From the Dallas Morning News:
Officials at First Baptist Church of Dallas are apologizing for a radio broadcast that aired an off-handed racial slur uttered by a Sunday school teacher before his class.
The teacher, Criswell College Interim President Lamar Cooper, was discussing the controversial illegal immigration law in Arizona with a fellow parishioner Sunday morning when Cooper used the word “wetbacks.”
“There was an off-handed comment that was made by the teacher that was derogatory and unfortunate,” church spokesman John Grable said. “It was before he started his lesson. It was not part of the lesson.”
Cooper did not respond to a request for an interview, but Criswell board Chairman Michael Deahl said the president was contrite. “Dr. Cooper is very remorseful about the off-hand and hurtful comment he made,” Deahl said in a written statement. “I have known and worked with Dr. Cooper at the College for many years and he is not a racist.”
Read the rest here.
Founded by the Southern Baptist fundamentalist patriarch W.A. Criswell in 1971, Criswell College is affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and has over 400 students.
… church spokesman John Grable said. “It was before he [i.e., Criswell College Interim President] started his lesson. It was not part of the lesson.”
bapticus hereticus: Perhaps a bit of remedial PR is in order, too?
If its not in you it cannot come out. So what I am trying to say is that the comment should not be called off-handed. But I forgive Lamar, I am sure he has been granted the power to change.
Racial slur?
I see less gravity in what he said than in the descriptions Baptists of differing stripes apply to each other.
While both instances leave the user guilty of dehumanizing the person, “wetback” is at least a description of someone’s illegal behavior–not a slur against his race. “Fundy,” “right-wing whacko” and “whining liberal” are all assaults on someone’s spiritual convictions.
For clarification, “illegal alien” should be used instead of “wetback.”
Are you really going to compare this slur with “Fundy” and “whacko”? That out to lunch, eh?
If the word was not a racial slur, FBC Dallas would have had no need to issue an apology and the Chairman of the Criswell Board would have had to make the claim the Cooper is not actually a racist despite his “hurtful comment.”
Conservative radio has its own vocabulary that is used against “left-wing statists” bla bla. Pejoratives in a political context get a pass. Racial slurs do not. And that term is received as a racial slur by American culture.
Well said. And how ironic.
Admit it, Christians give like-minded Christians (from the same ideological or theological slant – left or right, inerrentist or not, ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘liberal’) a pass on scorn and derision; sometimes we heartily approve, encourage or join in. Check out some of the Baptist blogs where everyone from the “other side” is a whacko, fatmouth, vile liar. And these are pastors speaking!!!!
But we all condemn racist speech. Which, as an aside, shows that some sin IS more sinful, IS in a special category, IS under the microscope.
BDW,
I believe I did make the comparison. FBC Dallas, Criswell College, the speaker, etc. needed to apologize because the name calling was insensitive and dehumanizing, not because it was racial–because it wasn’t necessarily. “Persons entering our country illegally from Mexico” would have been the preferable–and equally non-racial–choice of words, even better than “illegal alien,” and certainly better than “wetback.”
However, “wetback” no more refers to all Hispanics or Mexicans any more than “redcoat” referred to British citizens still in England.
But I can understand your knee-jerk reaction to jump on the race-card band wagon.
BDW,
Now, what about pejoratives in a spiritual context? Do they, or should they, get a pass?
Chuck used the word ‘dehumanizing’ correctly.
People who ‘dehumanize’ others forget the great teaching of their faith: we are made in the ‘image of God’ which separates us from all other creatures.
Fundamentalism rejoices in its superiority over ‘the others’. That is sad. There are no ‘others’
in our faith. An ancient hymn of Christians from over a thousand years ago celebrated this fact:
‘Let strife among us be unknown
let all contention cease
be His the glory that we seek
be ours His holy peace
No race nor creed can love exclude
if honored be God’s Name
our brotherhood embraces all
whose Father is the Same.’
This has been a Christian teaching from time immemorial. If someone has changed it, on whose ‘authority’ have they done this?
Chuck- do you live in Texas? Because here, that word is used as a racial slur against Hispanics. People don’t use it to only describe those who have recently traveled across the Rio Grande- they use it in derision to describe Hispanics. It is the same as some of those other words and it is definitely not in the same category as the other terms you mentioned. It is much closer to the n-word in all that it conveys.
“Fundamentalism rejoices in its superiority over ‘the others.’”
Just think about that, in light of all else posted here. Give it a lot of thought.
Omitted a word, meant to say:
Just think about that comment, in light of all else posted here.
Mrs. Weaver,
Not in my part(s) of Texas. And, since the immediate context of the gentlemen’s comment was the subject of illegal immigration, there is nothing to indicate it was meant as a racial slur.
I agree that the n-word is almost always a racial slur.
As a Latino person, I can testify that “wetback” is always considered a racial slur. I suggest never using it unless you intentionally want to offend someone.
I must concur with Tejana. The term “wetback” is always a racial slur. As this man is my brother in Christ, I forgive him and pray that the Lord give him strength to remove such offensive racial slurs from his vocabulary.
I am troubled, however, that so many have tried to downplay the remark as no big deal. If he uttered the “N” word, would it have made a difference?
Bob,
Yes, it would have made a difference.
Tejana,
I, too, suggest never using the term “wetback” because it dehumanizes. However, it is descriptive of behavior, not racial.
It has become a racially charged word because it is used typically to describe one group of people. When you hear the word, what group of people comes to mind?
Words have meanings and we must be careful how we use them. We can use them to lift people up or tear them down. As a Christian, I prefer to use them to lift people up.
Tejana,
Agreed.