Sandra Fluke & the 15%

Sandra Fluke testified before Congress on the costs of bearing the payment for birth control because Georgetown University does not cover it in its student insurance plan. As a Catholic university long gone Liberal, this policy emanates from the Roman Catholic Church which still has authority on some institutional  issues. While a percentage of women need birth control for other reasons than to prevent contraception (15%), the remaining 85% are using it to prevent pregnancy. And, many of these women, are unmarried.

Rush Limbaugh, married four times, felt morally compelled to register his outrage to this subsidized fornication subsidy by choosing harsh words...slut, prostitute. No Rush, the women are not being paid to have sex, that is technically what prostitution is. As far as the slut comment, your serial marriages makes you less than a stalwart defender of traditional values. So, shut yer trap.    

In Fluke's testimony, most of her communication centered on the 15%. It is the most compelling argument rhetorically but she assiduously avoided reflecting on the implications of forcing religiously-affiliated universities and hospitals to underwrite sexual activity not sanctioned by its religious institution. Although I certainly have issues with the government telling the Church what is must do in such an arena, my major focus in this blog is to draw attention to both the Left and Right using "15% argumentation" to assert "100%" application.

I work in a public school as a school counselor. Recently, twice on Facebook, Conservatives have commented on some egregious examples of public schools gone wild. One was a government employee checking the homemade lunch of an elementary kid, found it wanting, and made the kid throw it away. And then buy a school lunch. Then, there was another incident of a teacher punishing a student for asserting that  a kilometer was less than a mile, contrary to what the teacher was instructing, but because the teacher felt the kid was disrespectful, he punished the young man.

The Conservatives used these extremely rare incidences to chime in that public schools were somehow guilty of such behavior as a rule rather than the exception.

That is really dishonest and personally hurtful. Our cultures' Right and Left wings are very adept at using extreme examples to make broad-brush sweeping generalizations that are just not accurate and factual (and) instead attempt to buttress an ideological viewpoint that lacks an authentic reflection on the facts. It employs the fringe freak fact like a club to beat the body of truth to death. Rush has done this for years. So, has the Left.

Both extreme sides really deserve each others. Both dishonest, both deceitful. And, it is destroying our country. As Christians we are obligated to telling the whole truth, not just the parts that make us look better than we are. Our estimation of ourselves and our positions must be relentlessly honest and redemptive. Not calculated and condemnatory.