Just don’t be surprised if he gets himself and his employer in trouble. Why? Because they have a responsibility not to discriminate on the basis of religion in their loan policy, because they are receiving special taxpayer help from taxpayers of all religions, and because Wiseman exercised our wonderful freedom of speech to express bigoted beliefs. It is his right.

But it is also the right of his employer to protect itself from an employee with demonstrated poor judgement.

The people condemning Tennessee hicks aren’t opposed to freedom of speech. They are exercising it. You are angry that people with your belief structure are widely described as bigoted hicks. People who belong to the non-Wiseman-approved church denominations are unhappy at being described as muslims. Freedom of speech isn’t always pretty but it works.

It also reveals sometimes whether a person is actually fit to hold a job either in politics as Mayor of a city with citizens with a multitude of religious faiths and whether he is fit to serve as a loan officer in a bank dedicated to avoiding religious discrimination in its loan practices. If Russ hadn’t exercised his freedom of speech citizens and bank management might have been blind to Russ Wiseman’s opinions. Because he exercised his free speech rights the First Capital Bank people have fair warning that they have a person who expresses religious bigotry. They can take corrective or defensive action if they choose: give special supervision to his loan decisions, they can fire him, they can prepare legal defenses.

No one suggested totalitarian restraints on freedom of speech. The values and beliefs and education level of the people of Tennessee are revealed by its leaders who speak out. Russ spoke out. God bless freedom of speech. If Russ Wiseman’s thoughts represent Tennessee it is better for the truth to be revealed.

The reason that outsiders would attack Republicans, members of Russ Wiseman’s church, and small town Tennesseans for making a “semi-private” joke to a thousand people (since when is publication to 1,000 people private?) is that the premise that underlay Russ’ comments was an articulation of identity politics, we-are-good versus outsiders-are-contemptible and okay to ridicule. Russ Wiseman said that someone who couldn’t articulate his Christianity in one word was bad, he used the uncapitalized word “muslim” as an accusation, and he called for a return to the time and wording of the Constitution when people of African descent were enslaved and ineligible for citizenship.

Do you really want to defend that?

Try to have a moment’s empathy. Do you imagine that the people on the receiving end of Russ’ rant, non-white, non Church of Christ members, Muslims, non property owners, and maybe people who think our going to war in Afghanistan is maybe exactly the sort of thing that a president (even a half black one) actually ought to bring to the country’s attention, do you think those people felt it was just good misunderstood humor, just nice polite friendly joking. Apparently you yourself don’t like the disrespectful contempt of others, so why should others like it when it comes from a what certainly to an outsider appears to be a self-satisfied white Christian who believes himself to be securely part of the power establishment, and therefore free to show contempt for others?

Jesus wasn’t white, he wasn’t a member of the establishment social and religious group, and he took more than one word to describe his faith, yet Wiseman holds himself out to be the example of the “real” Christian, and people who don’t meet his standards are “muslim”. That hypocrisy, and his expression of contempt for others, is why he struck a nerve among people who aren’t small town, white, Christian, and uneducated. They perceived bigotry because his comments were bigoted. Now apparently you know Russ and maybe Russ Wiseman himself is nice as can be, and in “real life” he is respectful of people with different faiths and races. I hope so. His comments, though, were bigoted and mean-spirited. Wiseman thought he was safe in his perch atop a power structure to show contempt for others, so he laid it out there. Oops, it came back. And since his contempt was from a place of our-team-good and outsiders are bad the blowback spills onto his team: small town self satisfied Sycamore Church white bigots. HE defined the team, so he can live with it. The town of Arlington disclaimed him, but I see nothing that shows that his church did, or his bank, and some blogs defend him.

His role at First Capital bank probably exacerbates his problem. As a loan officer in a bank getting extraordinary help from the government it is his fellow taxpayers, including black people and people from a variety of Christian faiths, plus non-Christians, whose government–OUR government–offered up the money to keep First Capital bank liquid. We citizens of America–ALL of us–saved his job–or at least his institution. As a taxpayer, I resent being ridiculed by people taking my tax money. And I hate to think that a person who would condemn another person’s religion is in a position to be a loan officer in First Capital Bank, particularly since it benefits from government guarantees that I finance with my money. After all, if someone thinks that bigoted talk is just “humor” in a Facebook publication, why wouldn’t the same person have bigoted thinking in his loan decisions? Does he treat Muslims scornfully in private and then fairly and honestly in his work at the bank?

Maybe at the Sycamore View church they sing a different song, but when I grew up we sang: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

It seems to me that you are more angry at the people Wiseman riled up than you are with Wiseman. The anger and contempt of others is no fun to experience, is it? So again, take a moment for empathy: that must be how others felt when they read Mayor Wiseman’s comments.

How can he make it up? One, is to do a REAL apology. Second, is to submit his work at the bank to a close examination by an impartial auditor. If he practiced bigotry in his work he should be removed promptly and compensation be paid to the people he betrayed by his banking decisions.

Everyone has said or done something they wish they could have said or done better. Since we’re all in the same boat, the only logical thing to do is to show a little compassion and forgiveness. If we didn’t, just think of all the people that we’d have to kick out….

- Media personality Chris Matthews, who most recently called West Point the “enemy camp.”
- President Obama for saying a police department acted “stupidly” in the arrest of a Harzard law professor.
- Shaquille O’Neal for his Anti-Asian statements like this one, “Tell Yao Ming, `Ching-chongyang-ah-soh.’”
- Vice President Biden…nuff said.
- Me, for yelling at my kids when I know I should use a more measured tone.
- Christopher (in this comment section) for calling people racists and refusing to give them the chance to apologize.

What if no one allowed you to apologize for something you said that you regret or oculd have said better? One empty boat.