I’ve decided to pull a post from earlier today. It was an attempt to use humor to point out the insanity of secular multiculturalism, using this story as a jump-off point.
The humor used was too edgy, and too offensive. I was called on this by a brother in Christ, and initially reacted defensively, but he is right: I was over the line, and exercised poor judgment in posting it.
The strength of blogging is the ability to respond quickly to the world around us. The weakness of blogging is the ability to respond too quickly to the world around us, impulsively and without wisdom or restraint.
My central point was simply this, poorly expressed: that secular multiculturalism is a poor and harmful substitute for true multiculturalism, as expressed in Scripture: “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” [Col 3:11]. The one divides and separates; the other unites in love and true transcendence of human differences.
My apologies to any who may have been offended, and my thanks to my brother Zagreus who opened my eyes.
Ouch! I’ve never heard the Christian principle of equality in the eyes of God used to disguise racism?
So what color shoes should African-Americans wear? Maybe Asians should wear yellow shoes.
Multiculturalism was in vogue twenty years ago and is in decline, primarily because sensitivity to individual differences must be inclusive of culture. If one is not respectful of a person’s culture, one is not respectful of their person. Can one then see the image of God in one’s fellow man?
Zagreus,
Hmmm … Either you totally missed the point here, or I am totally misunderstanding your comment. The post is ridiculing the idea that African-Americans, or Hispanics, or Native Americans should wear such race-identity footwear. Methinks you throw the term “racist” around far too freely — but then that is a standard ad hominem when someone dares to challenge the PC-speech strictures our postmodern culture has forced upon us.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but multiculturalism is quite alive and well most everywhere I look. And while I agree that understanding and respecting one’s culture may help to build relationships and understand individuals.
But to say that I cannot see the image of God in another unless I understand and accept their culture is, to my mind, simply untrue. In fact, we must sometimes condemn another’s culture. If I wish to see God in a Muslim’s heart, for example, must I pay homage to his culture’s demeaning of women, or nod in agreement when he tells me it’s OK to murder Jews? No, I must love the man yet condemn what his culture teaches him.
Our culture’s focus on race does not bring equality, but rather tribalism and divisiveness, because it is based on the superficial rather than the spiritual.
I care not one wit what a man’s race or culture is, be he Asian, Black, Hispanic, or Native American. I seek only to see him as God sees him, to share our common faith and love of Christ if we have such a bond, and to draw him to God through modeling Christ to him in my life and actions if not. That is my ideal — one of which I often fall short, but for which I strive.
If that be racism, then I stand condemned.
I must have misplaced my funny bone. Maybe I worked in a First Nations community too long. I certainly missed the humor that I so often see commingled with something less than the spiritually you describe so beautifully.
In that spirit, I would argue that “our culture’s focus on race” or (more to my taste) culture need not be divisive… It is the love of Christ that allows us to see every person as unique, in spite of all we have in common as human beings.
By the way, I did not mean to anger you. I had a couple of well-placed question marks which apparently did not soften the ‘shot from the hip.’ Sorry, but I still feel the humor is a little off.
No offense taken, Zagreus — and I appreciate your honest feedback. I have a decidedly sarcastic side which is prone towards stepping over the line all too often. I sense you may well be right here, that my humor here is at other’s expense, and I apologize for any offense.
I would also appreciate honest feedback from other readers on their perception here. I have no fear of criticism about speaking up on issues of race or culture — topics upon which our culture seems deeply dysfunctional and misguided, and unwilling to discuss freely and openly. But I have no desire to offend needlessly for the sake of a few laughs, or even a valid point.
If I have done so, I will pull the post and issue an apology.
Where are you working now, Zagreus?
I wouldn’t sweat on it. Zagreus protests too much. Well meaning perhaps, but we all know what noun so very often follows ‘well meaning’ or ‘useful’ :). In any case, a very modern type of Pharisee.
Whilst the sanctimonious and patronising nature of Nike’s campaign is annoying and symptomatic of a societal inability to deal with true ‘root causes’ (e.g. food stamps redeemable only for kimchi (but think of the global warming effect!!!) and tofu + hiring 1,000 drill sergeants with electric cattle prods would be the way to go if one were truly honestly serious about improving the health of any ethnic group with a tendency to sloth and junk food consumption) and call a digging implement a spade, what I find really amusing is the notion that some people are allowed to talk about racial differences, but other are not.
Is Nike now going to invent a shoe which helps white men jump? Can a shoe help reduce the black crime rate? Perhaps they could invent a shoe which kicks me in the head until I forget I ever had these non-approved thoughts.
Zagreus, perhaps you could spend the rest of your day feeling pity for me. Be sure to lose sleep over my inability to ‘feel’.
If (God forbid) it ever becomes necessary to poke around with sharp things in my nether regions in later years, I hope that I’ll be lucky enough to have a surgeon like Doctor Bob with enough wit to call a spade a spade and call bull#$%%^ when he sees it.
Here endeth the lesson.
I wonder if Nike is going to introduce lines of prosthetics to make blacks swim faster and whites jump higher. I’ve also noticed that Thais, despite their other fine physical features have very wide feet.
Oops…. I forgot to delete some stuff at the bottom.. but no harm in letting it stand. For the benefit of dimwits like Zagreus, one of the points I was trying to hint at in my refined subtle manner is that racial differences *do* exist… and it’s rather funny that some people (e.g. Nike in this context) can get away with mentioning them and others cannot and get howled down by ranting choruses of Sharptons and/or Pharisaically weeped over by sob-circles of Zagrei when we stray so much as a millimetre from the PC path of righteousness.
Bob:
I have pulled things too, after having second thoughts about them, but your reader Zagreus lacks a sense of irony, I think. In this absurd world, lacking irony is a handicap.
Perhaps, BD — I actually didn’t pull it because of him specifically, but rather just a gut feeling that the post didn’t say things quite the way I wanted, more abrasive than I wanted it to be, a bit too obnoxious. The multicultural pinata is just too tempting, though, so I’m sure I”ll be back taking a swing at it before long.
Please check out my http://executivephysician.blogspot.com/2007/10/good-regulation-bad-regulation_03.html from today.