Verbal abuse in politics interferes with our moral well-being

Famous book on the nature of language

Carol Forsloff - Mental health experts have defined verbal abuse as just as hurtful as physical abuse, and in some cases it has been punished with severe sanctions.  Yet in politics it remains a pattern, the type used by many people in government or running for political office, but how about the rest of us?

If all of us had equal education, similar backgrounds and similar training on the nature of argument, then political discussions would be more of a worthy experience.  In fact, there was a time in history when men of great stature did assail the ideas of one another, and even thrust verbal arrows of sorts, at their opponents.  But there was a different tone to the arguments; those with countering views may have been considered ignorant if they didn't happen to agree with a point, but they were not cast as the devil himself.

These are different days.  All over the world, emotional distance is created by an Internet that was supposed to bring people closer.  Is the communication itself a bad thing?  In my opinion, it is not.  It is simply used that way, and in ways that some people use to avoid close relationships.

Language not only allows us to communicate ideas but also our emotions, and recent studies show that the words we use eventually help to create what we become.  So if our pattern is to assail, condemn in vitriolic language, we become, in essence,  a hateful, spiteful person.  It removes us even further from what we might say we want to achieve.

Besides experts tell us that abusive language is indeed abuse and the effects of it can be traumatic for children and adults.

Sesu Hayakawa wrote a book entitled "Language in Thought and Action" that looks at the historical and cultural patterns of speech and reflects on our human development.  Language helps transform our cultures, move us ahead, or create barriers beyond which we cannot cross.

If you belong to a group, where the intent is to denigrate everyone of an opposite view in vitriolic language, will that aid your moral and emotional development, enhance your self-concept truly and move you ahead in ethical and spiritual ways?  Not if social scientists are right.  Instead it paints your personality in ways that become isolating and that deflects love rather than attracts it.

Political discussions have descended to the worst.  With the recent Supreme Court decision that allows big corporations to involve themselves as persons, we are likely to see big money buy even bigger and bigger mouths that spew hatred and lies in all directions.

Should we then assail each other in much the same way?  Or should we learn the rules mental health experts tell us that discusses issues, events, ideas without personalizing the agenda.  Experts say we must if we are to stay individually and collectively healthy.

If we don't follow those rules, discussions often turn to name-calling and name-calling and what is ordinarily called, both in the law and in mental health, verbal abuse. And that can lead to even worse problems, as language experts and psychologists declare.

Juneteenth and historical revisions on freeing the slaves

[caption id="attachment_15534" align="alignleft" width="300"] Juneteenth celebration in Natchitoches, Louisiana[/caption]

While Americans remember the end of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, what many Americans don't know  more than a century and a half later is that some of the southern states did not readily accept  that proclamation and made the announcement that freed the slaves years later.

According to the National Register,  June 19 is the oldest celebration of the freeing of slaves in the United States, which occurred in 1865. For many African-Americans it holds a special significance. It also reminds the nation how terribly divided it has been. It  is a reminder, despite protestations to the contrary, that race continues to be an issue in America. Furthermore political differences continue to surround the notion of states rights versus federal ones, the issue being of prominence in the discussion about banking as well as private business, which were the arguments that precipitated the Civil War.  Private business had to do with slaves who were considered property and part of the core of cotton as a business.

So June 19 is not just the date for African-Americans to celebrate.  It also peels back the blinders many people have that the freeing of the slaves was some romantic vision, as  in some of the old Hollywood movies, such as Gone with the Wind. In that movie, the southern folk were kind enough,  understanding and loving servants who were slaves. And the slaves, although grateful and singing about freedom, remain happily in the extended family of former slaves and Masters. But that was not the case, as revealed by the fact that many Southerners would not accept the end of slavery and the bitterness remained until the official proclamation. Still some of that bitterness is part of the echoes of political dissension in the 21st century. Juneteenth speaks to the differences as well as the focus on the nature of freedom itself.  That's why it's a world celebration.

In Louisiana and in Texas, where African-Americans were not notified that they had been freed for some time after the Emancipation Proclamation, celebrations draw out many people who would not otherwise know the history. The celebrations are a reminder of this difficult time in the United States history and the road so difficult to travel in the political atmosphere nearly 150o years later.

Author says political and social hurts can be resolved by beinguniquely subversive

– Folks say they pray for all sorts of reasons, to get well, to receive
help for a problem or to help another's well being, but a new book says
it is really more than that, a personally subversive act that just
might make it easier to understand one another.

Now subversive we might believe as associated with some country where
people of faith have to hide their allegiance to religion, as folks had
to do during the height of the Russian communist government.

Prayer, some people think, is only the communion Christians make with a
deity, but it is much more than that as well.  It is universal in its
forms.  It can also serve as a reminder of where folks owe their ultimate allegiance.

A new book, Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer
by Dr. Robert D. Cornwall and published by Energion Publications opens
the door to discussion of prayer as a unique experience in learning
about relationships. This is the second in the Areopagus Series by
Energion Publications with editors, Dr. David Alan Black and Dr. Allan
R. Bevere.
"Prayer changes things." It’s a common saying, and too often Christian
discussion of prayer deals only with how we can change other things and
other people through prayer, " the authors tell us.

They go on to say, "But what if prayer is much more that we imagine?
What if it is also the means of correcting our relationship to the
Creator and at the same time of changing our relationships with one
another? Perhaps prayer can ultimately help transform our theology, what
we believe about God, into character and action.

Dr. Robert Cornwall takes us to the Lord's Prayer, a short and simple
prayer that is well-known and often recited. But in each of its major
petitions, he finds deep meaning that challenges us to think and to
change. In fact, this prayer of Jesus brings us to the ultimate question
of just where we should place our ultimate allegiance

In a time of
political divisions and world crisis, this thesis can be absorbed in
many ways, and those who may not use the Lord's Prayer as an example of
supplication might find in it the simple beauty and understanding of how
relationship with others can be.  For knowing God through prayer, the
author underlines, helps us understand how we should behave with each

other.