This is a response to the recent letter by Alan Becklo about the “bathroom bill.” His letter starts out by noting that, “It appears that corporate might … has joined forces with gender ideology.”
I believe that there are a number of red flags here, right at the start. Beginning with the terms “corporate might” and “gender ideology” before stating his own position is an attempt to establish in the reader a negative attitude before the reader knows what his point is. He then disguises a statement about an “unholy alliance between corporations and gender ideology” as a question and then claims to be leaning on the authority of someone named David Hart and an unrelated text to support this affiliation.
He then goes on to say that global capitalism is inimical to Christianity and quotes the current pope’s position on the problems of capitalism in relation to environmental problems and consumerism. All of this to lay a foundation for us to assume that because corporations are bad that their negative reaction to North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” is part of a package of support for what I would agree are negative aspects of our culture, “sexualization of every commodity and commodification of sexuality, e.g., the profit made by the promotions of available pornography that many major hotels provide.” It is at this point that one can see through Blecko’s attempt at an argument. Just because corporations and capitalists do things we don’t approve of, doesn’t establish that each and everything they do is bad. In fact, they do lots of good things also. Thus, one must distinguish the good things they do from the bad things on their own merits. In my opinion, the pressure they are applying against the so called “bathroom bill” is one of the good things. It is supporting a loving and caring response instead of a fearful and mean-spirited one to the needs of a group of people who are frequently mistreated and whom society by law should support in the face of irrational prejudicial behavior by some.
Finally, I for one find his ad hominem attack (Ben and Jerry, Whole Foods, Bill Gates) distasteful and his attempt to make loving kindness appear anti-Christian offensive.
John W. Guenther
Greenfield