A Note on Political Correctness ("PC")

​What is “political correctness,” and why is it problematic in the body politic? Why is it not mentally healthy to live in a “PC” culture? Political correctness is essentially a means of branding statements that one does not like, for whatever reason, as unutterable. It dismisses certain words and ideas from public discourse. To label something as “PC” means, in effect: “I forbid you to say that!” As an example, years ago I used the word “Oriental,” a word in long use in Western culture, and someone in the car with me erupted: “You can’t say that! The word is ‘East Asian.’” I was surprised, as I had never heard that before. So certain words are deemed “unspeakable” because the hearer dislikes them for whatever reason. In this case, when questioned, the woman who chided me for using “Oriental” said that the word is “offensive.” (I have noticed that the self-created “PC police” love to brand words or phrases as “offensive,” thereby dismissing them.) It had never occurred to me that “Oriental” would be “offensive,” nor its paired opposite, “Occidental.” They are word pairs used to locate parts of the world, nothing more. I know well in my heart that I have always had respect and fondness for peoples from Asia, so it came as an utter surprise to be told that my word for people I respected was “offensive.” Another example, and one that affected millions of persons for years, was the use of the word “man.” If the Scriptures read in church, for example, said, “Brother,” some more “sensitive” women protested,“You are leaving me out!” When the word “man” was used in speech, meaning someone, or a human being, protests were even louder: "That is sexist! Male domination!” Apparently, some of these “liberated” persons had not learned in their education that in standard English for many centuries, “man” had two different uses: human being; and, the male of the species. These liberated folks did not know, apparently, that they were included as human beings when the word “man” was used. So many of us accommodated to their weakness and lack of education, as one concedes to the needs of children who have not grown up yet. No harm is done, really, if we see “human being” rather than “man” or “mankind,” and it is good to help others “feel included.” Those who go around labeling the speech of others as “politically incorrect,” or saying, “You can’t say that!” are deeply rooted in the American political tradition. In fact they are deeply rooted in Occidental culture, and especially in countries where Calvinism hit hard. In Switzerland, a man was burned at the stake under Calvin’s authority because he would not say that God is a “Trinity.” He had different words for speaking about the divine. He used the wrong words, so he was burned alive. That Calvinist “theologically correct / incorrect” culture came to America with the English Puritans, who instilled it in New England, and it later spread throughout our young country. In time, human beings dropped the theological mask for their politically dominating intentions, and “theologically incorrect” became “politically incorrect.” In short, “PC” is an inheritance from our Puritan and Puritanical ancestors. Secular, liberal-progressives in America are without a doubt the spiritual and political heirs of the Puritans, and so it should not be surprising that as with the New England Puritans, certain words and behaviors are deemed “unacceptable,” and “not PC.” I had an early taste of this Puritanical-correctness as a small boy when my family would visit a neurotic aunt. My parents warned me not to use certain words in her presence, such as the word “stink.”  I was told that she did not allow that word to be said in her house or in her hearing. Here we have Puritanism in a secular-neurotic form. This aunt was clearly driven by a will to dominate others, to make them try to adjust to her ways, and she used her “sensitivity” to certain words to control the speech and actions of others. “Political correctness” is an effort by secular liberal-Progressives and now by others to dominate the culture and to dominate individual citizens by telling them what they can and cannot say. Political correctness is, without a doubt, a prime example in our midst of the will to power, the desire to dominate others. It is perhaps the foremost way that the will to power shows up in everyday life. It is not only about controlling speech, but about controlling thoughts, attitudes, one’s inner world. Not permitting certain words or phrases to be uttered is a step toward from forbidding gestures and expressions. Indeed, I have often observed folks correcting others for thoughts and gestures. “Wipe that smile off your face!” In our country, especially with the power of political correctness, we have entered the totalitarian world lampooned by George Orwell in his insightful1984, portraying a totalitarian, mind-controlling society in which one could be arrested not only for using “offensive” words, but for “face crimes.” In America, a person can be denounced for using non-politically correct language. The response to candidate Donald Trump has brought this disease into the light. Trump has openly and probably deliberately violated the rules set up by the self-appointed PC police, who dominate American mass media. Note how the Progressives, the heirs to the Puritans, hate Trump because he utters the wrong theological-political verbiage. A Calvinist would have burned him for having “the wrong religion.” Secular Progressives skewer him for using the wrong words, and being “so insensitive” to “minorities.” (And note how Progressives constantly divide up the body politic into “minorities,” and racial differences, and so on.  It is the old political trick of “divide and conquer.” Progressives divide up the electorate in order to gain political control. And it often works.) In reality, Progressives with their annoying charges of “politically incorrect,” or charging that someone is “insensitive,” or “offensive,” or declaring words “not pluralistic,” and so on, are essentially exercising their will to power, to dominate, not only politics and speech, but people’s thinking, imagining, and spiritual lives. “Politically correct” is a case of totalitarianism in action. For this reason, it ought to be exposed, resisted, and mocked, although anyone who attempts to do so will be dropped into the Progressive oblivion hole of “bad,” or rather, “hateful,” or using “hate speech,” and so on. Keep in mind what their charges really display:  their own likes and dislikes; and their desire to control others. It is that simple, even though, as with the Puritans, it masquerades as holiness, now called “being sensitive to others’ feelings.” “Sensitivity” is the secular form of Puritanical “saintliness,” or “holiness.” Now, having unmasked “PC” as a form of speech and mind control, this much should be added: A mature human being ought to govern his own speech, and not use words just because they are offensive. Truth will always be offensive to some. Consider how the gospel of Christ offended the Jews who could not tolerate the spiritual revolution that Christ brought. Or consider how the Catholic hierarchy would not tolerate some views of the Reformers, such as Luther, who wanted, among other things, a more open community of faith, however misguided his understanding of “faith” was. Truth will be offensive, and a truth-teller must be prepared to accept rejection and persecution for speaking the truth. (Spiritual truth is highly offensive to Progressive intellectuals.) However, only a fool or a cruel human being deliberately utters words just because they are offensive. When I spoke of “Orientals,” I know well that I intended no disrespect at all, so the person who chided me was playing PC police woman, not a kind friend at that point. She should have asked me, “Do you know that some Asians feel offended by that name?” Had she questioned me, I would have given the matter thought, and tested it empirically, as is my wont. Those who charge others with not being “politically correct” or of being “insensitive,” and so on, are not interested in questioning, but in controlling. That is what “politically correct” language is all about:  mind control, domination. Wm. Paul McKane 25 January 2016 Feast of the Conversion of the Apostle Paul

Fr. Paul's Eye Surgery Update

Friends and parishioners: My eyes are healing well from the two operations this week to remove cataracts, correct astigmatism, and implant lenses that change my vision.  As of yesterday (soon after the operation on my better eye, my right one), my vision is 20-50, rather than 20-1000.  And it should improve more in the next few days as the minor trauma to eyes recedes. Previously I had to wear glasses for everything, but I preferred to take them off to read, as I like a book or iPad close to my face.  That has reversed.  Now I do not need glasses for getting around, for walking, even for driving, but I need them to read and to write.  Instead of $600 for lenses and $200 for sturdy frames, I pay about $10 for a good pair of +2.5 reading glasses. My left eye a torn macula, and I had surgery last September to keep the problem from worsening.  It has worked.  But I could not read with my left eye, and still cannot—except, as the optometrist told me—to read out of my peripheral vision, which helps to some degree. Overall, the two surgeries went very well, and the follow-up exams showed excellent results and (so far), no problems with swelling, infection, bleeding, and so on. I am truly amazed at what I see. The most astounding change is that now I see in 3 dimensions. Because of my extreme myopia, I have not seen in 3 dimensions for years. For example, viewing a tree in the park appeared as though the tree was smack against the hill beyond it.  Now the tree stands out as a separate being, distinct from the hill and anything behind the tree. And colors are clearly brighter, more vibrant.  The streaks of light I see when looking at moon or street light will, I have been told, subside in a week or so. Finally, I repeat my warning:  If and when you need cataracts removed, schedule the surgeries for as close together in time as possible. This is especially urgent for anyone who is also extremely myopic (as I was).  Someone with relatively minor eye problems other than cataracts can afford to space out the removal surgeries.  But with extreme myopia, the difference in the eyes, when only one has been repaired, is so extreme as to be utterly disconcerting, disturbing. Between the first and second cataract surgeries, I was seeing everything in two sizes at once, as corrective lenses for extreme myopia radically reduce the size of what is seen. I have not walked about without glasses since the sixth grade. Now I do. Is that not amazing? I find it amusing that the appointed gospel reading for this Sunday, from Jesus’ inaugural sermon in St. Luke’s Gospel, includes the line, “He sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” Of course the text was intended spiritually, not physically, but I sure like recovery of physical sight. If people crave miracles, then they should open their eyes to what is being accomplished through medical science. It is miraculous. And if you can bear a little preaching from the Letter of James, “Every good gift, every perfect act of giving, comes down from above, from the Father of lights….”  Gift received, Giver thanked, agents of gift (surgeon and nurses) much appreciated. If you are interested, this YouTube video shows how the surgery is performed. In Christ, Fr. Paul

In the Belly of the Whale

Are you a whale? Suppose that you were the whale who swallowed up Jonah, the prophet who was fleeing God and his assigned task. What would have happened to Jonah inside your belly? What would have happened to you, swallowing Jonah whole?

The father of a close friend in high school was a Professor of Forestry at the University of Montana in Missoula. Les Pengelly had a considerable impact on my life. While in high school, he urged me to read good books. I distinctly remember him recommending Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and Plato’s Republic. Other than the Gospels and letters of the Apostle Paul, no book has so formed me as Plato’s Republic, a study of well-ordered political life, and more fundamentally, a well-ordered, rational human life. From Plato I learned to think, or more correctly, to reason; and I learned that reasoning is our human way of sharing in the mind of God. Reason keeps us from being innerly empty.

Professor Pengelly had a problem. He had no faith in God. On several occasions, he told me what happened to him as a boy growing up in a small town in northern Michigan. Having an inquiring mind, he could not understand the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, and then living. So he asked his minister about it. The answer he was given was: “It is in the Bible, therefore it is true, and you must believe it.” As he saw it, the boy had to choose: what seemed reasonable to him, or the Bible. He chose the way of scientific study and questioning, and rejected the Bible. And while giving up the Bible, Les gave up any kind of belief in God. So when I knew Dr. Pengelly, a man whom I revered, I was puzzled by his agnosticism, which is another word for functional atheism. What I did not understand, when I was young, is that this learned professor was not as rational as he thought he was. Had he truly chosen reason, he would realized that Jonah is a story rich in meaning, not meant to be taken literally. He would have seen his minister as a fundamentalist who had renounced right reasoning. Professor Pengelly could have used his reason properly, not rejected God, but renounced a literal reading of a sacred book. Had he done this, Pengelly would have followed Plato, who in the Republic criticized Homer, the great poet of Greece, for misrepresenting the gods or God. Reason surpasses poetry and myths, and sees them for what they are.

Plato also notes that if a human being is not open to God by the age of about ten, that person will never be well ordered within. He will never learn to reason properly, which is man’s way of sharing in God moving him from within his soul. We can say: Without loving trust in God within, one will always be empty inside, like the belly of a hungry whale. Here is the difference: a hungry whale can eat and be satisfied; but without the divine within, a human being is prey to stuffing itself with things that will not satisfy or make one happy or blessed: drugs; ideologies; large doses of entertainment; restless money-making; frenetic activity; drives for power, lust, stuff. God works through reasoning open to truth, to reality. The whole cosmos is alive with God’s ordering presence and guidance, even the whale, even man in his search for God.

Epiphany

“If a tree falls in the woods, and there was no one present, did it make a sound?” The Incarnation of God become flesh was hidden at Christmas, except to Mary and the adoring angels. On Epiphany we celebrate our recognition of the Incarnation, of God become flesh in Christ. Put differently: God has manifested himself to us in Christ. The wise men represent us, the nations, the Gentiles, coming to the light of Christ.

By faith we are fascinated by Jesus of Nazareth, and find in him the God whom we are seeking. By faith, we are aware that the same God continues to incarnate himself in us, the Body of Christ in history. Through the open door of faith, the light of the eternal God streams into our minds, enlightening us with the wisdom of humility and love. Because of this experience of enlightenment through faith, in the early church, baptism, which was practiced primarily on consenting adults, was called “photismos,” enlightening. It was not just a water bath, an immersion into a stream, but a public celebration of an inward response to the light of Christ flooding the mind and soul of a human being.

Because you and I have been enlightened by faith in Christ, we are here now, at this Eucharist. “We give thanks to Thee, o God, for thy great glory.” Because we remain open to receiving Christ’s love and wisdom, we are motivated to live each day with a sense of purpose and energy. Because we have received God’s mercy in Christ, we seek to extend his mercy to those who are lost, fallen, cut off.

“Epiphany” means “Manifestation.” God has manifested himself to you, and is manifesting himself to you. Are you aware of how God manifests himself to you, or displays his goodness and wisdom to you? If you see light, you are beholding Christ. How do you manifest our Lord to those whom you meet?

I wish all of our parishioners, families, friends a happy, blessed, safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year. Please remember to drive safely and soberly. Let’s live each day as a gift, for it is.

​Peace.