If you are more concerned about the people you view as honorable being disrespected than you are about those who are at risk being harmed, your priorities are completely backward.
It's amazing how reliably those people who question the behavior of those with power can count on being shouted down with the claim that they are "dishonoring" a person or institution.
- People who criticize the rate of murder by police are dismissed because they are "disrespecting police."
- People who criticize the racialized aspect of murders committed by police are dismissed as "disrespecting veterans." (?)
- People who criticize sexual assault are dismissed as "disrespecting men."
- People who criticize spousal abuse are dismissed as "disrespecting the role of the husband."
- People who criticize war crimes are dismissed as "disrespecting the military."
- People who criticize dishonest and unethical behavior by the president are dismissed as "disrespecting the office of president."
- People who criticize the gun violence epidemic or systemic racism are dismissed as "disrespecting America." (?)
- People who criticize spiritual and ethical abuses by pastors are dismissed as "disrespecting the church."
Except none of those things is disrespectful. Conversely, the refusal to accept critique and accountability is the one thing most likely to result in the moral destruction of any person, group or institution.
Jesus pointedly criticized those with power far more than he criticized anyone else.
Those who criticize and try to hold people and institutions accountable are not attempting to do any sort of harm. They are attempting to do the one thing that can bring healing.
S.B.T.
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