13 Nov 2008

Politically Correct??

This post is largely taken from an article by Chuck Missler - a well-known Bible teacher and expositor - with additional material from a recent article in The Telegraph newspaper

Political correctness has wound itself, like a creeping vine, around nearly every aspect of our society in some benign and some not-so-benign ways. "Servers" have moved into our restaurants to replace all the waitresses. "Flight attendants" have booted out the stewards. "Happy Holidays" pervades the Christmas Season and "pro-choice" people encourage women to "terminate their pregnancies" because "killing their babies" just doesn't sound nice.

Salisbury Council has told employees to stop using religiously-oriented idioms because atheists might be offended! "Singing from the same hymn sheet" is now verboten because atheists don't sing from hymn sheets. Never mind that the expression is very old and doesn't have to actually do with singing hymns. Even Keith Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, thinks the Council "has gone too far." He said, "The phrase has been around for a very long time and is very common. I use it myself. Of course we should all avoid phrases which can cause unnecessary offence, but this isn't one of them."

Caerphilly Council in Wales urged employees to avoid idioms that use the word "black" in a negative sense, like "black list" or "black ball."

Watford Council has banned the term West Indian because "it's inappropriate and never used in the Caribbean". Yet the Caribbean cricket team is known as the West Indies and dozens of British organisations are proud to advertise their West Indian credentials in their names.
Andrew Roberts, the broadcaster and historian said: "The British West Indian regiment won 19 military crosses during World War One. It is a slur on their memory that the title 'West Indian' should be singled out by some know-nothing, politically-correct bureaucrat."

Broadland Council in Norfolk has replaced all the "housewives" with "homemakers" and all "husbands" and "wives" with "partners." Even marriage, instituted by God, is no longer politically correct!

Salisbury Council has told staff to avoid "gender-specific roles" such as 'cleaning lady' and 'ten man team'. It prefers the descriptions 'cleaner' and 'ten strong team'. Amber Valley Council (Derbyshire) has banned such terms as 'man made', 'man in the street', 'manning' and 'one man show', replacing them with 'synthetic', 'people in general', 'staffing' and 'one person show'.

Author and broadcaster Kathy Lette said of the PC infestation: "Political correction is a vowel cancer eating away at the English language. The PC police are not just washing our mouths out with soap, they're dipping our mother tongue in disinfectant - and the taste is terrible."

If only mankind (and womankind!!) cared as much about offending God as they care about human sensitivities!

1 comment:

  1. I hope that last insert (and womankind) was written sarcastically, or should even that be changed to personkind? NOT to mention the 'Amen' said in churches throughout the world, is THAT also gonna change?

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