Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Pursued by Truth

Home
Catholic
Family Research Council Shooting & the Ghettoization of the American Mind

Family Research Council Shooting & the Ghettoization of the American Mind

Last updated on: February 26, 2016 at 9:20 pm by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble

Family Research Council Shooting & the Ghettoization of the American Mind 2016-02-26T21:20:31-04:00 Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There are some people we just don’t want to understand. They are not worth the time or energy, and frankly we believe that they do not deserve our love or understanding.

We live in a society where the people who can express hatred with the most wit and semblance of class get congratulatory slaps on the back and more cocktail party invites.
Building walls and throwing a certain group of people within them gives us permission to let out our suppressed rage. It allows us to behave in normally unacceptable ways. We spout vitriol, bully, stereotype, and use violent language. But as long as we direct our rage at a group of people everyone else in the room (or cyber room) hates, well bully for us! No one holds us accountable.

Think you don’t fall prey to this behavior?

Take a look at this list and tell me you don’t have feelings of hatred for any of these groups of people:

Republicans, Gay Rights Activists, Liberal Christians, Murderers, Democrats, Rich people, Pedophiles, Abortionists, Rapists, Atheists, Muslims, Pro-lifers, Fundamentalist Christians, Terrorists, Catholics, Politicians, Poachers, Racists, Abortionists, Human Traffickers, Anarchists

It is human, of course, to create mind ghettos. We do it for survival. We do it because as humans we feel the need to limit how much we love. Humans ration love as if we were living in an underground bunker after a nuclear war and love is the last five cans of beans we have left. We don’t think we can afford to love the guy boarding the bus next to us, let alone the cast aways, the no goods, the misunderstood and the bad guys of the world. Who has enough love for those people?

What makes this natural human tendency in the United States even more problematic is the polarization of American politics. Many of us rarely speak to or interact with people who think very differently from us, and if we do, we rarely discuss our disagreements without practically spitting at each other. Many people are unwilling or unable to think with subtlety when it comes to their political views. Most people twist and contort their convictions to either fit within the bounds of the Democratic or Republican platform. This is what is comfortable to us. Otherwise, what would we have to be angry about? If our views were not subtle enough to fit into neat categories, it would be much harder to throw tantrums that others would join in on. Who would we skewer when we are among like-minded people? Who would be left to hate?

Many Americans are stuffing millions of people in the ghettos of our minds because they mindlessly give in to the false divisions that our political parties encourage in our country.

Many of you have probably heard of the shooting that occurred this past Wednesday at the Family Research Council’s headquarters in DC.

The suspect was heard ranting against the organization’s conservative views and carried Chick-fil-A sandwiches in his backpack before he shot the security guard who heroically prevented him from entering the building.

I am not very familiar with the Family Research Council and its work. I actually only recently heard of them through the publicity surrounding Chick-fil-A, before the shooting occurred. Like many of you, during the Chick-fil-A brouhaha, I read several articles with “evidence” that Chick-fil-A supports hate groups. When I looked at the list of the purported “hate groups” the company supports, I got chills. They were almost all Christian groups with the word “family” in the title.

The Family Research Council is a lobbying organization in DC, whose vision, according to their website “is a culture in which human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives.”

Sounds fairly innocuous right? Not so, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which deemed the organization a “hate group” in 2010. There was protest when the group received this label in 2010, but only now after a shooting has occurred does it seem that this label is under any scrutiny.

Many major media outlets have been referring to the “hate group” label every time they report the shooting. CNN, for one, dug up a 13 year old quote from an FRC pamphlet that said that the “primary goal of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws.” This quote is extremely off base and inaccurate, and people have every right to be incensed when they read this. But to label an organization as a hate group when the last quote you can dig up that qualifies as hateful is from 1999 is extremely questionable and dangerous reasoning in my opinion.

To give the label of “hate group” to an organizations opens it up to possible retributive actions. It is a label that belongs to the KKK and other groups that are ideologically based in hatred for another group of people. They receive this label because their hateful rhetoric incites violence.

Incite violence.

Yes, that seems to be what is happening here.

But it is not just the extreme right or the fringe gay rights advocates who are inciting violence. It is all of us. Our ability to numb our minds to the violent rhetoric on both sides is shocking. Our mindless capacity to participate is even more bone chilling.

We have all fallen victim to the ghettoization of our minds.

Who are in these ghettos? People who are not acceptable to us because of their views or behavior. People we can spew venom at because they deserve it and because they really are that terrible. People we can box up and dismiss, because their point of view or actions are really that vile and unforgivable.

Where does this violence of the mind lead? It leads to violence of the heart, violence of the words, violence in our actions. How can we possibly think that speaking violently does not lead to literal violence in the world?We cannot control what others do. The gay rights movement could not control Floyd Corkins’ decision to enter the headquarters of the Family Research Council with a gun. Pro-life people could not control Scott Roeder when he murdered abortionist George Tiller. Christians cannot control other people who claim to speak for God, but encourage hate and violence. Atheists cannot control the loose cannons who spout hate for people of faith.

When tragedies like this happen, everyone wants to blame someone. The fingers start pointing right away. It is indeed possible that the “hate group” label contributed to this event. Maybe it was the inflamed rhetoric. Or maybe it was just one crazy guy who seriously needs some help. The thing is, when things like this happen, the only thing we can really do that helps anyone is to start looking inward. We have no control over others. But we can control our own contribution to violence in our society.

And we can begin by demolishing the ghettos in our minds. This does not mean that we all have to sing kumbaya around a campfire. We can still disagree. We can still hate certain behaviors and dislike certain points of view. We can still speak the truth, with the humble awareness that no one has a full understanding of the Truth. But we stop creating ghettos for our neighbors and fellow human beings. We can break down the walls, smash barriers. Get to know people we disagree with, even people whose behavior and views we hate. We can talk to each other respectfully, try to understand. And most importantly, we can simply acknowledge that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. No matter how much we try to mar ourselves in sin, we are all redeemable.

No one is beyond the love of God.

No one deserves to live in anyone’s mind ghetto.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 10, 2012

Shame on America Magazine (and all of us really..)

Next Post

August 27, 2012 Evolution of the Pro-Choice Mind: Movement Toward Dialogue

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Art Atheism Book Reviews Christmas Church Issues Discernment Easter Ecumenism Entertainment Environment Eucharist Evangelization Family Freebies Guest Post Holy Spirit Inspire Me Interreligious Dialogue Jesus Lectio Divina Lent Life Issues Liturgical Season Mary Media MISC Movie Reviews Pauline Pope Francis Prayer Prayer Intention Religious Life Saints Sanctity Scripture Social Justice Social Teaching St. Paul Theology of the Body Uncategorized US News Vocations World News Writing Year of Mercy

Select a Month September 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet did King Manasseh supposedly put to death by sawing?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Micah Isaiah Zephaniah Jeremiah