They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves. – Job 30:5

Today's Scripture Reading (September 9, 2024): Job 30

I live in a politically correct society, which is a problem for the politically incorrect, which often includes me. It is not that I want to be politically incorrect, but sometimes the rules change so fast that I am unsure what to say. Sometimes, it is just bad habits that have been built up over the years before the advent of the new rules.

We rail against the Bible, some even going as far as to label it hate literature, but I believe that part of the problem is just that it was written for a society that was less polite than ours. It is written for people who do not have the same sensibilities that we have. It is a situation that has changed dramatically during my lifetime.

And so my computer reminds me that speaking about the poor might be considered insensitive; instead, I should use the phrase "people experiencing poverty." Somehow, that is better. I have to learn to stop talking about the disabled and recognize that they are just challenged in a particular way or stress that they are people with disabilities. However, as I write this, I see that even these terms seem to be changing.

This time of transition is part of the problem. Terms keep on changing. We discard old terms and adopt new ones because the old words have picked up biases and things that we find offensive. So, we adopt a new term that doesn't have these biases connected with it. The problem is that the new term is not immune from picking up biases and traits of its own that we still find offensive, and we have to repeat the process and find a new term to use. So, we keep changing our words and using something different to describe what it is with which we are dealing.

For Job, this description is about a group of people who were beneath knowing. They had been banished from polite society; they were treated like thieves, even though they weren't. A more modern example might be the Romani people. The Romani are an itinerant people who traditionally lived a more nomadic lifestyle. We might have known them better as gypsies, but that is a name that the Romani find insensitive and racist. To be politically correct, we need to find another name to describe these wandering groups, but sometimes, we have to go back to an insensitive name to get our point across. The Romani have often been accused of being thieves when the real problem was that they were just different from others in society.

Job is describing something like the Romani in his society. But his real message is not about this group of people. He feels he has sunk below even them on a societal scale. Those who are discarded by society have discarded him. There is no politically correct description of who he has become. He is less than the least of his society. And he knows of no way back to become respectable once more.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 31