It's Just Your Ordinary, Run-of-the-Mill Sinfulness, Folks

I expect to arouse some ire with this one.

I have friends who are quite passionate about women's rights and misogyny and such. I simply cannot relate to their passion. Some days, I wonder if I should be worried about myself.

It's not that I don't realize that women have rights that are sometimes violated and that there are misogynistic men in the world. I know about human trafficking -- it's horrific. I know in some places women are literally considered property and objects -- that's appalling. These evils need to be conquered.

But, for instance, the Rush Limbaugh comment. Yeah, the man's a loudmouth jerk sometimes, and he definitely overstepped the line there. But I have a very hard time taking his remark personally as a woman. I don't think he said that because he hates women -- he said it because he's a loudmouth jerk. To everyone.

I honestly can't recall any time in my life when I have felt mistreated, demeaned, or held back in any way because I was a female. Well, beyond little boys believing that little girls have cooties . . . that kind of thing. There have often been things that I wanted to do and couldn't do, but my gender had nothing to do with it. I have felt disregarded or belittled by others, but my gender had nothing to do with it. I have been treated unjustly, but my gender had nothing to do with it. Hearing my friends' rants often brings to mind a conversation overheard in the hallways of the high school I taught in:

"You just hate me because I'm hispanic!"
"No, I hate you because you're a JERK."

Injustice happens in our world . . . and often gender, and race, and sexual orientation, and social class have absolutely nothing to do with it. People behave like jerks not because of who you are but because of who they are.

Again, I don't want to sound insensitive or imply that I don't think bigotry and hatred exist and should be dealt with. But I do want to imply -- no, to state very plainly -- that I think many people are overly sensitive to such things and see a particular brand of focused hatred where plain sinfulness exists. Most men who treat women like crap also treat other men like crap -- they don't respect women because they don't respect anyone, including themselves. They push everyone down in an effort to pull themselves up. They have a much bigger problem than misogyny, and making it all about their hatred of women is making it all about YOU. It's bringing the spotlight on you, the poor oppressed one. It's your own version of pushing them down to pull yourself up.

I'm not a big Oprah fan, but there's a quote of hers that I love: "Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism." Excellence . . . and the kingdom of God. Let's concern ourselves with those two things, and the rest will fall into place.