remembering that ‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1Jn.4:18 NIV).”

Further, the Holy Spirit motivates us to be right before God in the presence of others. That is the biblical understanding of humility. It is thinking, saying and behaving rightly because of the presence of Jesus in our hearts. As Scripture tells us He is the Right One. It is our awareness of His presence in every next moment when a decision, choice or course of action is placed before us. “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father (Ro.8:15 NIV).”

John Stott got it right when he said, ”A good test of every ideology is whether it exalts God and humbles man, or whether it exalts man and dethrones God.”

[jacque Wright]

Put it on them Whitey!  You are so right; all that is truely real and important is what we do to honor God. It seems that our world is consumed with what others think.  I was just explaining this to my Granddaughter this envening