Diabollos in the Press

I recieved a "devil’s advocate" perspective from someone I love and admire. I started to respond to that perspective and decided to just "blog" it, without revealing the source or directly involving that person. I think that person would appreciate it ;-)

Note in a previous post that I state that I believe that SPLC was started for honorable reasons and I say now that they probably perform honorable and valuable services still. I don't know. But I do know that their "Hatewatch" website is morally corrupted and dishonest, whatever the honor and valor their original intent may contain. I don't believe that the ends justify the means. Neither does God.

MSNBC is so corrupted that they should lose their FCC license. I truly believe that they are performing the equivalent task to crying "fire" in a crowded theatre, hoping that their cameras will be in place to catch the debauchery and chaos when people start trying to get out. Freedom always comes with a price. Freedom of the press means a freedom to disagree and criticize the government. I does not give them a right to lie. I realize that there is a lot of grey area here, but this issue is as clear as can be (I was going to say "black and white", but it seemed particularly ill-advised for the topic of this blog post).

I am concerned not for juvenile cheerleading for one side and demonizing the other, but rather calling out unacceptable behavior anywhere that I find it. If racism is bad, then it is bad for everyone. If racism is harming people somewhere, and your cause d’etre is to root out racism, then you actually HURT your cause if you cry “wolf”, when there are none present.

I also question whether “racism” really means the same thing that it used to mean. To me racism is where people are robbed of their God-given rights by others, due to nothing other than their ethnic identity. I don’t think it applies to picturing someone of a particular identity in your head for a stereotype. I am a white, WASP guy, and I have a lot of stereotypical habits and behaviors of such a guy. It is not racism to notice this, point it out and even to make fun of it. Our pop culture makes a living doing this. It is also not racism to notice, point out and make fun of other stereotypes. It is human nature to classify people. Our brains are simply incapable of NOT doing that.

Of course, I also think that derogatory humor to any individual or group is disrespectful, rude, very un-Christ-like, and unacceptable…and can be racism if taken too far. Anytime someone is derided and de-humanized it is morally wrong to do so as it is engaging in the sin of Pride, which is the father of all sins.

I also think that our brains are capable of separating the distinction of group tendencies and individuals that stand out from a group. In fact, that is the next refining step in how our brains classify things so that we can process. Our brains classify a particular person into a larger group for general and then starts to notice the differences between that global stereotype and the individual before us. This is no different that the entire classification system of plants and animals. You know, Kingdom, Phyla, whatever, whatever, Genus, Species, and all that business. It is a short-hand way of processing information. There is nothing wrong with that and it doesn’t need to be irradicated from our universe. It’s just the way people think.

I think there is an entire industry of people that Dinesh D’Souza, in his book "The End of Racism", refers to as “Race Merchants”, that keep the spectre of racism alive in the minority communities in order to stir them up into a frenzy to make them easier to manipulate. I will not try to argue that discrimination and racism don’t exist, but I think there is an entrenched lobby of people in politics whose vested interest in our society is to never let racism die. They don’t want King’s Dream to come true. They don’t want people to focus solely on the content of their character, because if they did, they would stop reminding us and everyone else the color of everyone’s skin.

I honestly don’t care what anyone’s skin color is, but I care very deeply about what is in their heart. I am culturally discerning. I think there is an objective truth about how the world works, and how it doesn’t work, and I think the evidence so plentiful that the opposition to my beliefs fairly stumbles upon it laying everywhere. I believe that objective truth is covered so deeply and comprehensively in the Bible. I also believe that the founders of this country tapped into it better than anyone has ever done in the history of mankind.

It is not racist to disagree with someone on a philosophical or political point, simply because your ethnicities differ from one another. It is not racist to think that Socialism is a failed and un-Godly belief system. It is not racist to disagree with Barak Obama. It is not racist to think that people shouldn't be given mortgages that they can't pay back. It is not racist to be resentful that our politicians are bailing out companies that should have been let fail. It is not racist to be alarmed at how much money is being spent, or to be afraid of the consequences of the government taking over private corporations, breaking private party contracts, setting up snitch email addresses for citizens to tattletale on their neighbors, trying to access private citizen's bank accounts or raise taxes too high.

This is just common sense, even of the Thomas Paine variety.

Our country was conceived in liberty. It is the only one on earth founded that way. I've made this point before, and I'll make it again. On the mother of all political spectrums, there is a continuum upon which the USA stands alone on one extreme side, and every single other form of government ever devised by man is on the other side of the scale. All of them.

Racism is being used right now for despicable purposes by "accusers", or "diabollos" in Greek. This is the very word for "devil". If capitalize the word, we talk about the Father of Lies, the Devil himself. Satan.

Bearing false witness against your neighbor, was not placed last on the list of Ten Commandments because it wasn't important. It causes terrible damage to a person's reputation and ability to function in polite society.

This behavior by the political left is an attempt to keep me quiet, or pay a hefty social price for opposing their agenda. It is intimidation, 101.

I am angry about it. I am justifiably and righteously angry about it, and I think everyone should be as well.