Mark Tapscott: Biden's 'Jesus Christ' expletive is hate speech.
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
July 28, 2009
People say you should never make small talk on politics or religion with mere acquaintances or strangers because those are topics about which many people have strongly held views that they don't care to have challenged by just anybody.
It's also long been the rule among prudent politicians with national aspirations to say nothing unkind about anybody's religious faith. But the silence that has greeted Vice President Joe Biden's use of "Jesus Christ" as an expletive in an on-the-record interview with The Wall Street Journal, suggests that such prudence has been tossed aside.
Biden isn't the first nor will he be the last politician to abuse the name of the man revered for two millennia by Christians of every denomination as the Savior, the God-Man who created and sustains the universe, and who at His Second Coming will someday return to Earth to judge all men. Jesus Christ is, in short, a heavy dude, if He is indeed the dude He claimed to be.
I have no idea what the vice president believes about Jesus. What I do know is that he apparently thought nothing of taking the name described in Holy Scripture "as the only name given under Heaven by which men are saved" and used it the same way most people routinely use the words "damn," "hell," and others unfit to print in a family newspaper.
Having myself uttered such words on too many occasions, I can hardly fault Biden if this particular incident was simply an unintentional slip of the tongue. One would assume that if such was the case, Biden would have by now offered an apology.
But there is no indication on the public record that he has since recognized the offensiveness of what he said and apologized or otherwise sought to make amends. Queries to Biden's spokesmen went unanswered yesterday.
So the question must be asked: Did Biden intend to offend millions of his countrymen who worship Jesus, one of whom happens to be his boss, or did he just not care if they were offended?
Either way, had Biden used the name Mohammed in this manner, Muslims would be crying foul. Quite possibly rioting in the streets, to boot. And if the vice president had used "gay" or "Black" as swear words, folks would be rightfully angry about that, too.
Hate speech is hate speech, whether it is aimed at Christians, Muslims, Gays, or African-Americans. Whether or not it should prosecuted or, as Thomas Jefferson argued, left undisturbed as a monument to tolerance and the strength of rational argument is a different issue. Here, it is sufficient to note that hate speech is speech meant to demean, ridicule, and discredit all who are associated with its target.
So where is the outrage about Biden's hate speech against Christians? We've not heard a peep of protest from the Southern Baptist Convention. Nothing from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Nothing from the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Nothing from the United Methodist Church.
And neither have we heard from Biden's boss, whose spokesman had other things to do yesterday than discuss another veep flap. Obama did have time last week to comment on the quality of law enforcement in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but his vice president's offensive language doesn't rate a public comment this week.
Some will say nobody is paying attention because, as John Nance Garner once ruefully observed of the office Biden now holds, it "ain't worth a warm bucket of spit." Others will say nobody pays attention to Biden any more because he's a gaffe machine and what do you expect.
What is more interesting here is the silence of American Christianity. Like the silence of the hound that caught Mr. Holmes' attention, this one signifies something far more serious at work in the American body politic.
Biden's uncorrected cursing is indicative of the slow strangling by the unrelenting forces of political correctness of the religious tolerance that is Christianity's greatest gift to America.
We've reached a point in which the nation's second highest official can without fear insult and degrade the name revered by millions of Americans, but woe unto him who says a word even remotely critical of the PC flavors of the day.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog on washingtonexaminer.com.
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