God Squad: Ten Paces at High Noon

We’re both easily offended and trigger-happy. What could go wrong?

We have become a most tediously offended people.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones” and “water off a duck’s back” seem quaint and anachronistic in today’s culture of maximal aggrievement. Provoked by even the slightest offense — that, mind you, we seem to be on constant vigilance to find — we’re on a hair trigger that sends us into conjuring up “us vs. them” and “good vs. evil” thinking and language. Of course, we’re quick to assign ill will and bad behavior to “those people,” while simultaneously ignoring the very same behavior in people who see things our way. Sometimes, this cultural moment we’re in — always poised to defend our group’s honor against all who would question our righteousness — can get far worse than ruffled feathers and the silent treatment. This Manichean world view can lead to violence.

Scholars have written that this sad state of affairs reflects a wider shift in our culture, from what they call a “dignity culture” to an “honor and victimhood culture.” Humanity has been here before (in the days of yore when the Secretary of the Treasury killed a sitting vice president, or that one time a U.S. Senator was caned on the Senate floor) — and it doesn’t end well.

Can we do better than the lunkheads playing to the TV cameras who we sadly too often elect to represent us? Pretty please?

Thank goodness that God Squad is going to have a thing or two to say about this.

Joining us for this God Squad will be Latricia Scrivens of Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, Tim Holeda of the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Josh Hall of First Baptist Church Tallahassee, Rabbi Paul Sidlofsky of Temple Israel, Joseph Davis Jr. of Truth Gatherers Community Church, and Stefanie Posner of Temple Israel.

(Photo credit.)

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