The politicization of decency

Jonathan Lange
Posted 5/10/17

The Department of Justice recently announced charges against 15 people who have been trafficking in eagle body parts. “U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler …described one operation as basically a "chop-shop for eagles" in which eagle feathers were stuffed into garb

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The politicization of decency

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The Department of Justice recently announced charges against 15 people who have been trafficking in eagle body parts. “U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler …described one operation as basically a "chop-shop for eagles" in which eagle feathers were stuffed into garbage bags. He said it was clear that it was a moneymaking operation and that the feathers and eagle parts such as talons and beaks were treated as merchandise. ‘There was no cultural sensitivity. There was no spirituality,’ Seiler said. ‘There was no tradition in the manner in which these defendants handled these birds.’" (April 24, 2017, 15 Indicted in Eagle Trafficking Case, James Nord, AP).
Mind you, nobody is charged with actually killing an eagle. This is only about merchandizing eagle parts in violation of The Eagle Protection Act. Under this law, there are criminal penalties for anyone to “take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or any manner, any bald eagle ... [or any golden eagle], alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof.”
Notice the thoroughly religious tone of Mr. Seiler’s remarks. Rather than presenting their crimes in the terms of the law, “sell, purchase, barter…,” he said, “There was no cultural sensitivity. There was no spirituality. There was no tradition in the manner in which these defendants handled these birds.”
All of this is in stark contrast to another headline from last week’s news. “Lamborghini” Mary Gatter, of Planned Parenthood in Pasadena, is back in the news. An April 26th video, released from the Center for Medical Progress, catches her working the angles to increase profit for intact organs from aborted babies.
Lawyers can argue about whether she violated the law. I am interested in the way these two events were covered.
The Associated Press attended the news conference about eagle feathers, and published a national story about it. Yet I can find nothing from Reuters, AP, or any of the major media outlets that even mentions the latest haggling over baby parts.

This is not surprising. Planned Parenthood has used its clout in America’s news rooms to orchestrate a news blackout on the work of the Center for Medical Progress. But more troubling still, is the reaction of ordinary, decent people.
Abortion has become so politicized we are culturally conditioned to look the other way if anything at all might cast it in a bad light. Simple questions that are “no-brainers” when applied to eagles, are off limits when applied to humans.
Is it culturally, spiritually, or traditionally insensitive to treat eagle parts as merchandise? The U.S. Attorney said so in a presser without any further question. Is it culturally, spiritually, or traditionally insensitive to treat human parts as merchandise? While any sane person or society should instinctively agree, we have come to the point where this question is unasked, and unaskable.
It’s time for us all to step back from the political fray and seriously ask: what has happened to us?
On April 24th the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day. These twin occasions offer a time for sober reflection. Hitler murder 11 to 12 million Jews, Russians, Poles, and “undesirables.” The Ottomans merciless slaughtered 1.5 million Armenian Christians.
We can easily vilify the Nazis, or the Young Turks. But, unless we think about the millions of ordinary citizens who turned a blind eye to the slaughter, we fail to take seriously our personal role in opposing the evil of our time.
If you had been living in those days, would you have spoken out at the risk of your livelihood and life. Would you have boldly called out the evil? Of course, we all would like to think of ourselves doing just that.
Now ask yourself seriously if there are any things that you, personally consider evil that you don’t publicly condemn, or don’t really want to know about, for fear that it might undermine your public standing, or your job prospects, or your party’s strength.
More to the point, many of us are sick and tired of politics altogether. We would like to find a place that is purely non-political. We want to be left alone to live our lives without being drawn in to every internet screaming match and every conspiratorial conversation.
But you must recognize that this, too, can become the very mechanism which stifles your opposition to evil. If my highest goal becomes “to avoid politics,” all that’s needed to silence me is for someone to say, “that’s political.” As a pastor of an historically non-political church body, I have seen this work on me.
At some point, even the well-meaning non-political people need to question the label. When, exactly, did this, or that issue become “political”? Would I have been called “political” if I spoke up about it a decade ago, or a century ago? If not, what changed: the truth, or my environment?
Common decency should not be politicized just because someone has made a political calculation. Our humanity is too precious to be traded away for a mess of pottage.