I
spend way too much time on Face Book, I admit.
I’ve tried not to get entangled in endless, fruitless debate, but
sometimes my reptile brain wins out and I jump right in. I do read a lot of posts about a lot of
different issues, and I’m troubled about the current emphasis on “celebretizing”
issues and really troubled by how personal people can become about people they
don’t know.
Why the incessant focus
(and venom) about Caitlyn Jenner, Tony Campolo and Rachel Dolezal? I know that the news media loves to make the
story about a person and their motivation.
It makes it easy to avoid hard analysis and honest discussion of what
the societal issues are about. But why
do we do it?
Especially many friends
on the left—where I find myself most often—have been as celebrity-focused and
judgmental as Fox News is. I’ve heard
such absolute moral certainty about what Tony Campolo’s and Rachel Dolezal’s motivations
are, and how wrong they are. (This is
mirrored by the right’s moral indignation about Caitlyn Jenner, of course).
To the best of my
knowledge most of us have never met them. (I have met Tony Campolo a couple of
times, but I can’t say I know him.) We're basing our opinions on what we've read on-line, from our
favored sites, mostly, I would guess. I
have a feeling that all three of them may have complicated motives, and
probably are complex people. I don’t
think labeling them and condemning them so strongly is all that helpful to
understand them. And the real danger, to
my mind, is that we become convinced of our righteousness, because we “know”
what they are doing, and why they are doing it, and why they are to be
rejected.
Beauty is bright colors,
for sure; but also various shades, including gray areas.
Justice is diminished
when we make it black and white. I’d
rather be a little uncertain about what motivates folks.
So…be beauty, be
justice, be uncertain.
Patrick
