Political Correctness? Give Me a Break!

[HKHaugan]

Political Correctness? Give Me a Break!

What we have been doing in these postings is to develop a set of principles by which we can walk along the path of transformation from sin to perfection. We haven’t necessarily named them as principles along the way but in this one we will. When Paul told us that we need to be transformed by the renewal of our mind it means we have to evaluate what we use for authority to think, decide and act. The Lord God has given us a mind (we are an image of His mind), a heart to feel (we are an image of His heart) and a spirit to motivate and act (we are an image of His Spirit). So upon what do we base our choices and decisions? If we are images of God but separated from Him by sin how do we move from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, from self-righteousness to Jesus-righteousness, from being wrong to being right?

In the last posting we saw the rich young man sadly leaving Jesus because he wouldn’t trust Jesus and the path to perfection He offered. It’s a ‘night and day’ path. That path is transferring our dependency on self and the world to dependency on Jesus and His Word. It’s a transforming path upon which we walk every next moment believing Jesus with our mind, trusting Jesus with our heart and being motivated to act by faith in Jesus with our spirit.

Let’s be specific and look at a cultural reality influencing much that we do in the secular world. Secularism is the word we use to define a God-less atmosphere, society without God. Minds without God have to invent ways of regulating social interchange. The latest and most influential is not new but it is effective. It blends guilt and ethnicity to create cowering communal unity and employs offense as its medium.

This latest strategy is offense. Being offended has become a lifestyle. It’s tag is ‘political correctness.’ It is a spiritual missile, an attitudinal spear, the devil has thrown from his pit into the public arena. If you analyze this attitude you’ll find it’s fueled by his favorite spirit, the spirit of fear, exploiting relational pain, the need for recognition and promoted to induce guilt. It results in internal suppressed anger and external relational dishonesty. All of it is inspired by sin.

Frankly, I tend to take offense at being offended by people who feel offended because they live looking to be offended by offenders who themselves are offensively offending offenders whose offense is really self-offense. When that attitude takes hold it spreads until you have coalitions of ‘offended people’ who support one another’s resentments and insecurities. This ends up as social paranoia which has become an epidemic of fear, pride, anger and self-isolation. It cripples the freedom to be an open honest person. It is the automatic assumption that every look, body motion, verbal expression and intention is directed at me because of the externals that mark me as different.

Actually what taking offense does is to perpetuate judgment based on differences. It produces the opposite result of what was initially desired and that is social acceptance regardless of ethnic, gender or social background. A great ideal but it’s unrealistic because guilt producing activity only buries what is really going on in a person’s mind and heart that needs changing. To drive something underground only increases divisiveness and social unrest. It only gets people more consciously aware of superficial differences. This is basically how the secular world tries to bring about whatever the trendy idea of perfection in equality is for the moment. It’s interesting watching politicians squirm and grovel under its power as they seek to maintain equilibrium. They spend their time trying to placate the masses in this vast sea of paranoid hysteria. It’s interesting to watch even football players and corporate executives crumble under its bitter vindictiveness.

The antidote would be to understand the simple biblical principle, “There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear (1Jn.4:18).” The love of God as seen in Jesus is the force that enables one to stand in the middle of turmoil and deal relationally with each and every non-God spirit, attitude and expression and deal with it honestly. God’s love is what cleaned out the Temple filled with the money changers and secular evil that had jammed its courtyard. God’s love was what Jesus showed when the guards arrested Him, the religious leaders betrayed Him and the Roman government executed Him. He never backed down in the face of Pontius Pilate, the high priest Caiaphas or the ultimate moment when He was nailed to the Cross.

When Jesus had to face being called down for hanging out with drunkards, prostitutes, the lower classes and Gentiles, He stood strong and continued to stand strong. In one case when the leaders of a synagogue wanted to throw Him off a cliff He walked right through the middle of them. Jesus’ love reached into the hearts of people beset with ethnic judgmentalism, political fear and social indifference. Jesus’ love broke through the religious, political and social barriers in His meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, His dinner with Zacchaeus the tax collector, His healing of the lepers and His meeting with the Roman centurion who wanted Him to heal his servant.

What does that say to us in our time? As far as political correctness is concerned we need simple honesty in our conversation, judgment based on the Word and entering every next moment with our consciousness of the Lord’s love and presence. If paranoia is the condition of someone we are talking to, pray in the heart, listen patiently, discern the fear, the attitude it fosters and speak to it in love. Many times you are not hearing the person but the fear that has shaped their attitude. It’s not necessary to respond to their emotion but rather to the spirit that is behind it. God’s love is not ‘Casper Milquetoast’ and his advisors, who will walk over you in a ‘New York minute.’ No. God’s love will enable you to sense what the moment holds and respond in faith. Jesus always was guided by His Father’s will and the desire to please His Father wherever He was. So any disciple of Jesus knows that Paul’s call is clear when he says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col.3:17).”