The Altar of PC

I have been dealing with political correctness most of my adult life.  Granted, most of my dealings have been with pc in a church setting because that was the calling I heard from God almost a half century ago.  How frequently I found myself speaking out on topics that simply were not to be addressed in the "product-of-the-fifties" church.  Churches were not to have fellowship halls.  I spoke out.  Women were not to wear pants to church services.  I spoke out.  We at times seemed swelled with the pride of "We're the only ones going to heaven".  I spoke out.  I spoke out concerning what I perceived to be maltreatment of divorced people.  I tried to say, God hates divorce because it hurts people and he loves people- so let's stop behaving as though God hates divorced people.

I spoke out concerning a few items that my study had caused me to conclude are NOT salvation issues when VERY few were speaking out on those issues.  I begged us to be more loving to folks like Pat Boone when his practice of certain spiritual gifts prompted ostracism from many in our fellowship.  When it was not pc to suggest that certain gifts should not be relegated to first century only, I spoke out.  I spoke out.  But I never stopped loving the people- especially those who disagreed with me.  In fact, to this day, those very folks are among the ones that I hold in highest regard and have the deepest love for- and among those I expect to be greeted by in heaven some day.

I know political correctness.  And, quite frankly, I've lived much of my adult life lovingly, but firmly standing against the paralyzing nature of this insidious, crippling monster within the church.  Many in today's younger generation carry that torch as well and I applaud them for their efforts.  I. too, think we as Christians should walk the walk in a "post-Christian" world (whatever that means).  For years, I've said, "I sought myself, my self I could not see.  I sought my God, my God alluded me.  I sought my brother and found all three."  We need to live lives of service.  I applaud the calls to that kind of life by today's "rebels".

BUT, I am beleaguered.  In my day, as I was speaking out about what I perceived to be abuses in the church, I was also allowed to speak out about what seemed to be societal sin that needed to be addressed.  I did not do so with religious nastiness of spirit, but with the same loving firmness with which I addressed internal issues.  Now there is a new "god" in town- one that did not exist in the sixties- the god of Political Correctness.  I use upper case for it, not because it is necessarily worse than the old church politics, but because it has been allowed to become so all-pervasive, so all-encompassing.  In many ways, PC has come to control our lives today and I have always thought and preached that only God deserves that position in our lives. 

According to PC, there are a few "sins" (although a different word should probably be used) which are ok to address.  Corporate greed and corruption.  Failure to reach out to the poor, suffering, and disenfranchised.  Preach on, brothers!  I'm with you on those.  BUT, there's a whole list of topics that one simply should not address.  For example, if I share the true story of the doctor who advised Joan and me to abort our third child, and I then go on to speak of the lives she has blessed because we chose life, I have automatically "crossed the line".  I am being political.  No I'm not!  Now I realize that perhaps the religious right can be blamed for turning these topics into political issues as opposed to the spiritual/moral/ethical category that they had formerly been assigned to.  However, the problem is that no one wants to address any of these issues any more.  And when one dares to try, he is automatically labeled dogmatic, militant, mean-spirited, pharisaical, no matter how loving his spirit may be in attempting to promote thought on any of these subjects.

And the problem becomes that, in the name of behaving like the Prince of Peace, we default to acquiescence. And Jesus, while loving folks deeply, did not acquiesce.  He loved the woman at the well with a genuine love that surpassed the ways she had ever been "loved" by any of the men who had used her, abused her, and thrown her away, yet he brought her to a place of confronting her tendency to find her meaning in men rather than in God.  He said to the woman taken in adultery, "Neither do i condemn you."  But he also said, "Go and sin no more."  Love was his approach.  But acquiescence wasn't.  He called sin, sin.  Not in harsh terms, except to the religiously prideful, but in direct terms, nonetheless. We seem today to be kneeling at the altar of PC to such a degree that we are becoming absolutely paralyzed to even dare to mention anything that causes us concern in society unless it is on the "approved list" of "sins" (corporate greed, ignoring the hurting, environmental thoughtlessness, etc). 

So, our grandkid's school gets taken to court for allowing the word God in a school program because one student's parents were offended, and we are expected to acquiesce.  A physician is convicted of murder for snipping the spinal chord of a baby, surviving an abortion, and we are not supposed to ask, would it have been murder had it occurred just moments and a few inches sooner while the baby was still in the mother's womb?  That question is "inappropriate".  It shows a disdain for the woman involved.  No, it doesn't.  I've tenderly cared for dozens of post-abortion PTSD young ladies in my counseling practice.  I have LOTS of concern for the ladies involved.  Yet, if I address the baby involved, my motives are automatically questioned and I'm labeled a dogmatic "right winger".  I've chosen here to address only one of the many "politically off-limits" topics- you know what some of the others are without my mentioning them.

Here's my concern?  How can things get any better, if we're all forbidden from speaking out?  How would things be in the church today if some of us had not dared to speak out concerning perceived abuses?  What makes today's societal woes any different? I would say to those younger, "By all means continue to address abuse within the church. But don't stop loving your brothers and sisters who may or may not agree with you. AND, be very careful about bowing at the altar of societal PC.  No one deserves such allegiance but Yahweh."