Dualistic thinking depends on this word. We can pray for another person’s soul, or show concern for it, but if the word soul was erased from our vocabulary, dualistic thinking would become more difficult. Another example is the use of the phrase Christian life. In using this word, we make the mistake of separating Christianity for life’s other functions and direct it inward to were Christian life only affects the person, and not his or her surroundings. This could not be farther from what a Christian life should be, because no part of life is “irrelevant to being a Christian.” (pg. 117)
Words can both be used to describe, and divide. Christians use adjectives to separate themselves into sects. A Bible-believing Christian may be considered different than a Born-Again Bible-Believing Christian. This seems to be specific to the American culture. If you look at Christians from India, they refer to each other as Christians, but in America, we add an adjective, such as Baptist or Methodist, before we say that we are Christians. Why do we do this? In India, Christians are few, thus they seek to find each other and not separate themselves from one another by the use of labels. In America though, the majority of people claim to be Christian, thus we seek to individualize ourselves from one another. This also comes from Americans being individualistically oriented due to our westernized culture, and India coming from a collectivistic oriented culture. In any case, we are reminded by the apostle Paul that we are “members of one body that acknowledges and accepts differences, yet encourages us to view other parts of the body as complementary to ourselves.” (pg. 118) In the end, we must be cautious of how we use our words, since “power ideas are hung upon them.” (pg. 118)
Language is a powerful thing. It has lead people to commit heinous acts, and have lead people to enlightenment. This chapter tells how the little things in language can affect people. Let us go back to the example of Star Wars vs the Peacekeeper. This is no more than a label, so how foolish do we look when a weapon of mass destruction is called the Peace Keeper and we accept it, but when it has the name Star Wars, we reject it. It is the same thing, just a different label. If this is true, it is no wonder that some dictators came to power. Adolf Hitler painted the Jews in a bad light saying that they would steal jobs away from the hard working German man. It is no wonder that, after this idea set in, the majority of the people in Germany turned a blind eye to the holocaust going on in the background of the war? Americans, right now, are painted as infidels by the radical Muslim’s known as ISIS. With this ideology of everyone else being inferior, should we be surprised when this group hunts down people to kill them just for being Christian or from another country? No, because they are influenced by language. In knowing this, we should guard ourselves from influential language, not accepting it at first, but rather contemplating it to see if our predisposition to certain words used will influence us in negative ways.
*01/02/2018 Note: What labels are we listening to today? Perhaps the "illegal Mexicans coming in to steal all our jobs?" Or perhaps how every refugee is a "bloodthirsty Muslim looking to further the jihad?" Just some food for thought while I glanced over this one.
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