A Lesson From Kindergarten
The Jerusalem Cross
Over the past ten years we have seen political rhetoric degrade to the point that a great deal of what is said and written by commentators and politicians has no basis whatsoever in fact. Many seem gleefully engaged in the art of the smear.
One problem resulting from all of this is that it prevents real problems from being acknowledged and addressed.
No thinking person would deny that while tremendous strides in the fight against racism have been made over a long period of time in the United States, racism does unfortunately continue to exist in our country.
These abhorrent beliefs and practices aren’t held by or engaged in by the majority of Americans, but they are held by some. And only through an acknowledgement of that can progress continue to be made.
But now progress is being stimied because too many are now making claims of racism that are quite simply untrue.
As we all learned in kindergarten, if we cry wolf when no wolf is present, no one will believe us when the wolf is indeed there.
And our overheated political rhetoric has led us to exactly that point.
This past week it was the Jerusalem Cross.
Claims have been widely publicized that the Jerusalem Cross (pictured above) is somehow a symbol of white supremacist beliefs.
That those who have Jerusalem Cross tattoos are signaling their racist beliefs.
As a guy who spent years in Catholic schools, and the Church, I can feel really confident in saying that nothing at all could be further from the truth.
The Jerusalem Cross has been a major symbol of Christianity for at least one thousand years. The potent Cross in the center symbolizes Jesus, the four smaller crosses in each quadrant symbolizes the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Claims to the contrary are nothing but cheap smears, designed to ruin reputations.
In a civil society, false claims like this need to be pushed back against. Not censored, for censorship is evil, but fought with truth. That truth might drown out falsehood.
But beyond the damage that these falsehoods do to the reputations of the individuals they are directed against, society as a whole is damaged. Because when there are so many false claims of things like white supremacy, people will not believe it when real and true claims are made. They will have heard so much nonsense in the past that they will tune out the truth in the future.
This is the lesson about crying wolf that we were taught in kindergarten. It is too bad that so many apparently didn’t actually learn it.
Love this!