Isaiah warns, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

For a number of years now political correctness has been a growing and confusing phenomenon in our society.

The concept of inappropriate words and actions has long since been a part of our sociological fabric. And, rightly so! So, what has changed in my life time resulting in calling evil good and good evil?

The answer is this. We have replaced our Judeo-Christian value system with a postmodern system. This has led both to confusion and conflict and the slow eroding of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

There are two arenas in which I have observed this confusion and conflict.

The first is in the face of our current President. Over the last year I kept asking myself whenever I saw him, “Why does he seemed to be angry all the time?”

The situation does not matter. Even if he is smiling or laughing, the anger seeps through. I’ve come to the conclusion that for him much of what is historically good about America is evil and much of what is evil in American tradition is good.

When his presidential speeches promised change, which was never defined, it appears that the change he envisioned was the inverting of American values. The apparent anger would be his frustration with the slow progress in achieving his goal of change.

The second arena is religious freedom. Religious freedom is being morphed into religious tolerance.

True religious freedom is the guarantee of our historic documents and extends to every individual the right to worship in accord with his conscience.

Religious tolerance is the government giving permission for the exercise of religion. Tolerance leads to totalitarianism.

This is demonstrated in a recent court decision upholding the right of Eastern Michigan University to dismiss a graduate counseling student who asked to be excused from counseling a homosexual because it violated her religious beliefs. She was told that to continue in the program she would have to undergo an educational remediation plan that “would help her deal with the behavior, to learn how to deal with conflicting values and providing appropriate clinical services to people whose values she may not agree with.” (Yahoo news services).

In other words, she would have to learn how to call evil good and good evil and thereby violate her religious values (and freedom).

The American Counseling Association’s code of ethics was cited by the judge as the document of authority in this case. Hence, this document usurped the Bill of Rights.

So how are we to speak in this atmosphere of political correctness gone awry? There are two biblical words that come to mind and two models. First, the models.

Jesus gave us the model of calling a spade a spade. For example in exchange with the Jewish leadership he said, “You are of your father, the Devil” (certainly not politically correct).

The Apostles Peter and John give us the model of priorities. They said to the authorities, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak what we have seen and heard.”

Second, the two words that occur in a context of how a Christian should relate to others (Eph 4:22-32) are kind and tenderhearted. Kind means gracious. It actually has the idea of useful or excellent. Tenderhearted means to be concerned for the feelings of the other person. The Bible sums it up as “Speak the truth in love.”

Howard Eyrich is a minister in the PCA and currently serves as Pastor of Counseling Ministries at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. He is the author of the best selling pre-marital counseling guide Three To Get Ready, as well as Totally Sufficient and Curing the Heart both in 2nd editions. He and his wife, Pamela, have two children and eight grandchildren.