“Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality; it creates the reality it describes.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I have written ad nauseum over the years about words and their power; they have substance and sound, affecting those who hear or read them. (I wrote a book about that in 2004, Sticks & Stones, which I have truncated and finally posted on-line only yesterday. Feel free to read.)
In today’s deeply divided world, words are being thrown about like razor blades, hurtled toward ‘the other’ as defined by the speaker, slicing their way through human hearts.
As the daughter of an Episcopal priest, I was shocked to see a video this week of a (cough, cough) Christian pastor, Greg Locke, release a torrent of razor blades to his congregation.
The words themselves, create the reality they describe within the space they are scattered.
Why has it become the norm to hurl words of hatred, to fling false facts and flame the fire of division and contempt?
Why? So the speaker can feel right, feel powerful, and smugly superior.
Spiritual pride may be the most insidious, dangerous form of pride there is.
And the newest Trump-endorsed candidate running for Michigan State Senate, Jacky Eubanks, sure had a lot to say about banning contraceptives; it’s against God’s laws she asserts, which at age 25 seems mighty young to start force-feeding your religious beliefs down others’ throats via political office.
What about Jews, and Muslims, and all the other non-Christian belief systems out there?
Who made you the boss of their marital bed, little missy?
People like these are a stain on Christianity—and an example of what love is not.
Love doesn’t exclude.
(Uh, oh. Rant coming: you are forewarned.)
I’ll tell you what, you smarmy, snivelling little snails who carry their shell of self-righteousness everywhere they slink, leaving a trail of slime behind them, go ahead and believe Jesus died for your sins, but no one else’s.
Go ahead and think you’ve got some corner on the truth, that others are blind, and that it’s your right to “make them see the light.” And because they don’t, won’t or can’t, that’s reason enough to justify your angry tirade.
Go ahead and perpetuate the classic example of war and bloodshed to make your point.
Also, let us not forget: Jesus was a Jew who preached and lived inclusion, compassion, and acceptance.
I don’t think a heart full of self-righteous hate was ever his intention.
Sigh…
The need to be right might just be humanity’s Achilles’ heel.
Uh, oh...
Appears to be mine, too.
As evidenced by this blog, dammit.
Sigh…
“Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
