Written by Suzanne Titkemeyer and originally published at No Longer Quivering Patheos on June 1, 2018
I guess you’ve heard by now of this week’s newest societal outrage – the racist and cruel words by comedienne and actress Roseanne Barr? Who hasn’t?
For those that didn’t it was a mean tweet issued by Ms. Barr comparing a member of the Obama administration, Valerie Jarrett, to the misbegotten offspring of two disparate groups. It was petty and insulting, not to mention quite childish for someone who is a grandmother to post. But then again we are living in the era of a president that thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to do things like call groups of human beings ‘animals’, and Roseanne Barr is a big supporter of our president. She’s also been busy doing what evangelicals do when caught doing something awful, martyrbating.
Why is she martyrbating? Because there has been some pretty dramatic consequences to her spewing out disgraceful comparisons on Twitter. ABC canceled her new television show, a reboot of “Roseanne”. The companies who have been streaming the reruns of the original sitcom from the 1980s have all pulled access to the show. Roseanne is being effectively punished for her ugly words and racism while trying to blame her slip on Ambien, and other ridiculous reasons instead of just manning up and admitting she’s said something unacceptable. Admit it, apologize, stop trying to blame anyone else and move on.
Normally this is not a topic I would cover for No Longer Quivering, but it becomes one the instant I see Evangelicals and Quiverfulls jump into the fray to either deny or defend this bad behavior. Earlier today I read a piece by Patheos Catholic blogger Dave Armstrong of Biblical Evidence for Catholicism where his entire theme was ‘Hey buddy, Roseanne is no conservative!’ followed by that standard Evangelical response of ‘everyone stop saying bad things right now!’ even as he tries to couch it in words indicating that everyone must apologize.
Armstrong never addresses the real issue here, that the election of Donald Trump and chorus of approval of his methods by Conservatives and those in religions, like Catholics and Evangelicals, drives this very behavior. It kills any civility in our nation, it’s all Jerry Springer show-like much of the time. Which leads to foot in mouth incidents like this. If, big if, they were all attempting to follow the rules they bray about being so Biblical and important this shouldn’t even be an issue. Treat others well, that’s all.
The other noteworthy thing about what Mr. Armstrong says is that what Roseanne Barr is that he claims she’s committed slander. No, no, NO! Slander is spoken. When it is the written word that is less than truthful it would be labeled ‘Libel’. But proving either in court isn’t easy, no matter how you label it. Not everything everyone else says that you do not agree with is slander or libel. Opinions. Most things that the religious label libel are merely opinions.
I would love to see a world where ugly things that are openly uttered by ignorant people simply never happen. I do agree with him on that, but I think religion has no good influence on controlling peoples mouths (and fingers). Curious as to what will be said this week in the blogs of people like Larry Solomon and John Piper. Will they be as dismissive of the problem as Armstrong?