APOLOGIZE? FOR WHAT?

In 2001 America , we are forced to live in the midst of a "politically correct" society. Most of it may be "politically correct," but when you hear that term you may rest assured that it is not "sen­sibly correct." There is a group of whining loonies running around among us that want to dictate how everybody else should run their lives, from the government on down to the individual. If you are into the current news media stream today, you have heard a lot about "reparations for slavery." What is it all about, anyway?

Well, here we go. What these people want is first of all, apologies from our government for slavery, and then monetary compensation for those who are descendants of slaves. Let me say first, that slavery was an abhorrent, cruel and wrong institution. No man with any sense of compassion for his fellow man, regardless of his color or background would defend slavery.

But the movement has now moved into religious circles as well. In an article in Christianity Today, posted 5-10-01 is the headline: "The General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has apologized for not doing enough in the 19th century to oppose slavery." The article goes on to say, "Another possi­bility would be a church request that the U. S. government 'issue a national apol­ogy for participating in and supporting the kidnapping, exporting and enslaving [of] people of African descent'."

This is arrogance of the greatest degree. Who put these folks in the business of apologizing for the rest of us? A few questions may be in order. Do you own any slaves? do I own any? do you know of anybody else who does? I for one refuse to plead guilty to something that happened 200 years before I was born! There is not a single American living today who was involved in the heinous institution of slavery!

Concerning "reparations," or monetary payments to descendants of slaves, who is going to decide how much it shall be? And if Uncle Sam gets involved  in it, you can bet that it will be  a tax of some sort that will affect every American in one way or another. And what about the millions of Americans whose descendants came here after slavery was abolished? Should they be responsible for such payments? If so, why? It was not their forefathers who owned slaves!

Why is it that we are never told that those who trafficked in slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries did so because the slaves they owned were sold by their own people? And yet to an apologetic group of people who make a career out of absurdity, the thought never seems to come that if this were carried to the extreme, you would have reparations being paid to a group in our society by their own people!

This whole situation is the product of a group of people in society who want to advise everybody else how to live and be the deciders of what and who is right or wrong. Then if folks don’t go along with their decisions, they are “not compassionate” or are “uncaring.”

The principle that God laid down is clear and simple: "The fathers shall not be put to for the children, neither shall the children be put to for the fathers: every man shall be put to for his own sin" (Deut. 24:16). In this movement we have another example of everybody being a "victim;" i.e. the descendants of slaves are "victims," and therefore are entitled to repayment by the rest of us whether we had anything to do with the enslavement of their ancestors or not, Along with the idea of the victimization of folks comes that of individual responsibility. Anybody who owned slaves when that institution flourished will have to answer to God for it; he will deal with it -  it is not the fault of those living today.

There is yet another side to the matter. Even if I were a descendant of slaves, it would be an affront to me for some group to decide whether or not I should be repaid for what the ancestors of my contemporaries did! I could make that decision for myself and hopefully would have sense enough to reason, "Why should I be paid by folks now living because their ancestors did something bad to my ancestors? What did my neighbor who happens to be white have to do with it?”

Yes, even churches today have gotten into the "politically correct" scene. But we should not be surprised. Most churches have become so secularized that their focus is on this and not on re­ligious matters.

It occurs to me that if these folks were consistent, they ought to call every Jew in the world today in question, because, after all, it was their ancestors who cru­cified Christ! Also, should we hunt up every ancestor of the Romans who ac­tually crucified Christ and make them pay "reparations" to the Jews? After all, Jesus was a Jew too! But as in most situations like this, consistency is not a premium - it must give place to the god ­of "political correctness " Truly, the legs of the lame are not equal. - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

                                          AND ANOTHER THING ...  
                                                (Boom!)

One of the absurdities gone to seed in most communities nowadays is these marquee signs in front of a lot of church buildings. Most messages on them are a lot of fluff and hot air that take up space but say nothing. But I saw one recently that provoked a chuckle on my part.

One local denomination has their usual marquee out front, and on it they were advertising their... well, uh, er, ... to tell you the truth, I don't know what it was. It gave some dates and then an­nounced that they were having a "Gos­pel Explosion." Does anyone know what a "Gospel Explosion" is? I con­fess that I had never heard of one.

All of which goes to say that the crux of denominationalism is the flair for the excitement of something different ­I guess. I saw another one in our area that was calling upon people to "Send God a knee mail." I wonder if God would know what it was if he got some such thing. T

o quote Rush Limbaugh, such stuff is nothing more than "symbolism over substance." Looks to me like, if you're going to have one of those things, at least put a passage of scripture on it that would give folks something to think about. But that's too dull ... peo­ple won't read that. Anyhow, if you hear a big explosion in our area soon, don't worry - it's merely a denomina­tion doing their thing! – Bill Moseley