Like the old joke about the farmer who hit his stubborn mule over the head with a two by four, it takes a really big knock to get the attention of someone like this, and McCance has gotten it right in the face:
Part II includes a moving interview with David and Amy Truong, the parents of Asher Brown:
Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times has a further report on the story here, including this statement from HRC president Joe Solmonese:
Clint McCance's decision to resign from the school board is a step forward for the community he represents. We are hopeful the wounds that were inflicted will soon be healed. What remains troubling is that Mr. McCance focused his regret on particular word choices not the animus behind those words. We hope he will take this time to reflect not only on the language he used but on what he can do to make the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people better.
What I Say: We should not expect anyone to be completely healed and changed overnight; you know from your own experience, guys, that big lessons take time to sink in.
But it's a wonderful thing that McCance has been befriended by the father of a child lost to suicide. This is a learning moment for McCance, steeped so deeply in the dark, unreasoning, unreflecting prejudices of his culture. We should all pray, or at least earnestly wish, that he will by steps and degrees continue the journey he has now begun, unwillingly, towards light and knowledge and repentance, and thereby convert many like him.
That, on our part is the truly civilized, humane response; it is also the truly Christian and Jewish one:
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. -- Ezekiel 33:11.Believer or atheist, repentance and forgiveness are what it's all about, fellas. Otherwise, human society is no more than a collection of wild beasts endlessly tearing at and devouring one another.
Think about it.
2 comments:
That was...painful. The cognitive dissonance was palpable. But I think you're right. Even if right now he's fixated on the notion that he shouldn't have expressed such sentiments, at least he understands that it's not merely a matter of "political correctness" (oh, how I hate that phrase). I think he's sincere when he says that he never meant to wish harm to anyone. It's just that there's an entire group of people whom he has never really thought of as "anyone."
The only way people like McChance ever really come to their senses is through continued interaction with the very people they've demonized. I'm guessing he's never actually met someone who is both gay and out.
Probably not. And you're right: homophobia, like racism and sexism, etc., is the inevitable result of not seeing the Other as "anyone" - as a fully human being, just like yourself.
But painful as this must be for him, McCance has been blessed with a wonderful opportuninity to learn, grow, and become fully human himself - if he will take it.
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