Church Lingo

[Abiyoyo]

I hate church lingo. Everything about it. It makes me want to slap them in the face and say "Hey! Talk normal!" It's like people are sucked into this bubble; a vicious, social, appearance based group that judges every aspect of everybody.

 

To be able to have a real, intelligent conversation with a 'somebody' in church; I have to translate in my head. . Then, this lingo goes to the children, youth, etc until it's like a spreading plague. I didn't grow up in church, and wasn't into church most of my adult life. So, it has always been strange to me; even before I became religious.

 

I was very self efficient then and still now. I don't need a denomination to tell me what I am suppose to believe in especially when there is a different denomination on every corner. It's like the people in Gatlinburg, Tn that try to sell you 'their' travel packages and junk. One on every block.

 

One religion, One book, One Jesus, 4 Gospels, I extra special apostle, Paul I blame Paul. My ex-wife told me something today about her now past father. Rather disturbing. I looked up to this guy. He lite up the room, always kind, courteous, give you the shirt off his back. He past two years ago, and my ex has steadily been not going to church, along with my kid. She is turned away from church because she found out her dad had been cheating on her mom, and even paid for plastic surgery for his girlfriend

 

I was mortified. This guy lead the praise and worship thing, lead the men's meetings, prayer during service, and even worked for a Christian workplace most of his 'saved' life. God everything. Man was always talking about God. Crazy.

 

Getting back to the topic. I had to translate everything my ex was telling me about her feelings, thoughts, and why's of her current situation. She is a pure example of church product and as a Christian it sucks to see her losing faith because of her Dad, and Church lingo! I say her faith because she and her family have always been very religious; that was their life. Losing her faith in that extreme of a way; I worry might cause some mental chaos, disorder in her & my child's ordinary, daily life. My child is the one who told me they aren't going to church anymore.

 

Anyway, church lingo sucks

[OpheliaGinger]

I must have been out too long, what would go as church lingo?

[Abiyoyo]

I must have been out too long, what would go as church lingo?

 

My ex said her dad is in hell because he choose to be a sinner. Jesus is in our hearts, and he rejected Jesus when he cheated on my mom. Just crazy crap that came straight from church doctrine. She was confused because she thought Jesus was suppose to be inside of us, asking me then how could her dad have cheated; if Jesus was inside him. He worked for God, and he was fake and is in hell.

 

At this point, she is actually challenging her life thoughts on Christianity, embed in her brain by Church lingo. Which is what I worry of since it is in an extreme measure. But, I look at church lingo as all the extra junk surrounded by a simple response that makes it babble more than real conversation. Two church people can spew this stuff out for hours; whereas my problem is the massive headache from trying to get the jest of what is the meat of the response from the conversation.

[Abiyoyo]

For some reason I can't edit the OP so I wanted to add this also.

 

How can I be a Christian, preacher, pastor, teacher to Christians and be annoyed by church lingo? If you are a car sells person, and want to run a dealership; you have to walk and talk like a car dealership manager. Right? Same with other different forms of business. Tough, kind, deceptive, appearance oriented, ethical, church lingo speaking( including church appearance) ;whatever is entailed in the characteristic of that job. Right? I know alot of people think that Christians tend to think they are better than one another; but I seriously just don't get the church lingo stuff.

[Kuroikaze]

I can see how this could annoy you, but its nothing surprising. Any sub-culture tends to develop their own lingo and way of talking.

 

Hang out at an anime convention sometime and see if you can understand half of what people are talking about unless you watch anime yourself.

 

There are lots of sociological reasons this happens, but I don't necessarily see it as good or bad, outright, its just part of being human.

 

Of course it can end up bad, a lot of churches encorage a very insular world view. And eventually, many people loose the ability to function outside the group.

 

I see this at anime conventions sometimes too, most of us are pretty normal people, we know things about a variety of subjects, but I always run into that one guy at a convention who seems unable to form a thought on anything that doesn't relate to anime.

Once a guy talked to me nearly an hour about the philosophical ideas in "Sailor Moon." He was convinced the show was really deep....it isn't by the way.

 

Christians can become the same way, I kinda was myself. All of my friends where christian, I was majoring in religious studies, I was involved in a campus ministry.

I didn't talk about things that weren't religious for years. The group I was in encouraged it, when I started backing off and reviving some of my hobbies from high school like video games, they accused me of loosing focus on the "important" things.

 

I think it becomes a problem when people loose the ability to communicate without using that specialized language. No one who isn't a christian wants to talk to them...hell, even people who go to a different denomination may not understand them very well. No one want to speak with someone when it's difficult, and thus the person becomes closed off within the group even further.

[Abiyoyo]

Of course it can end up bad, a lot of churches encorage a very insular world view. And eventually, many people loose the ability to function outside the group.

 

That's mainly what I'm worried about. It's like shes mad at the world and confused. I'm not a saint, but for my kid and my belief I cleaned my language up over the years. Trying to anyway, I'm not perfect as Good ole' Paul says I should be 'in Christ' ...Moving on. She cusses like a sailor now.

[Abiyoyo]

Have you heard of the plain language movement? I first heard of it in relation to emergency services, but I find this bit from wikipedia insightful in regards to other groups:

 

William Lutz, an American linguist specialising in doublespeak and the use of plain language, asserts that

"language is power, period. The lesson of Nineteen Eighty-Four is that those who rule the language, rule... The language of the lawyers, of the politicians, of the intelligentsia, is supposed to make [others] feel inferior."

Phanta

 

Thanks. Looks interesting. I'll dig deeper into it. Maybe the church needs this I think they actually like church lingo communication, until something seriously unexplainable comes about that can't be explained in those terms.

[Kuroikaze]

Of course it can end up bad, a lot of churches encorage a very insular world view. And eventually, many people loose the ability to function outside the group.

 

That's mainly what I'm worried about. It's like shes mad at the world and confused. I'm not a saint, but for my kid and my belief I cleaned my language up over the years. Trying to anyway, I'm not perfect as Good ole' Paul says I should be 'in Christ' ...Moving on. She cusses like a sailor now.

 

Has she left religion all together or just having some issues? I know that right after I left I occasionally would do things like swearing "just cause I could." Eventually I kinda found a balance...or at least I think its a balance.

 

Just because she is swearing a lot doesn't mean she will keep doing so, she may just be enjoying the freedom of not being required to talk like a "Jesus bot," as it were. No offense intended. And she'll mellow out as time passes.

[florduh]

I always hated the Christian-Speak too. I guess the quirky language helps people feel special, better, or at least set apart from their inferiors.

 

I agree that all subcultures seem to develop unique terms and conventions. I've seen it in amateur radio, emergency services, the music industry, truckers, blacks, teens, the gay community and Scientology to name a few. People just want to be special.

[Guest end3]

I don't like the, "Father, we humbly aproach you Father, and Father, Father we are sinners Father" I don't know that I speak like that...."Yoyo, I think this is valid Yoyo, and Yoyo, you are telling the truth Yoyo"

 

I have particulare disdain for, "Die to self"....

 

There are others....

[The-Captain]

Lingo can get obtuse , but Christianeeze (as we often call it), is particularly bad. It seems to consist mostly of non sequitors, doublespeak, and flat out meaninglessness. It's annoying for those of us outside the church, but I imagine it is detrimental to church members as it is a poor form of communication.

 

Someone with a problem doesn't need to be told that "they should submit to the holy spirit", or that "they just don't walk closely enough with the lord". I mean what does that really mean, how do they do that? The closest real meaning I suppose is that they ought to tow the line and follow that church's doctrine more closely, but how does that help them? Christians do themselves a disservice by waving away larger concepts and issues with pat phrases.

[NaturalSelection]

Okay, I said this on another thread yesterday but I'll say it again here, due to the title of the thread.

 

Church lingo.....when you're talking to one of the flock and they get this glazed over zombie look and say "I'm so blessed" whether they're talking about a death in the family or a bowel movement...."I'm so blessed".

 

Other evangenital christian speak:

 

Are you "born again"...yes, I'm Christian..I've been baptized.....they get all "hot and emotionally disturbed" and screech out "But are you BORN AGAIN"!!! -- It's about the language you use rather than your spiritual state....but they don't realize it and don't care as long as you use the lingo.

 

They don't call the bible the bible, they refer to it as "God's Word"..."God's word" tells us this or that or blah, blah, blah".

 

"Christianity isn't a religion, it's a personal relationship with God"....that's a favorite these days.

 

You can't be a democrat and be a "true Christian".

 

"People don't like me cause they hate Jesus"...a favorite when they're acting like an asshole...and people don't like them for acting like an asshole.

 

"God told me.....[insert what you really want to do here, even if it disagrees with the bible (but insist that you believe every word of the bible literally)]"

I've noticed this one primarily when someone has an unbiblical divorce and remarries..."I know God really didn't want me to be married to that person...but God really did mean the part about homosexuals being an abomination".

 

"God hates abortion", "God hates abortion" {even though the bible doesn't say that, or even imply that }

 

"Life begins at conception" [i.e. one is fully human at conception] even though the bible says life (the soul) requires conception, a womb, blood and breath. Point out what the bible really says on the subject and watch evangenitals get madder than hell. -- The preborn are innocent but once one passes through the birth canal one instantly becomes a wretched SINNER in need of a SAVIOR.

 

"You're not correctly dividing the word"....this one is used when you quote scriptures that they don't want to hear.

 

"Pray the sinner's pray"....not in the bible.

 

"God's people do/believe [insert James Dobson's opinions here]" -- the implication being that if you disagree with james dobson you're not a "true Christian" and you're going to hell so you better get right with james dobson.

 

"People of faith"...meaning only evangenital christians (christians who are obsessed with the human genitalia)...all other christians, hindus, buddists, wiccans, are not included in this definition of "people of faith".

 

"Fellowship" -- get your ass to church for some cult reinforcement... so you won't have a chance to "think".

 

 

this is one I used to hear growing up in the south and it still pisses me off:

 

"I'm gonna start going back to church and living right".

 

 

 

 

There's a lot more of these jesus,gop jingles but this is enough for now.

[Ouroboros]

I don't like the, "Father, we humbly aproach you Father, and Father, Father we are sinners Father" I don't know that I speak like that...."Yoyo, I think this is valid Yoyo, and Yoyo, you are telling the truth Yoyo"

Imagine if we said, "End, we think you're funny End, and in the end, maybe you, End, will understand some of the things we say on our end."

 

 

Anyway, Church Lingo, Yoyo, in one of the congregations (read "cult") I used to belong to, there were a well developed (and very strange) lingo in place. We believed that healing came from faith in God's power and Jesus redeeming acts for our sins, and if we were sick, it was because we didn't have enough faith. Now faith, was argued to come from hearing, so by speaking and hearing the word of God, you would build your faith in it, and it would be the key to unlock God's healing powers. So when you were in Church on Sunday morning, and someone asked you, "How are you doing?" The expected response if you were sick was: "In the name of Jesus, and in the power of his wounds, I am healed." And to tell you the truth, I never liked it. (amongst many other similar crazy "faith speak" things)

[Abiyoyo]

The people rule the arena. Pastors are just figureheads for the people. The people pay the bills, so the people decide what they want. How could God send anyone to anywhere, and impact anything to these people. I taught a class at church, to my surprise in them letting me; as I keep to myself alot. It was so frustrating trying to teach around the church lingo. Endless headaches. For me, it's like trying to date a girl that likes you, and doesn't want to hurt your feelings; giving you unclear language in trying to say she isn't into you. Which as most males usually will figure out, she 's not into me like that.

 

The difference in this situation was that I had to make the best of things until the 12 week class was over

 

If my wife's fault, she made me volunteer!

[Guest end3]

I agree, I agree, but here is the kicker......at what point does an "issue" become more important than grace? Because right now, I would just soon not attend as hurt those peoples feelings once weekly.

[Abiyoyo]

I agree, I agree, but here is the kicker......at what point does an "issue" become more important than grace? Because right now, I would just soon not attend as hurt those peoples feelings once weekly.

 

Your the girlfriend? I'm the boyfriend? They perceive me in a manner of the girlfriend. Instead of saying, Hey you don't talk much, you miss church occasionally, and you come across to me as an uneducated social worker because you don't speak Church lingo; they say how Paul speaks of fellowship as essential, and how we are all the body of Christ, and the clincher " We, as Paul said, will show fruits of the spirit"

[Guest end3]

I agree, I agree, but here is the kicker......at what point does an "issue" become more important than grace? Because right now, I would just soon not attend as hurt those peoples feelings once weekly.

 

Your the girlfriend? I'm the boyfriend? They perceive me in a manner of the girlfriend. Instead of saying, Hey you don't talk much, you miss church occasionally, and you come across to me as an uneducated social worker because you don't speak Church lingo; they say how Paul speaks of fellowship as essential, and how we are all the body of Christ, and the clincher " We, as Paul said, will show fruits of the spirit"

 

I think I was trying to go off on my own rant Y.....yeah, they think I "think differently" to the point of heresy...but, BUT, BUT!!!! sign END3 up for ALL! the service he can give to the church. Do I hear an AMEN?