Paul, a long-time member of our Church, asked this question during a Sunday Coffee Hour . The "discussion" that followed was unpleasant because of politics. Left wing - Right wing. Political Correctness is associated with the left wing politics. Paul is a liberal Democrat.
Paul asked this question not as a question, but more as a challenging statement against the right wing.
I decided to take the question as if it were divorced from politics. After all, this is a valid question. And we should have an answer.
Our Church does not endorse one political party over another. Orthodox Christians in America are free to be Democrat or Republican. As Orthodox Christians, we are bound by our conscience to vote for the candidate, regardless of his party, who is the most anti-abortion. The canons of our Church tell us this is a terrible sin. Nations are judged as nations, there are national sins. As a nation we do not want to condone abortion. Today the abortion issue is the best way for us to figure out how to vote.
In a series of emails I tried to answer Paul's question. I'm not going to try to put it together in an essay or an article. I will just start to answer this question by sharing the emails. I have uploaded the videos since it is unrealistic depend on YouTube links. Later I might add more material if I find something good from our Church. PC is not the only worldly idea that confuses/tempts Orthodox Christians. ~jh
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What is wrong with pc?
Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 10:23 AM
Paul,
What is wrong with PC?
Is it not just plain old good manners not to offend people?
Definition: Political Correctness
the (intended) avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of
forms of expression (language) or action (policies or measures) that
are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who
are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
Definition: Discrimination
the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people
or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
One reason I think we had such a difficult discussion over pc is
because the lines are blurred between being pc and being
non-discriminatory. (Legal and social mandates are also getting
blurred.)
Discrimination itself is an interesting word and concept. There are
times when it is entirely appropriate, such as discrimination between
good and evil.
To further complicate our difficult discussion yesterday, prejudice
was thrown into the ring.
It has been a long time since I looked at pc. I know of a professor
(world Orthodox) catechumen who wrote a book about it.
Thought Prison:
The Fundamental Nature of Political Correctness
by Bruce G. Charlton 2015
I do not know how deep this examination goes, if it taps into how
Antichrist abuses the good intention of pc. I had read some of his
preliminary articles on his blog, but I never read the book.
My personal understanding:
What's wrong with pc, –– the reason the Orthodox Church opposes pc ––
is because pc lacks the Church's moral authority. It is it's own
moral authority, the yardstick being that goodness God instills in all
souls, pagan or otherwise. The philosophy behind pc is, at best,
humanism which is in opposition to Christianity.
The quickest example I can think of is when Jesus Christ was
politically incorrect in publicly berating, "Woe to you scribes,
pharisees, hypocrites!"
Humanism is "the sense that human concerns, as understood from the
perspective of individualism rooted in materialism, are the source and
center of all value." Humanism opposes the Church because the Church
holds Truth as the highest value.
In the eyes of the world, according to pc, it is unloving (hateful) to
tell a homosexual he is going to hell. In the eyes of the Church, it
is unloving (indifferent) not to warn the homosexual where he is
headed –– to fail to be that "voice in the wilderness' that he just
might hear.
According to pc:
Do not say that Homosexuality is a sin.
Do not say that Orthodoxy is the only one true Faith.
Do not wear a cross in a workplace where a Moslem could be offended by it.
etc.
But in avoiding saying/doing something that might offend the human, we
betray God. We fail to defend truth.
The Church has no problem with anti-discrimination. God does not
discriminate, He makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust
alike. But pc has a problem with Truth, and Satan was/is quick to
take his evil advantage of it to silence Christans. To force
Christianity in the closet where the homo belongs. (Satan always gets
it backwards...)
I will keep my eye out for articles from the Church on pc. Right now
I don't have anything that explains it from our Church's perspective.
If you find anything good, please forward it to me.
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PC from Church perspective
Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 3:01 PM
Paul,
I have looked and I have asked for articles on PC written by our ROCOR
Church. I've found none so far. Some mention of it inadvertently,
but nothing that explains what is wrong with it. The rest of the
Orthodox world (world orthodoxy) and the MP have written criticisms of
pc, but no real explanations. I only saw one place where humanism
was mentioned at all -- it was used as an adjective to describe pc.
Maybe there exists something in Russian...
I found this video, which illustrates the problem nicely. Some
might find it humorous:
4 minutes
Random interviews of students on University of Washington campus.
April 2016
Fr. John sent me this next video. It is good. Serious, a
lecture/presentation/talk. I've downloaded it and I'm sending it to
my grandson (starting his senior year in high school) and his mother
(my daughter).
The History of PC
The Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism
Michael Hoskinson
1 hour 13 minutes • November 2016
warning of "salty language" (f-word 5x) minutes 4:00 – 8:00
Then next, Fr. John sent me a few videos of x-KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov. I
liked how Bezmenov supported, from a different perspective, what Michael
Hoskinson was teaching about the Frankfurt school. I wondered,
though, who he is –– I could not find out if he is an Orthodox
Christian, but I did see (from his book, "Black is Beautiful") that he
believes in the Christian version of creation as told in Genesis and
NOT that we came from monkeys. So I wondered if he was Orthodox.
I wrote to our ROCOR Sbn. Konstatin Prebrazhensky, author of
"KGB/FSB's New Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Descent" that Fr.
Gregory sold through SJKP. I asked Konstantin about PC, if maybe he
had written anything, and I asked him about Bezmenov. He said that
Bezmenov got some of his facts mixed up, when he said that 15% of the
KGB activity was espionage and 75% subversion. Konstantin thinks it
is more the other way around. But from Bezmenov's department, that's
what it must have looked like to him –– Besmenov did say this estimate
was his opinion.
Konstantin confirmed the Church criticism of PC and where pc came from:
About "political correctness". I think it is useless to try to find
anything about it in Church sources, because it contradicts
Christianity. It is against Christianity. It is just what our Lord was
criticizing in his home country: hypocrisy.
Yes, I once has commented on it in Joel Gilberts's film "Utopia". I
said why we, Russians, are afraid of political correctness with its
forbidden words, forbidden thoughts and forbidden conclusions. Because
it reminds us of Soviet censorship. Political correctness deprives us
of a right to call spade the spade, which was a natural human right
for centuries.
And now political correctness is censorship in the West, including
America. How can I write anything about it here, where it is a basic
principle of "freedom of speech'? Nobody will ever publish such an
article here or anywhere else in the West.
Political correctness is a tool of advent of Antichrist, which has
already begun and which is co evident. The tool of those who is
ruling us from behind of the curtain.
One of the things I found in my googling of Orthodoxy + pc was the
mention that "Fr. Seraphim Rose is an antidote to pc." When I was
watching the Hoskinson presentation, several times I remembered Fr.
Seraphim's Survival Course. Do you have this? I think this also can
help explain the hidden danger in pc.
This is a transcript of a series of lectures Fr. Seraphim gave at Platina.
Another thing I have been noticing all week, since your last Sunday
here, is how angry the Democrats can get. In my googling references
one after another were popping up at me to Democrat rage. Not just
anger, but anger mixed with hate. I am taken aback by their raw
hatred of Trump. Hissing and spitting. I saw how really bad it was
in Portland after Trump was elected. Downtown Portland was ravaged --
rocks thrown in windows, tires set afire in the middle of the streets,
spray paint, hoards of (young?) people running, screaming and yelling,
-- whole streets and bridges had to be blocked off. Such a violent
reaction is not normal. None of the Republicans did that when Obama
got elected. I think Hilary is a servant of the antichrist and she
makes me sick to my stomach, but I do not have any rage towards her or
hatred for her. I just find her repulsive. I do not understand the
obsessive, incessant, intense hatred the Democrats have for Trump.
Hey, after all, nearly half of Americans are glad he is President. Do
the Democrats hate this half of Americans as well? I might vote for a
Democratic candidate, but after seeing this hatefulness and demonic
behavior in the Democrats, I will never join their party. I'm not
like them.
I hope you are settled in comfortably in your new quarters. And that
your computer is working properly, and I hope we hear from you soon.
love in Christ,
Joanna
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p.s.
Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 4:10 PM
I wanted to mention to you something I noticed awhile back. You know
I do not watch much news and I do not have one regular news source. I
will notice headlines and only check out things when I want more than
the headline will tell.
Such a time was once I saw a headline that said Trump said this
certain thing. This was CNN. The headline caught my attention
and I read the article. It did not make sense, so I decided to find
the speech CNN was quoting from -- easy to do because the speech was
from the day before. I saw the whole speech and heard the part that
CNN was talking about but, wow! they had taken it out of context and
presented to mean something Trump did not mean at all.
Lately I've been seeing these ads for crtv which is saying that CNN
censors what they tell. And after talking to you (about the Mexican
illegal immigrants) I believe it, because they surely censored what
good things Trump said about Mexicans. What I heard several
times in my very limited news watching, you never heard even
though you keep up with the news and follow it. Whoever is
transcribing those speeches you are reading -- better just to go
listen to the whole speech. CNN might be giving you the facts, but
they are not giving you all of the facts. They are rabid Trump-haters and
they have been accused of unpatriotic speech also, which I do not
doubt either. I think there is an evil spirit in there because of
their obsessive hatred of Trump.
I was thinking of trying crtv, they are not free but they are offering
a free trial. Please try it and see if you like it.
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another shorter introductory video 13 minutes
Mon, Aug 6, 2018 at 6:11 PM
Paul,
This video is kind of a summary or cram course of the hour long
video on the Frankfurt School. In that video Hoskinson is
calm, takes questions from the audience, etc. In this video this
narrator is worked-up, trying to make every second count and every
word count.
This video was 2010. It starts by giving 2 clear examples of main
stream media censoring and manipulating the news. (Not CNN, another
one: MSN.)
In the video it says PC aims toward bringing class consciousness to
"arise as one class", to overthrow national identities which will
bring about the "Paradise on Earth" of world communism.
This sends me a red flag because of what St. Philaret taught about
nationalism being proper for Orthodox Christians -- one of the
chapters in his book, "Law of God."
I will attach those pages.
Nevermind. Here is the whole book. I found it online after I took
the photos... (sigh)
See Chapter 23 on "Patriotism"
Remember that God has given each nation its own angel. And that we,
as a nation, receive the blessings of the nation and share national
sins as a nation. This is why it is so important for us to vote
against any candidate (in either party) who is pro-abortion, because a
nation that condones abortion displeases God. This is also our
reason to strive against globalism and the New World Order.
The idea that man could bring about a "Paradise on Earth" is another
red flag. It has a name: chiliasm. Fr. Seraphim Rose taught against
it.
The pivotal hinge behind pc: which was "to divorce Marxism from
economics and marry it to the culture." Now I'm finally starting to
get it... This is key not just to understanding pc but also key to
having fruitful discussions about it. One person talking about the
economic side and another talking about the culture side, they will
never understand each other.
Something else I notice in this 2010 video. The narrator is not a pc
advocate, he is against pc, so presumably not a leftist. I notice
that he is obviously very "worked up" and "charged" in his speech. But
as worked-up as he is, I see none of that demonic rage and demonic
anger I almost always see in the SJWs and often in Trump-haters.
The last comment I have on this video is the part where the narrator
is talking about all the "studies" (minute 9:00) causing rage,
separatism and victimology. He does not explain this, but I
understand what he is trying to say because of an experience I had
before I was baptized. I will try to be brief.
Before I was baptized I had friends who were into the occult. Joan was
a psychic. She claimed to remove witchcraft. My husband, Ray, had a spell
on him, and she worked hard to remove it, but she could not do it.
This experience itself was pushing me towards the Orthodox Church,
when I saw the weakness of the psychic and the strength of the Church.
A mutual friend, Claudia, took me to another psychic so I could try her method.
The 2nd psychic picked out a psalm for me to recite every day and wanted me to
insert into the psalm between each verse: "Ray is not my enemy."
I was totally put off by this, and rejected the idea entirely. I
argued with Claudia about it on the way home. There was
no reason for me to put into my head the idea that Ray was not my
enemy. I already knew that. The enemy was the demons who had him
spellbound. Claudia argued that it is true, why not at least try it.
Arguing back I said, "What if I were to repeat instead,
'Claudia is not a whore. Claudia is not a whore.'? Does it not do
harm just to put the words Claudia and whore in the same sentence
whether I am affirming it as a positive or in the negative?
Maybe the "rage, separation and victimology" is caused by
the same principle as "Claudia is not a whore." I know Fr. John
sees it, senses it, too; because he tried to point it out as one of the
things that is wrong with pc. But these are concepts hard to explain
and hard to grasp.
love in Christ,
Joanna
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Christianity or the Church?
Something else I found a little later I want to add to this collection of reasons: an essay titled Christianity or the Church? written by a Russian New Martyr Archbishop. This essay was serialized in Jordanville's bi-monthly English magazine, Orthodox Life, in 1971 (issues 3,4,5,6)
Recall that someone (rightly) said that Fr. Seraphim Rose is an "antidote" to PC. And know for sure that Fr. Seraphim Rose read all of the Orthodox Life magazines (also the Russian versions, which had different articles) and certainly he read this article. This article, along with certain of Metropolitan Anthony's writings, could very well be what influenced Fr. Seraphim to speak of "a clear concept of the Church."
This essay is important because it explains one of the criticisms of PC that is the hardest to understand:
How does PC cause and contribute to separation and strife between various groups of people?
Christianity or the Church?
by Russian New Martyr Archbishop Ilarion (Troitsky)
Here is an excerpt from the first section:
. . . . . The biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel has an
extremely profound meaning. It is just before this event that the
Bible relates the first successes of sinful mankind in the areas of
culture and society. It was at this time that man began to build stone
cities. At this point the Lord confused the languages of those living
on earth so that they stopped understanding each other and were
scattered over the entire earth (cf. Gen. 11:4, 7-8). In this
"Babylonian tower building" we are presented with a certain general
type of civil or state society based on an externally legal norm.
The Russian philosopher V. S. Soloviev defined law thus: "Law is a
compulsory demand for the realization of a certain minimum of good or
order which does not allow certain manifestations of evil." Even if we
accepted this definition of law, it is evident that it would never
correspond to Christian morals. Law touches the external aspect and
by-passes the essence of man. A society created on a legal basis can
never merge people into unity. Unity is destroyed through self-love
and egoism, for law does not destroy egoism. On the contrary, law only
affirms it, guarding it from an encroachment on the part of the egoism
of others. The purpose of a state based on law consists of creating,
as far as possible, such an order in which the egoism of each member
can find satisfaction for itself without violating the interests of
others. The only path to the creation of such an order can be to place
a certain limitation on the egoism of individual members. In this we
have the unsolvable contradiction of law: it affirms egoism, yet it
imposes limitations upon it. Therefore, a society formed on a legal
basis always carries within itself the seeds of its own decay, for it
guards egoism which constantly corrodes all unity. The fate of the
tower of Babylon is the fate of legal society. In such a society there
must frequently occur a "confusion of tongues" when people stop
understanding each other even though they speak the same language.
Legal order often gives place to terrible disorder.
The Christian society - the Church - is in direct contrast to such a
legal, purely temporal society. "But when He distributed the tongues
of fire, He called all to unity." Christ did not create the Church as
a means of guarding human egoism, but as a means of its complete
destruction.
The basis of Church unity does not consist of legal principles, which
guard personal egoism, but love, which is the opposite of personal
egoism. In His parting conversation, Christ said to His disciples: "A
new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know
that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John
13:34-35).
It is this "new beginning" of Church unity which creates an organic
unity rather than a mechanical unification of internally divided
persons. Christ Himself likened Church unity to the organic unity of a
tree with its branches (cf. Rom. 11:17,24).
The Apostle Paul spoke in great detail concerning the organic unity of
the Church. He also compared the Church to a tree, but more often, the
Apostle Paul refers to the Church as a "body" - σώμα. Referring to the
Church as a "body" immediately implies its unity, for two bodies
cannot be organically joined to one another. . . . .
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Truth has fallen in the street, honesty has been outlawed. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
– Isaiah 59:14–15
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