NPR Badgers Lynne Cheney on Daughter

NewsMax ^ | February 18, 2005 | Carl Limbacher

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Let me just say that I have gotten into trouble with a small number of people on this board because I have consistently stood up for minorities.

Having said that:

If the racist is a relative - someone I love - what would you have me do? Never speak to them again?

This is probably a matter of degree. If my grandfather is in the KKK, then yes, I would want nothing to do with him unless or until he changed completely. If my grandfather harbors certain notions about people of color - something unfortunately very common for his generation - that's something I would confront and correct, but it's not enough to make me reject him entirely.

Rather, I would take my black friend's advice: "Pray for him."

The world is loaded with otherwise decent people who are bigots. My black pastor once hated white people, because a relative quite literally beat the belief that white people were his enemy into him when he was a kid.

It's a good thing every Christian in his life didn't decide that associating with him was a bad idea.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

... that's something I would confront and correct, but it's not enough to make me reject him entirely.

I never said you should reject him entirely. Confront and correct is the loving thing to do, imo. And pray for him.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I never said you should reject him entirely.

Though you did say: "You do not reject a racist?"

That is what I was responding to.

Otherwise, we are in agreement.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

"confront and correct" is a form of rejection. I gave you examples of other forms -- you would not vote for, hire, ask to teach your child..... You changed it into being about your grandfather.

There is a time and place to reject someone's behavior entirely, and them along with it: Osams, Timothy McVeigh, Charles Manson.... It is up to God to deal with them mercifully or not. Society has a right -- no a DUTY -- to reject them entirely.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You changed it into being about your grandfather.

My intent was not to "change" anything, but to illustrate reality - that sometimes the racists are people we don't just choose not to vote for or refuse to hire to babysit our children.

They are often important people in our lives.

(My grandfather is deceased and was never in the KKK, by the way - that was hypothetical, in case I didn't make that clear.)

Furthermore, to "confront and correct" is not rejection of a person, in my mind.

I honestly thought we were done with this, but I guess not.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Your concession on the "confront and correct" part is all I was really looking for. We can leave it at that. Nice talking to you.

[Meldrim]

"You sound like a really disgraceful person, using that term."

Sodomite? Like "Liar" or "Adulterer" or "Draft Dodger" or "Coward"...it is merely a descriptive term. And all I did was ask whether Gore Junior was indeed one, since it was referenced in the thread and seemed to imply that he was.