Political correctness and the apostle Paul
A friend has remarked that something she admires in her preferred presidential candidate is a lack of 鈥減olitical correctness.鈥�
She may be in tune with the zeitgeist. has come out with a new survey that found 鈥淚n 鈥榩olitical correctness鈥� debate, most Americans think too many people are easily offended.鈥澛�
Specifically, Pew found that 59 percent of the public say 鈥渢oo many people are easily offended these days over the language that others use.鈥� On the other hand, 39 percent think 鈥減eople need to be more careful about the language they use to avoid offending people with different backgrounds.鈥澛�
There is a partisan split here 鈥� quelle surprise: Republicans, independents, and supporters of Donald Trump hold the view, even more firmly than the nation as a whole, that 鈥渢oo many people are easily offended.鈥� Democrats, much less so. Hillary Clinton supporters鈥� numbers are the exact reverse of the national ones: 39 percent for 鈥渢oo many too easily offended鈥� and 59 percent for 鈥減eople need to be more careful.鈥�
The entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for politically correct has two parts: (a) appropriate to the prevailing political or social circumstances ... (b) spec. (orig. U.S., sometimes depreciative) conforming to a body of liberal or radical opinion, esp. on social matters....鈥澛�
The phrase itself actually goes back to 鈥� brace yourself 鈥� 1793. James Wilson, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, in an opinion about what he saw as a common failure to appreciate how 鈥渢he state鈥� is subordinate to 鈥渢he people of the United States,鈥� in whom true sovereignty lies. He noted that at dinner parties, when a toast would be called for, it would all too often be to 鈥渢he United States,鈥� instead of to 鈥渢he People of the United States.鈥� This, he thundered, 鈥渋s not politically correct.鈥澛�
The item on the OED鈥檚 list of usage examples for 鈥減olitically correct鈥� that I found most surprising, though, is one mentioning the apostle Paul鈥檚 letter to the Galatians.
In his 1936 book, 鈥淚n the Steps of St. Paul,鈥� the British travel writer H.V. Morton says, 鈥淚t has often been asked why Paul addressed his converts as 鈥楪alatians.鈥� 鈥澛�
Galatia was a great sprawling territory, newly a province of the Roman Empire. Its diverse population 鈥� Romans, Greeks, and Jews 鈥� also included two communities with real image problems. 鈥淧hrygia was famous for its slaves ... and Lycaonia was notorious for bandits and thieves. To use such words would have been equivalent to calling his audience 鈥榮laves and robbers.鈥� But 鈥楪alatians,鈥� a term that was politically correct, embraced everyone under Roman rule, from the aristocrat in Antioch to the little slave girl in Iconium.鈥�
Morton鈥檚 usage has a foot in each part of the OED definition. Like Wilson, he was thinking in terms of concrete political facts 鈥� the lines on the map of the Roman Empire. But he was also pointing to Paul鈥檚 desire for a kinder, gentler term to address his converts 鈥� one without any baggage.
