Last night I went to York Minster for their yearly Carol Service. Being an atheist, it’s the first time I’ve been to a church service in a number of years, but it looks pretty, Christmas songs remind Fourme of being a child, and my Christian housemate was keen on going (and not going alone), so four of the five people in our house attended.
I hear churches are cold, so I dressed accordingly, and looked bloody cute, to boot. I wish I had pictures, but you’ll just have to go with a description: bright pink cartoon-pattern vest top, black tights, brown boots, brown skirt, ‘nude’ backless dress, brown boyfriend cardigan, my new beige lipsy coat. Layers ahoy! I was even organised enough to throw on a pink scarf, and plait my hair.
We waited in the queue for a long time, but some very nice volunteers brought round free coffee. York looked beautiful: lights everywhere, ice sculptures in the shambles, all very festive.
The service was mostly very nice. The choir sang beautifully. I enjoyed belting our the carols. The ’skits’ were not really to my taste, but the acting was good and my friends seemed to enjoy them. The preaching about Christianity was engaging and interesting, even to an Atheist like myself (I enjoy learning about religion!).
But I didn’t enjoy listening to the Reverend Jim Roberts.
Now, if Jim Roberts, or someone who knows him, is ever to find this page — it’s not a personal attack. He seemed like a nice guy, he spoke reasonably well, and he said goodbye to us after the service. I have no beef with this guy, at all. But his subject matter grated me the wrong way.
When I go to Church, I am prepared to listen (and to listen respectfully) to a fair amount of things I, personally, disagree with. It is par for the course when attending a function held by an organisation based on a completely differing point of view to you. I would not usually openly criticise talks given at such an event — but the talks last night reminded me of a topic that I have been meaning to articulate for a while, and that is: why does the complaining, the joking, and the anecdotes of ‘Political Correctness Gone Mad!!!’ bother me so much?
For his first talk, the Reverend Jim Roberts read what seemed to be a version of this ‘politically correct Christmas greeting’:
Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;
Additionally,
a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2000, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.
(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)
It got a big laugh in the minster — as, of course, it was meant to. It would have been strange to me if it hadn’t. ‘Political Correctness gone mad’ is a staple of British humour at the moment, one that my liberal friends seem to perpetuate just as much as Conservatives.
I’ve been told about people being banned from saying ‘blackboard’ and told to say ‘chalkboard’ instead (I have not been able to find the origin of this claim at all), I’ve been told about Christmas being ‘banned’ (as though local councils have any power to stop people celebrating their holiday of choice – see an interesting take from a Catholic on this topic here). I’ve heard many other anecdotes from people who are not trying to enter a real debate about Political Correctness, but are already committed to the view it is clearly insane, a view that as a reasonable person, they expect (or demand) that I share.
Well, what’s wrong with that?
Even if the anecdotes aren’t true, surely these jokes are just a bit of fun? Many jokes contain very little to no truth, and we laugh at them anyway. Where’s the harm?
The harm comes from the fact that those telling the jokes, and those hearing the jokes, believe them implicitly. I’m not sure why this happens, but I do believe that it is harmful. When millions of people come to believe that political correctness bans them from celebrating Christmas because it offends Muslims, it adds yet more racial and religious tension over a feud that doesn’t exist. When people are told that referring to ‘black coffee’ is offensive to black people, they have a knee-jerk reaction that writes Political Correctness off immediately, leading them to never again consider changing figures of speech that may actually be offensive, terms that may actually upset or malign a person of a certain ethnicity.
The fact is, that when Political Correctness is stripped to the bare bones of it’s philosophy, most reasonable, non-bigoted people agree with the idea.
It boils down to this: think before you speak. Be aware of the context of the words that you use, and why they might be harmful. Be willing to change your language and attitude if you realise something is hurtful, but didn’t before. Be willing to educate yourself without getting defensive. Accept that some things we’ve been doing ‘forever’ might be wrong anyway. Understand that language can be powerful.
We can enter a debate about which terms should be considered ‘politically incorrect’ — in fact, I think it is vital. But there is no argument that Political Correctness itself is a good idea, regardless of whether specific instances of it may or may not be. Please, for the sake of this Very Nice Idea, take everything you see that mentions the phrase ‘Political Correctness gone Mad’ with a pinch of salt, and don’t write off ‘the PC brigade’ as a bunch of loonies. Political Correctness has gotten a bad rap, but I believe it is vital to the progress of our language and our culture. Maybe it just needs a bit of rebranding.
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You know, I think that’s true. I sorta think the political-correctness-joke stuff goes a little far sometimes (and by that I mean it’s just not funny). There’s something to political correctness, though, if for no other reason that it’s good training for how to speak kindly.
Stephen Rossi: thank you for your thoughtful comment. I’m just trying to get the message out there that ‘political correctness’ is really just ‘not being rude’
Yes, I think the term Political Correctness itself is a sort of dismissal. The good reverend certainly respects PC when it comes to, for example, people not using profanity in church…