Language and the Ghetto

Amy and I had a good talk last night. One topic that came up why christian's talk so weird. Please peruse this humorous anecdote for an example of what we were talking about.

Frankly I think the rise of "christianese" is part of the whole evangelical christian ghetto phenomenon that has been touched on elsewhere. In other less net-centric areas of christianity it is often called the "holy huddle." People go from their church to their small group to their circle of christian friends and rarely converse with others outside their religious viewpoint. This is especially prominent while in school, because there you can be particular about your social circle. Once you get out into the workplace, you usually have to work with other people.

Jesus-speak is just a symptom of that phenomenon. Any subculture develops verbal shorthand to speed communication. I work for the Army so every new project is a chance to experience strange and wonderous new acronyms. I need a DISUM for your TDY to the IPT for the LRIP HIMARS. Sadly statements like that now makes perfect sense to me. Christianity is no different in that regard.

However at some point the shorthand begins to take over. We just start throwing words like "saved", "sanctified", "moved by the Spirit" around like they, well, meant something to other people outside our circle. So while I understand you, you aren't coming across loud and clear to the folks who are both in the world and of the world.

Speaking of which, we are commanded to be in, but not of the world. We seem to have the "not of" down, but not necessarily in the way Paul meant. God wants us to be "not of" spiritually but not especially culturally. Paul said:

To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. ... To those not having the law I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law.

Unfortunately the "in" often needs some work. For a people who take the name "evangelical" we seem to need more work at evangelism.