Tuesday 4 February 2014

The Right-wing & Business in America

Last Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday -- I missed it.  Not Sunday, that was pretty usual - two worship services and some reading in the afternoon.  But I care so much about American Football that if it weren't for all the noise on Facebook, I'd not even known the Super Bowl was being played, let alone who was playing in it.  If it's possible, Guyanese care less about American Football than I do.
   But that is not my point.  Also because it was on Facebook, I learned about the 'controversial' advertisements -- One showing a mixed-race family; the other featuring America the Beautiful sung in multiple languages and including a brief shot of two 'dads' roller skating with a young 'daughter.'  The invective about such racial mixing in comments on the first prompted General Mills to disable comments. The second, a Coke ad, engendered comments stating that English is the only proper language for that song; apparently the line from the end of the verse, And crown thy good with Brotherhood, notwithstanding. Today I note that a recent episode of "Good Luck Charlie," a Disney show about a family with a young daughter, included a playdate with another girl who has two moms.  Some were outraged that Disney would expose children to such 'aberrant behaviour.'
   What should we make of all this?  The message to the political and religious right is simple: Business has moved on.  Those who are in the business of selling things to people will gladly sell them to whomever will buy them.  In order to do that, it's important to show people using your product -- all the people who might buy it.  I remember when the only Black people you saw in advertisements were in magazines like Ebony, and the white family with mom and dad and two kids and a dog was pretty much standard everywhere else.  But times change and businesses adjust.
   Christians adjust, too, because our understanding of what the Good News is changes.  We are no longer content to say that slaves should obey their masters and be happy; we [some of us, at least] no longer think that only men can be leaders and Pastors and Bishops; and, yes, we [again, some] understand that faithful couples come in more than one variety, and that families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  To state the obvious: The Gospel is not Good News if it isn't good news.  We love to live by the Law, by rules about what is right and what is wrong.  We like them to be immutable. But as a professor told me many years ago, rules only work on a sports field - trying to live the Gospel by following rules doesn't work.  There is only one Gospel rule: Love one another. [John 13:34]  What shape that Love takes changes with every situation and from age to age.
   I hope those of you who watched enjoyed the Super Bowl.  I watched the commercials on Youtube and liked them.  And I'm glad that at least business is trying to reach out to the diversity which is America.

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