Saturday, July 19, 1997

Save some indignation for the church

By Michael O'Connor / Abilene Reporter-News

We are full of moral indignation these days.

First the All 'Bout Cash network decided to showcase its first lead gay character, so of course we had to protest, take a stand against the creeping moral relativism that is invading our television sets. Never mind that homosexual characters have been portrayed positively on television for years. This incident was different and demanded our response.

The Southern Baptists decided that "Ellen" was the last straw - that Mickey Mouse had betrayed his creator Walt and all things Disney must be punished. SBC supporters have applauded the move because we have to take a stand against the creeping moral relativism that is invading our society in the person of a harmless cartoon character. Never mind that Disney's Touchstone division has been producing "R" rated movies for years. We have to draw the line somewhere, sometime.

In Abilene we are facing another dire moral crisis. A restaurant has opened in our fine, Christian town with the reprehensible name of "Knockers," which everyone knows, at least now that several letter writers have informed us, is a crude reference to part of the female anatomy. We, of course, must take a stand against the creeping moral relativism that is invading the highways and byways of our cities. Never mind that adult bookstores, strip joints and bars have dotted the city landscapes for years.

The creeping moral relativism we are decrying, however, started decades ago. Christians made the assumption that the nation was a Christian nation and relaxed. But as someone once said, when everyone is a Christian, almost no one really is.

Take a look back at the wholesome movies we used to watch in the '60s. Oh, sure, you didn't see people having sex. Instead you saw people smoking and drinking freely, and drunkenness was often displayed as humorous. Sitcoms during the same period often portrayed the hard-working father coming home from the office and heading straight to the bar for a drink. You would think we were a nation of alcoholics.

I was in high school, I think, working in a movie theater, when "The Wild Bunch" first gave us slow-motion violence, with bullets ripping holes in flesh and blood flying everywhere. The first R-rated movie I ever saw, complete with nudity and simulated sex, came about the same time, and I'm not that far away from my 30-year reunion.

I learned to swear in junior high, picking up the milder expletives from my parents and the stronger ones from my pals, all of whom were in church pretty much every Sunday morning. That puts the beginnings of the creep back four decades.

The lines should have been drawn a long time ago, but since they weren't, how then should we respond? Boycotts and letters reach a large number of people with the message but are ineffective forms of communication. Few people will be persuaded, and you have the problem of the law of unintended consequence - giving unwanted publicity to the problem or moving people off the fence, to the other side.

What does work is the way Jesus brought people into the kingdom. The people he expressed moral outrage to tended to be those who insisted they were God's people. But with sinners, we see him sitting down to dinner, talking with them, and when their sin was exposed, he offered them forgiveness and a new life.

The world will not know we are Jesus' disciples by our boycotts and letters. It will only know who we are by the quality of our love.

Michael O'Connor is Online Editor for the Abilene Reporter-News and is an ordained United Methodist minister.