Not All Everything are Created Equal

While it's taboo in most North American social circles to 'discriminate' against particular people groups because it's almost always labeled as racism or xenophobia, one Australian community took steps to accept the building of a Catholic school within its bounds shortly after denying the application for a similar school of Muslim faith.

Is that discriminatory? Is it illegal racism? You can read more about the case HERE and decide for yourself, but I want to take a moment to analyze whether it is valid to reject certain things without fear of being labeled a racist or a xenophobe.

When someone - like Mr. Emil Sremchevich, president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group - that helped accept the building of the Catholic school in his community but rejects another school of a different faith, it's seen as ethnocentrism and most modern day critics would consider it racism. Although all people are created equal and each have infinite value in the eyes of the crucified Christ, and therefore it is wrong to classify one as less important or more favorable than another, not all IDEAS are created equal.

Suppose I had an idea or worldview that thought all people of Jewish decent were bad and worthy of extermination. Imagine that I, subsequently, managed to garner the support of tens of thousands of followers who I managed to brainwash into thinking the same thing. Shouldn't my followers and I expect to be rejected in all right-thinking communities? Or does the freedom of speech allow me to espouse my hateful ideas? Neither our Constitution nor our Bill of Rights guarantees our right to hate speech and therefore my twisted, racist ideas would not be protected or accepted.

Hitler, would not today, be allowed to build a Nazi Community Center in the middle of downtown Fremont, I don't think.

Imagine then, that there is a community of people who disagree with a particular religion's views regarding women, gays, and those outside of that particular faith. Imagine that that religion's ideas can be seen as hateful and create fear among the community. Are those community members legally required to accept those ideas by allowing them to be taught in a school errected within the community's boundaries? Logic would suggest no. Lawyers and liberal judges might suggest differently.

While I accept all people of different races and ethnic backgrounds, I can, with a clear conscience, reject many people's ideas and worldviews. Not all ideas are created equal. Maybe that makes me an idealogical elitist, but it doesn't make me a racist.