Christian Perspectives

We hear quite a lot these days about political correctness, and certainly there is something to be said for it. It means that an attempt is being made to be inclusive in the way we speak.

It attempts to avoid words that are racist, ageist, or patriarchal. All very good. We don't want people to feel left out.

In our churches, I think we've worked hard at all this, especially the patriarchal bit.

We've changed a lot of words in our hymns to avoid the use of the word "man" where the whole human race is involved. All this has made many women feel more included, although, I admit, I never personally had a problem with the old way. New hymns and sacred songs are all very correct in this way.

Some good old hymns have been changed in our new book to avoid the pronoun "He" in reference to God. When we sing the old hymns, suddenly those of us who grew up on the old words, find we are not singing what everyone else is singing! This can be a bit embarrassing!

But it's all in a good cause, and within a generation, the old politically incorrect words will be forgotten.

We have been very blessed over the past years to have many great new translations of the Bible. The language of the dear old King James Version was utterly beautiful and poetic, but truth to tell, it was not always the most accurate of translations, and sometimes a bit on the obscure side.

But those of us of a certain age grew up on it, and love it.

I love even some of its more politically incorrect bits! That great story of Jesus calling the fishe rmen Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew is a case in point. Jesus says to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men".

The newer translations say, "I will make you become fishers of people".

Well that is really good. It's inclusive. It's politically correct, but I admit that, for this old fossil, it doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "fishers of men"!

Of course, I do know that all these changes are to the good, when they help us to reach out to more and more people. But not all change done in the name of political correctness is so positive.

Indeed, in the multicultural "global village" in which we now live, it can be carried to extremes, and Christianity is too often the loser.

A recent story out of Italy illustrates too well what I mean.

It seems that a complaint was made to the European Court. A woman, not an Italian woman but resid ent there, com- plained to this court that her children were being "traumatized" being taught in classrooms where crucifixes were in evidence. The presence of crucifixes is, not surprisingly, more common than not in classrooms in that country. This woman was an atheist, and told the court that the crosses violated the educational and religious freedoms of her children, and might cause them to be "disturbed".

The court therefore, on the complaint of this one woman, ordered that all classrooms in Italy be cleared of crucifixes! And this in a country that, though perhaps not exactly the cradle of Christianity, it was certainly from there that Christianity spread throughout the then known world after the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century embraced the faith. And none would dispute the importance of Rome to a huge section of the Christian church. Yet this secular court ordered the elimination of crucifixes in the classrooms there, and on the complaint of one non-believing person!

If this is not "political correctness" carried to an extreme, I don't know what is!

But, of course, we don't have to look so far away to find other, if lesser examples. Not too long ago we heard of teachers in another part of our country who were told not to wear their crosses in school. And we know very well that in the coming season when we celebrate the birth of Christ, it will be hard to find Christmas cards that don't just wish a "Happy Holiday"!

So, what do we do?

Well, I believe that we must hold fast to our beliefs, and never fear to show the signs and symbols of our faith.

And by living lives of love and compassion, as Christ taught us, this much talked of and sought after political correctness should follow as naturally as the day follows the night! Wear your cross, your crucifix, constant reminders to yourself and those about you, that God is love, and that his love extends to all people everywhere.