It was early in the morning. The morning blog post was not yet written. Some ideas and even some videos had already been processed on several current issues including presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Ben Carson. In scanning my Facebook feed, an article a dear friend posted appeared. After reading it the little voice in my head said, "This information must get out to both conservatives and liberals alike."
I am not at all religious. My wife and daughter are Christians and my wife is a deacon. I am a humanist, yes, the only heathen in the house. The one thing we share in common in this household is that we make every attempt not to judge. When we fail or catch ourselves doing so, we make the attempt to atone. Searching for and pointing out facts, truths, and causality isn't judgment. It is enlightenment.
Many conservatives in promoting their ideology tend to be very judgmental. To be sure, some liberals can be judgmental, but by definition "judgementalism" is anathema to liberalism.
Follow below the fold for more.
Religious conservatives may be wise to reread Matthew 7:1.
(1)“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. (2)For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (3)“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (4)How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? (5)You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (6)“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
This week, Jon Stewart illustrated the perils of self-proclaimed religious conservatives forgetting their own teachings. He showed Ted Cruz projecting himself in his attacks on President Obama.
The piece was hilarious and sad. It should be an embarrassment to Ted Cruz, but it likely will not be. For many, the ideology they promote is a tool for votes and not a core belief. As such, embarrassment is not an emotion they possess.
An article by Thomas B. Edsall in the New York Times, titled Sex, Drugs, and Poverty in Red and Blue America, is powerful, showing what real journalism is all about. With so many cable channels and time to fill, you would think this type of in-depth analysis would be covered instead of the same old stories ad nauseam. That is, after all, the responsibility of a free press. The level of ignorance of the American population is directly proportional to the media's dereliction of its constitutional duty. Edsall gives examples of the media jumping to conclusions as to what ails Baltimore and other urban regions. It wasn't only conservative media, though—the supposed liberal media (read corporate media) also attempted to give society at large a pass for its portion of responsibility for these ills.
Edsall noted that the Wall Street Journal editorial page implied that the once-vibrant city of Baltimore was under Democratic control for nearly 40 years, and that the governing ideas were progressive, modeled on the reliance on government and unions. He also noted that those in the conservative sphere were quick to attribute the ills of Baltimore to the degradation of the nuclear family. Ironically, that "degradation" is now broad-based and a characteristic increasingly found in the white communities in red states.
Earlier in his article, Edsall pointed out a dysfunctional town that no one talks about but that seems to be much worse morally and socio-economically than Baltimore. You see, it does not fit the conservative playbook. It does not fit Mike Huckabee's imaginary flyover states, called out by Megyn Kelly of Fox News, Real Time's Bill Maher, and Daily Show's Jon Stewart.
Edsall pointed out an inconvenient truth about Muskogee, Oklahoma, a red state town. Muskogee is a town where a search on the local newspaper for the phrase methamphetamine arrest yields 316 hits. Two-thirds of the births in the city were to unwed mothers, 48.3 percent of them white. The teenage birthrate is 59.2 per 1,000—almost twice the national average of 29.7. It turns out that "dysfunction" can be found everywhere, but is only highlighted in places that conveniently give a skewed view of American society at large. America's problem is socio-economic, and attempting to make it racial or a liberal issue is an obvious deflection.
Edsall also pointed out yet another inconvenient truth about the red states: based on data, it is obvious that their politicians are experts at projecting. Their perceptions of their states are far different from the realities.
The highest rates of white teenage pregnancy in the 30 states with available data are in red states. While the national white teenage pregnancy rate in 2010 was 38 per 1,000, white rates were at least 10 points higher in nine states: Oklahoma (59), West Virginia (64), Arkansas (63), South Carolina (51), Alabama (49), Mississippi (55), Tennessee (51), Kentucky (59) and Louisiana (51). Each of these states cast decisive majorities for Romney in 2012.
The high pregnancy and birthrates among white teenagers in states where the Christian right and Tea Party forces are strong reflect the inability of ideological doctrines stressing social conservatism to halt the gradual shift away from traditional family structures.
In fact, the map in the second chart shows that the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the most socially conservative denominations in America, is dominant in every one of the nine states with the highest white teenage pregnancy rates, with the sole exception of West Virginia.
Edsall ends his piece with a most prescient question:
If conservatives place responsibility on liberal Democrats, feminism and the abandonment of traditional family values for Baltimore’s decay, what role did the 249 churches in and around Muskogee play in that city’s troubles?
Whenever one points a finger, there are generally three pointing back. Maybe many conservatives should remember that before they go on the attack on our urban underclass and those attempting to help them.