Political Correctness and Its Goal

 The other day I read an article in which Franklin Graham addressed the issue of political correctness in American culture.  He wrote about the withdrawal of an invitation he received in 2010 to speak at the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer.  He had earlier in the decade spoken out against the radical elements of Islam, calling them evil and wicked. This was an offense egregious enough to cancel an invitation to speak publicly.

It seems we live in a culture today that punishes those who speak truth.  In fact, it seems that our culture denies even the existence of truth.  Everything is relative to something else; radical Islamists kill innocents for reasons that are true to them, and even though we may not understand them, we cannot condemn them their actions.  It seems there is nothing that crosses the line and qualifies as condemnable.  That is, except Truth and those who insist on speaking it, like Franklin Graham.

Consider for a moment this:  a decision is made by the Department of Education and State school boards that, beginning in elementary school as the very young and impressionable members of our society begin their formal education, there will be no truth allowed in classrooms.  Truth in the form of absolutes.  Teachers and counselors are allowed to speak about all sorts of things, but nothing is to be stated as a definitive or absolute truth.  How must that child grow, develop, and mature?  Upon what is he to grasp and hold as an anchor?  There is nothing these children can hold onto as a foundation; absolutely everything is relative.  How must this child view the world and experience life?  A once-young and tender heart created to recognize truth and beauty in their own existence as an individual created in the image of God, being robbed of their birthright by sinful man who claim to know better.

If we are entirely honest, we will recognize this scenario as one presently in place and has been for quite some time.  We are allowing the government schools to rob society's children of their birthright to know and appreciate truth and to recognize that all truth comes from the Creator.  This in turn robs them of the ability to recognize those things that are incongruous to truth and form value judgments.  Instead they grow up hapless, with no foundation upon which to place their existence; awash with the belief that to be a good and acceptable person in society, they must allow for all possibilities as equal, unable to take a stand on anything.  They have been programmed for deception.  When a person molded from childhood in this manner hears another take a definitive stand on an issue, who even goes so far as to call something evil, wrong, or something else in absolute terms, what is he to think?  He may react with surprise at first and that surprise may likely be followed by criticism and condemnation.  Who is he that speaks with such certitude?  What arrogance! 

But what if his interest is piqued?  He has no foundational beliefs or skills to evaluate such a statement.  What is there to weigh it against?  Here, a grown and 'educated' man has not a single tool at his disposal to give thoughtful consideration to such a claim.  Imagine a whole generation unable to think critically.  Imagine two of them.

So what is the aim of political correctness?  Is it not a focused effort to herd a society into one way of thinking?  One worldview?  And the greater success there is, the faster it grows, for success breeds success.  Who would choose to go against the mainstream and be ridiculed?  Is it not better to give no thought or credence to such claims right out of the gate rather than think them through and possibly be led to a place they fear to tread?  There is no appetite for truth and this is by design.

It seems this and previous generations have been taught to give consideration to and accept as that person's truth just about anything.  Anything except an absolute, especially the absolute that there is right and wrong, evil and good, objective beauty in the world.  These are the worst offenders; committing a crime worse than any we are urged to gloss over. 

For the Believer, all this is an ugly sight.  As we watch Romans 1 played out on a national scale, the truth of the glory of God exchanged for a lie and then worshipped, we cannot help but be startled by the seemingly obvious hypocrisy.  We find it difficult to understand their continued willingness to exchange truth for lies, and lies so preposterous.  We begin to realize that political correctness and all that goes with it is an other-worldly scheme designed to cause the fall of as many human beings as possible.  We come to know the urgency and importance of staying near God and His Word, of raising our own children with a worldview based on Godly principles alone, and bringing as many along with us as we can.