Say Anything You Like As Long As I Agree With You

I know I’m old. I know the times have changed. I know I live in a different world than I grew up in. Knowing all of that: I still think that, as a culture, we have absolutely lost our minds. We major on minor points and totally ignore some things of great importance.

The news outlets expend lots of energy and dedicate hours of air time on issues that, in the wider scheme of things, are not very important. One of those is the renaming of the Washington Redskins to make them less offensive. Surveys report that less than 10% of the Native American population is disturbed by the Washington professional football team going by the moniker “Redskins.” It certainly isn’t my first choice of team name. In high school we were the Eagles. That’s a good name. It sounds powerful and beautiful. And I am pretty sure no eagles are offended by our use of their name. But, because Redskins has been deemed politically incorrect and some people are offended, the U.S. Patent Office has rescinded Washington team’s patent on the name Redskins. That is just one of many things our federal government is doing that makes me very uncomfortable. Are the Washington Redskins being insensitive? Yes. Could they choose a better name? Sure. That is easy for me to say because I have no monetary investment in or emotional attachment to the name. I like the team colors. If they tried to change those I can see a huge fuss being made. Is the government over reacting and overstepping its bounds? Absolutely. Have we lost our minds? Yep.

Another case in point. The biggest news of the week was when a profession basketball team owner was the hottest topic of the news cycle because of some things he said. The owner of the LA Clippers professional basketball team is being forced to sell his team. (I care so little about the man I don’t even remember his name.) He was recorded by his girlfriend making some comments that are taken to be racist. It is interesting that the media types are much more concerned with what he said and less concerned that he is married and has a girlfriend. My, we have come a long way, haven’t we? Since the media has played the recording of his conversation (or at least the part that offends) over and over and over I can say it sounded racist to me. Does that make him a racist and deserving of losing his team? I don’t know. Haven’t all of us said something in the privacy of close relationships that we would not say in public? If your response is, “No” I will call you a liar.

I grew up in the 60’s where free speech was held in high esteem and we took advantage of it often. We were happy to tell “The Man” every single thing we believed he was doing wrong. It could only happen in America – the land of free speech. Now we have free speech only if no one is offended by what we say. I don’t know the owner of the Clippers but it is notable that many African-Americans work for him. His payroll is many millions of dollars. He doesn’t seem to have a problem hiring African-Americans and working with them. Perhaps the only thing his tirade to his girlfriend proves is that he is a classless, wrong thinking jackass. Hopefully there is no law against this since almost all of us qualify for this category at some time in our lives.

If I disagree with you please be careful how you label me. Reality is, no matter how you label me; it is convenient but always wrong. You are wrong because such a label is shallow and one dimensional. It may make you feel superior and safe to hang a label on someone who disagrees with you. But you are wrong. We seem to quickly label those we disagree with as: racist, redneck, homophobic, rightwing, leftwing, stupid, hateful, mean, immoral. When, in fact, they just disagree with us. They may be wrong. We may be wrong. But why does having a different set of value and disagreeing with me translate as being immoral and hate-filled? Some wonderful, well intentioned people hold thoughts and values that I strongly disagree with. But they are wonderful people. Misguided, perhaps, but good. J Where do we get off declaring that people who disagree with us are evil? This seems like simplistic thinking to me and, unfortunately, many of my minister friends seem to do just that. They have been to school and everything. Many of my minister friends claim to be open and progressive. But in the reality of life they are hostile, angry and close minded.

During my early years in the ministry just about the worst thing you could say about someone was to call them a “Fundamentalist.” I think what we really meant was that they were legalists who believe faith in God was all about keeping a certain set of rules they made up. The fundamentalist thing came from the idea that they believed some fundamentals of the faith. If one’s thinking wandered off from their narrow set of values they were doomed and not to be acknowledged. Unfortunately, those of us on the other end of the theological spectrum have become fundamentalist liberals. Disagree with us and we want nothing to do with you. We, too, have our litmus tests of acceptability.

Being wrong, as is the owner of the Clippers, does not give one the right to be close minded and hateful. And being right (or thinking you are right) does not give one the right to be close minded and hateful. Until we take down the barriers, withdraw the labels, lower the volume and begin really listening to each other, nothing good is going to happen. We would do well to listen to those with whom we disagree. Even if they are wrong, we could still learn something from them.

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved