It’s always amazing how people use words. Pointing to some social media posts that evidently disparaged the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, AG Pam Bondi stated the DOJ would “absolutely target” hate speech and investigate businesses that allegedly refused to print posters for a memorial vigil. No matter how you feel about someone, violence is not the way to still the speech.
The problem is, of course, that Bondi is pointing to the “left,” a phrase that has taken on a new meaning. There was no such outcry from the new regime when Melissa Hortman was murdered. Political violence is not a one-way street; it is a sickness that is infecting our society.
Language is important, very important. Using words such as “vermin” to describe a group of people dehumanizes them and only encourages violence. We need to do more than just tone down the rhetoric. Making someone the “other” removes that person from our sphere of moral consideration, destroying us as well.
Prayer for the Day
Struggling to understand what is happening to us, O God,
We come to you for sustenance and hope in this time;
But at the same time, we wonder, was it ever different,
Or are our memories dimmed by the poison of nostalgia?
Awaken us, O Holy One, to the truth of our own history,
So we are able to confront the myths that often overtake us.
In the name of the One who calls us to create peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was.
Gil Bailie, theologian, Colloquium on Violence and Religion
The violence of language consists in its effort to capture the ineffable and, hence, to destroy it, to seize hold of that which must remain elusive for language to operate as a living thing.
Judith Butler, American feminist philosopher
But to the wicked God says “What right have you to recite my statutes,
Or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline,
And you cast my words behind you.
Psalm 50: 16-17