I haven’t ever been a huge fan of political correctness. I remember running into the phrase a few times in college but it seemed pretty innocuous back then. It was in seminary in the late 80’s that I learned how obnoxious it could be.

The roots of political correctness are simple and admirable. Don’t say or do things that deliberately hurt or exclude any group of people. The most basic assumption should be obvious. Using insulting language against women, mentally handicapped people, people who look different, have different accents, worship differently, etc. shouldn’t be acceptable. It’s really not any better than physically assaulting them.

Political correctness moves on from malicious stuff like that to the things that we may not be aware are hurtful. Phrases like “retarded” weren’t created to hurt anyone, but it wasn’t long before they were used in such cruel ways that the original intent was lost. Today there’s nothing left of these words except the insulting connotation. Political correctness has tried to fix this by coming up with new labels. Unfortunately, the new labels soon pick up the same negative connotations and you’re left wondering what label, if any, is acceptable.

It doesn’t help that there are people who consider themselves experts who seem to delight in lashing out at anyone who gets it wrong. Using the wrong words can draw a blistering verbal attack. It can turn into an ugly elitism where the people in the know hold themselves above those who aren’t up to date. It’s no wonder people who’ve been on the wrong end of a self-righteous tongue lashing, or worse want to run, screaming from the idea of political correctness.

There’s another problem. There are a number of people who have started using the dislike for political correctness as license to say and do some really miserable things. I see it a mostly in the world of internet bloggers, pundits and comedians, but many others seem to have picked up their lead. The attitude seems to be that saying hateful things is just “being honest” while any show of consideration is a concession to “political correctness.”

I have a problem with this, not because I’m a big fan of political correctness but because of something else. My parents taught me with the idea that courtesy was important. For them that meant much more than good manners, it meant treating others with genuine respect. It meant caring about the welfare of other people, no matter how different they might be. For them, and for me, courtesy is the logical extension of a teaching Jesus called one of the most important, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12).

It bothers me when people regard courtesy as something feeble or dishonest. It bothers me when they assume that compassion and respect for others are nothing more than attempt to be “nice” so that people won’t have their feelings hurt. It really bothers me when they dismiss genuine compassion and respect as “political correctness.”

The way we treat others is much more fundamental than any of those things. It is the measure of and our humanity. It is where all our principals of faith are put to the test. If we fail, it doesn’t mean that we’re not “nice” or not “politically correct.” It means that people are suffering for no good reason. It means that hate and fear are gaining a foothold in our lives. It means that we don’t believe in our own values of justice, faith and love.

People matter! That is a bedrock principal of Christianity. It’s something that should be self-evident to everyone, regardless of differences of faith and culture. People matter, and the way we treat them matters. That’s not political correctness, it’s a basic reality. If we choose to ignore that truth we make ourselves less human and turn our back on reality. Neither of those is a particularly useful strategy in living life. And if that weren’t enough, I’ll leave you with one more quote from Jesus.

'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'