“When it comes to the
creation of a ‘moral climate’, is there a proper difference to be made between
disagreeing, criticizing, discriminating, oppressing, dehumanizing, and
killing, or is this all one thing on a continuum?”
After the shooting in Orlando, The Atlantic’s religion reporter wrote, “There is a
loose connection that is very difficult to pin down between some of the
anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric that we’ve seen in the U.S. not primarily from
Muslim groups but from Christian groups that have laid a foundation for
homophobia and transphobia. Although most of the groups that are supporting
that type of rhetoric would not condone the type of violence we saw in Orlando,
it does create an environment of bigotry and acceptance of homophobia against LGBT
people.”
Is this true? And if so, how is this climate created? And if
it exists, is it as bad as many commentators are suggesting? Let’s start by
looking at some common definitions of the words I listed just so we have a common starting point for this discussion.
- Disagree:
have or express a different opinion
- Criticize:
indicate faults in a disapproving way; to talk about the problems or faults of
something
- Discriminate:
recognize a distinction; differentiate; make an unjust or prejudicial
distinction in the treatment of different categories of people or things.
- Oppress:
keep someone in subservience and hardship, especially by the unjust exercise of
authority; to burden with cruel or
unjust impositions or restraints
- Dehumanize:
deprive of human qualities, personality or spirit; divest of individuality; to
treat someone as if they are not a human being.
I am going to venture a guess that we all acknowledge that disagreeing and criticizing are just a part of life. We do it all the time. We think for ourselves; we
have preferences; we believe some things are right and other things wrong. It's a natural part of the human experience.
We also discriminate constantly. We do this when we shop, go out to
eat, choose a college, and decide where to get our news. We do it when we
choose friends or spouses. We do it when we decided where to live. It’s not so
much that we make distinctions; it’s whether or not those distinctions are just
or fair, and if we have navigated the process with proper emotional and relational decorum. We all practice discrimination in this form; the question is when it becomes unjust and prejudicial. We will come back to that shortly.
Does it go without saying that oppression and
dehumanization ought to be avoided at all cost? We might disagree about when
these things happen, be we all agree they should not.
So, how do we make a distinction between just differentiation and unjust discrimination? And how do we identify when unjust discrimination creates a moral climate that moves people from
discrimination to oppression and dehumanization?