Cut the governor a little slack

Isn't it about time that we stopped playing "gotcha" with public figures who inadvertently give offense when none was intended?

Several examples come to mind. During the 2008 election campaign, John McCain used the term "tar baby" to describe a sticky situation postulated during a question-and-answer session. The media were reaching for the smelling salts. "Tar baby" is a racist term, they cried, though I've seen no evidence that McCain is racist or had any intention of demeaning a racial minority in his spontaneous response to a question. He was simply using a term that is deeply embedded in American culture.

Sarah Palin, trying to defend herself against charges of complicity in the rampage of a deranged youth at a political event in Arizona, referred to a "blood libel." I'm convinced that the former governor of Alaska intended no anti-Semitic tone to her remarks but was simply oblivious of the semantic baggage that "blood libel" carries.

And now comes Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, who had barely taken the oath of office when, in an attempt to reach across the racial divide that has left an ugly mark on Alabama history, he uttered words that offended those in the state who have not embraced the Christian faith.

Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday event at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery - regarded by many as the birthplace of the civil-rights movement - Bentley said:

"There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit. But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister. ... Now I will have to say that if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

It's obvious to anyone who grew up in a Southern culture that the governor was speaking out of ignorance and not out of intolerance. If you've ever lived in Alabama, you know that the state is a rock-ribbed bastion of Christendom. Down on the Gulf, you have a strong Roman Catholic tradition, a survival of the era of French colonization. In other parts of the state, Baptists, Methodists and other Protestant faiths predominate. They are staunchly for the Ten Commandments on courthouse walls and prayer in the public schools. They assume that everyone of good moral character shares their views - even those who go to synagogues and temples. So when they're speaking to other Alabamians, they take it for granted that they're speaking to people of like mind and character.

Governor Bentley was speaking in the church that had Martin Luther King Jr. for its pastor at the time Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. He had just been sworn in as a successor to George Wallace, who galvanized the white population with the slogan, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

Bentley obviously was trying to put that legacy behind and proclaim himself a brother to Alabamians of whatever color. Unfortunately, he overlooked the fact that there are also Alabamians of different persuasions, who constitute a small but significant minority in the state.

Bentley's mindset is not peculiar to Alabama. Years ago, as a Virginia editor, I fielded a telephone call from a woman who was indignant because the people in classified advertising wouldn't let her run an ad seeking a "Christian lady" as a housekeeper. I explained to her that the ad would discriminate against, for example, a good Jewish lady such as the one who was to become mayor of the city where I lived. She was puzzled. She couldn't understand why a good Jewish lady wouldn't also be considered a good Christian lady. To her, if you were "good," you were Christian, regardless of where you worshiped.

I suspect that Governor Bentley will eventually learn to separate his religious persona from his political persona. In a democratic, pluralistic society, public officials have to do that.

Those who condemn him should take into account that there are all sorts of brotherhoods. A member of Sigma Chi will consider the guys in his frat house to be "fraternity brothers" - emotionally closer to him that non-members of Sigma Chi. Many African-Americans refer to fellow African-Americans as "brothers and sisters," considering them to be emotionally closer than those who are not of African descent. One would expect even a governor to feel closer, in a spiritual sense, to people who share his religious convictions.

So there in that Baptist church on Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, surrounded presumably by fellow Baptists on both sides of the color line, the new governor considered that all who acknowledged Jesus as their savior were brothers and sisters, and all who did not acknowledge him were not.

That's OK within the confines of church and home. But like it or not, there really must be a separation between church and state in the United States. Within the walls of the State House and the Capitol, and at all official functions, the state's constitution requires Bentley to treat all fellow citizens as brother and sister Alabamians. The moral standards he absorbs from his religion should certainly guide his conduct in the halls of government. But in his official conduct, he must regard Alabamians of all persuasions as equal under the law.

That's pretty hard to do. Bentley is new at it. So cut the guy a little slack, OK?

Readers may write Gene Owens at 315 Lakeforest Circle, Anderson SC 29625, or e-mail him at WadesDixieco@AOL.com.

Gene Owens is a retired newspaper editor and columnist who graduated from Graniteville High School and now lives in Anderson.