My naive reflections.
Today’s first reading from Genesis deals with the Tower of Babel and God’s confusion of language, with the subsequent scattering of man throughout the world. Ah ha! That must be why there are pyramids in Egypt and similar structures in the America’s - everyone migrated from Babel. They not only copied the architecture of Babel, they carried along those common creationist stories into every culture. (I told you my reflections are naive.)
At Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we see the curse of Babel undone by the gift of tongues. Furthermore, the use of Latin as the universal language of the Church, united people of disparate cultures as regards worship and Church teaching. The so-called dead language of Latin has been a stabilizing factor throughout history, precisely because it has ensured unity and uniformity in faith and practice. Because of Latin, the words do not change in meaning, while the interpretation remains always consistent.
Perhaps that is one reason we see such disunity within the Church today as regards faith and morals and liturgy, now that Latin has fallen into disuse. (Another naive reflection.)
Modern Babel: Politically correct speech.
I’m not a big sports fan, so I can’t remember the guy’s name, but a retired basketball star recently sounded off on how he hates gay people and doesn’t want to be around them. (A lot of people feel this way.) The next day he quickly apologized and regretted his statement. (He might have faced ‘treatment’ or what I call, re-programming for his words.)
Someone got to him. Someone must have convinced him it was woefully politically incorrect to make such statements. Warning he could perhaps face litigation for hate speech, maybe lose an endorsement or two, or be completely banished from whatever associations there are for pro-athletes - retired or not. People just cannot go around saying what they think nowadays, especially in public.
It’s been happening in Europe, speech is being restricted, those who do not comply with the new politically correctness are jailed, fined, and demonized - and its coming to a legislature near you.
Bob Unruh from WorldNet Daily has a piece on this subject, entitled, “Dis a gay - Go to jail!” His article starts off:
“Two Christians in Australia have been indicted for criticizing Islam, and another for criticizing Zionism. A filmmaker has been threatened with arrest for using the word “homosexual” rather than “gay.” Now a German priest faces jail time for publicly criticizing abortionists, and in Holland, “fornicators” and “adulterers” are protected classes and cannot be criticized.” WorldNet Daily.
Politically correct speech is the new confusion of language, although its proponents would insist it is the new unification of peoples. We’ve been practicing it a long time. We say, pro-choice instead of pro-abortion. Person of color instead of negro or some other racial distinction. Mentally challenged instead of retarded. Visually impaired instead of blind. Not all of the changes are bad, some of the new terminology often helps to understand the subject more clearly, after all, language evolves. Yet when we politicize language, and mandate terms in twisted Orwellian-speak, then we get into trouble.
We are headed in that direction now. In fact, we are pretty much there.
