19 – MORE WORTHLESS WORDS

December 17, 2024

Language matters because whoever controls the words controls the conversation, because whoever controls the conversation controls its outcome, because whoever frames the debate has already won it, because telling the truth has become harder and harder to achieve in [a culture] drowning in Orwellian Newspeak.

Erica Jong

"Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life” Penguin (2007), p.9.

Our Lord told his disciples that he “was sending [them] out as sheep among wolves; therefore, be as shrewd as snakes, and as innocent as doves.” (Mt. 10:16 NIV).  As Christians living in the midst of a culture that is, as per Erica Jong above, “drowning in Orwellian Newspeak,” this is one thing that Christ taught which needs more of our attention!

To place the Erica Jong quote in a Biblical context: given the decline in the influence of orthodox Christian belief* and influence over the last couple of centuries, politics has enlarged to fill the vacuum left by waning traditional religion – so much so that vast numbers of people now worship in the Church of Big Government and have adopted politics as their secular religion.

Belief in and pursuit of heavenly paradise has been replaced by belief in and pursuit of earthly utopia.  Forgive me for saying this, but many “conservative” Christians are not very politically astute and so function as “doves” when the times call for “serpents.”  The appropriate Christian shrewdness begins with understanding the agenda behind so much of today’s politicized vocabulary.

Consider the word “racist” – commonly used to describe real, or alleged, prejudice and discrimination based on skin colour.  Now what is the opposite of “racist?”  According to “experts” such as Ibram Kendi (nee Rogers), the opposite of racist is “anti-racist.”  And to be “anti-racist” is not to oppose discrimination based on skin colour; no, it is to replace “bad” discrimination with “approved” discrimination that fits a particular political agenda.

Here’s how Kendi puts it quite succinctly:

“The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”

Notice how Kendi normalizes contradiction.  The “remedy” to past discrimination based on skin colour is other discrimination based on skin colour!  I hope this reminds you of Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”  It is a parallel kind of “logic,” and it is nonsense. As well, it offers no solution; it merely substitutes one evil for another.

I mentioned that “anti-racism” is intended to advance a political agenda – that agenda is Marxist in its outlook.  (You can easily find this in Kendi’s writings – an online search will quickly reveal that, for Kendi, to be “anti-racist” is to be “anti-capitalist.”) And Marxism – which, at best, is a heretical distortion of Biblical truth – and Biblical Christianity do not mix!

So, “racist” and “anti-racist” are worthless words that Christians should avoid, except when explaining why they are worthless.  Instead, we can talk of discrimination, (unwarranted) prejudice and bigotry.

As well, they are damaging words.  To use these terms is to, regardless of what you intend, to validate nonsense and legitimize the Marxist “baggage” that travels with them.

Much more could be said about the problematic nature of “racist” and “anti-racist,” but I am content with a “once-over-lightly” explanation at this point.  Perhaps we will consider the matter in more detail at some point in the future.

As for other worthless words that Christians should eschew, of course, we should not use any “Woke” expressions other than to explain their propaganda purposes.  For this post, I conclude with a short list* of those I find most distasteful:

Progress, progressive

Equity

Tolerance

Privilege

Justice

Narrative

_______phobia (as in homophobia, transphobia, etc.)

In typical conversation, these words are useless because they have no fixed definitions.  Note that they are all “loaded” words in terms of their moral “weight,” yet we have no assurance that any are defined with reference to an external (common) reference point – that is, an objective “horizon.”  Each is defined subjectively and is thus “slippery” because the definition is subject to drastic change at the whim of the “advocate,” to advance whatever is the political agenda.  Again, see the Jong quote that opens this post.

Mature Christians are not to be naïve about such things!!

Next time: More Than Feelings

*         It is good exercise to practise being on the lookout for such words.