Whether Left or Right, It's Wrong!

“I don’t care whether it’s left or right, it’s wrong!” Kris Kristofferson’s line is an important proverb for these political correct or incorrect days. We need to stop thinking in bulk. We need to start breaking out of our collective political allegiances and think through whether issues are right or wrong and not just loyal or betrayal. The controversy over the Miss USA fiasco (those words go naturally together anyway!) has a crisis discussion outside of the one about whether we agree with gay marriages or not. Can we tell the truth? Do we need to be so called politically correct and have other people think for us? Miss California was asked whether she agreed with Gay Marriage. Now was that a question in an America that allows people the freedom of speech and thus the right to think for themselves, as opposed to being told what to think or persecuted when we don’t answer in accordance with the totalitarian rulers. Was it a question asked in a democracy? Well, it is America so you might have thought so. When Miss California told the audience she was brought up to believe that marriage was between a man and a woman so she didn’t think gay marriage was right in a very non judgemental way, the questioner was appalled and declared her answer had polarised half of America. Yes... so let me think for a moment... does that not mean that if she’d answered the other way she would have polarised half of America! So she didn’t win not because she polarised half of America but because she polarised the wrong half! And the bottom line must surely be that the answer was not what polarised America. It was the question. Is it right in the so called land of the free to ask a question in a public situation where you will be damned if you answer it the wrong way. It sounds like Stalinist Russia has come to America!

Comments

[Gibby]

good point. I guess the right answer was no answer, but then we'd call that cynical spin.

funny how people care about this tale, seems a real non-story to me... Along with her of the misnomered named Britain's Got Talent

[George Abbs]

Gay marriage is a much too important a subject to be discussed at a beauty pageant. I don’t find the answer offensive, I find the fact that it was asked at such an event offensive.

[Miz Melly]

I have to say that it was the weirdest thing bringing a political subject in to a beauty contest. I am more concerned about the fact that a country that considers itself 'politically correct' can be so backward as to still have a contest that has women parading around in bikinis for the titilation of an audience and, worse, judged on their physical beauty! Seriously! THe contest itself is misogynist and obscene and I'm baffled that no one is highlighting that!Why aren't the Christians getting up in arms about the demeaning of women - why aren't they objecting to how Judging women by appearance is in direct opposition to how Jesus acted?

[Gibby]

These kind of beauty contests are mainly watched ironically by women and gay men, I suggest (Hetro men watch porn on the internet). Which is why Perez thought the question was relevant. I guess its as relevant a question as any in a beauty contest. As far as i know the women arn't forced to enter the contests, and to in some way ban them would be really getting into stalinist territory.
Anyway, wasn't Jesus gay?

[Neil]

I agree that it was the question that caused the problem. Questions are often more powerful than the answers. We have to be careful what questions we ask and more careful about how we answer them.

They may be no "stupid" questions but there can be "wrong" questions, questions that lead us down roads that end up being dead ends or causing us to become highly judgmental of others. Neil Postman addresses the power of questions in one of his books (can't remember which).

Jesus was superb at not being trapped by a question.