A column full of (helpful) microaggressions
I am, quite bluntly, worried that America is losing her collective mind. The latest news story to confirm my suspicion is one in which groups at major universities apparently have issued guidelines on “microaggressions.”
Among the verbiage now considered offensive are things such as Christmas vacation, golf outing, husband, boyfriend, American, melting pot and land of opportunity. Additionally, one is apparently not to tell a woman “I love your shoes.”
All of this reminds me of something a friend of mine posted in jest recently. “That is the last time I will ever compliment anyone on their mustache. I have never been cussed out so viciously! I guess I should have known to start by complimenting her shoes...”
Has it really come to this? Has political correctness murdered the last functioning brain cell in the land? Is it really possible to send someone over the edge by a paragraph such as, say, “My former boyfriend who is now my husband is looking forward to the golf outing he will be taking on our Christmas vacation in this great melting pot that is America, the land of opportunity. Oh, and by the way girl, I love your shoes!”
America is bored. That is the only logical explanation I can think of for this obsession with being offended over the silliest of things. We are the wealthiest nation on earth, we have leisure time in abundance, and everyone gets a trophy just for participating. And our “I am too precious to ever be offended in anything” mentality is eerily similar to the “I will” mentality of the devil himself right before his fall.
Not content with how good God had been to him, he said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14)
That haughty spirit didn’t work out so well for him. Nor will the present haughty spirit of America work out well for us.
But I still believe there is hope. Not in the pandering halls of political power, nor in the narcissistic self-deification of stars and starlets or the auto tuned “do you know who I am” warblings of pop singers, and certainly not in academia reduced to asininity (see above), but in something much more powerful: revival.
Psalm 85:6 says, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” The hope of America is found in a return to the God who made us. At least twice in our history America has experienced what historians call a Great Awakening, where multitudes came to know Christ, sin was forsaken, and society itself was changed for the better. It can happen again.
If it does, things will not be the same. Individuals will be so busy focusing on their own sin and making things right with God that they will have little time or desire to find ever new and creative ways to make everyone walk on eggshells around them.
Let the scoffers scoff and ridicule the idea. Let them decide that the words brown, dog, milk, sky, air, you, nose, tall, dear and rutabaga are now “microaggressive.” If people get serious about seeking after God, such silliness will be largely blown away by the force of the breeze blowing from heaven.
Fast and pray. Win souls. Worship. Praise. Confess and forsake sin. Intercede for America every single day with tears and groaning of spirit. Revival is not just “a” hope, it is our only hope. So let it start with me and you.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Mooresboro, N.C., a widely traveled evangelist, and author of several books, including a kid’s fiction book about the Battle of Chickamauga, “Broken Brotherhood.” He can be emailed at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.