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Good Morning,

The recent resignation of a local radio DJ who unwittingly played a song containing an offensive word, highlighted a confusion we have about how we deal with offence in general, and the phrase political correctness in particular.

It’s become such a pejorative term. I’ve not yet met anyone who would gladly describe themselves as politically correct. How often do we hear the phrase ‘It’s political correctness gone mad’ whenever someone has deliberately (or innocently) said something that might cause offence and is then punished for it. To its detractors it’s become a euphemism for some controlling, invisible state apparatus that wants to reduce our every utterance to bland, meaningless nothings.

The phrase was born of good intentions. First used by socialists in the former Soviet Union as a put down to over-zealous members whose loyalty to the party overrode their compassion for people. It was a mild rebuke with a serious intent. And those same good intentions arguably lay behind an encouragement to use language that minimized social and institutional offence, especially in matters of gender, race, sexual orientation, disability and religious beliefs. (Sorry, if I’ve I missed anyone there).

But if the term began life as a mild rebuke it’s become an easy slur. It’s seen as a form of suppressing free speech, used as a standard means of discrediting political enemies or, worse, as a coded cover for those who want to offend people for the sake of it. In fact, it has such shrill, negative associations maybe it’s time to ditch the phrase altogether. Although I’m not sure what would replace it: moral correctness? Spiritual correctness? Being nice?

The key lies with the word offence. There seems to be a broad consensus about what is offensive in our society. Most of us can agree that offending people – especially the defenseless – for little more than the satisfaction of hurting them is wrong. But what if the intention behind an offense is constructive or even corrective? Is it possible that something offensive can be good? Offence can be funny – a host of comedians would have to deliver much shorter sets without it - but as they know it’s also a way to subvert prejudice and challenge people’s own sense of ‘rightness.’

It’s tempting to see Jesus as a paragon of political correctness for the way he embraced the marginalized. But he was also the absolute master of the constructively offensive. It’s notable that he saved his choicest put-downs for the people who needed to hear them most i.e. those in power. But he wasn’t doing this to court popularity and his gauntlet was thrown down for all to pick up. For in the end, this was a man who claimed that a belief in His correctness (rather than that of the religious or political establishments) was the true measure of goodness. Words that still sound offensive – even to those who believe them.

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