The Meaning of Words

Have you noticed how much words are changing? It's actually quite dramatic. King James referred to St. Paul's Cathedral as "amusing, awful and artificial" by which he meant "pleasing, awe-inspiring, and artful." "Gay" used to mean "happy" ... to anyone you wanted to ask. Now, the first definition that comes to mind is ... not "happy." People used to know that "bitch" referred to a female dog, a "chick" was a reference to a baby chicken, and "bug" referred to an insect. Now "bug" is also a noun referring to problems in software or a verb describing what her little brother does to his older sister. ("He bugs me.") Once, when I was in the Air Force, I was out for a drive with family. We went by an airport and I commented, "Look, a hangar." My brother-in-law, a construction worker, heard me point out someone who hangs drywall. My wife heard me point out a device on which to hang clothing. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Trying to keep up with my kids' changing vernacular was real work. Words that meant one thing to me meant something entirely different to them and even something else again across the 5 years that separated them. The dictionary used to be a source document. One person would say, "That word means this," and another person would say, "No, it means something else." They would solve their dispute by looking it up in the English source document -- the dictionary. Today the dictionary is in constant flux, simply trying to keep track of how words are meant, not what they actually mean. But one of the most interesting and confusing changes that is occurring today is not in the meaning of words. It is in the feel of words.

I saw a post recently about the Evangelical Manifesto. The term "manifesto" raised eyebrows because it felt like the "Communist Manifesto" or the "Humanist Manifesto" or the like ... bad things to Evangelicals. If you want to insult someone, call them a "liberal." No one likes that term anymore, even though it simply is defined as "favorable to progress or reform." "Fundamentalist" is a serious insult these days. It doesn't really matter how it is actually defined. The term broadly references "the interpretation of sacred texts as literal truth," generally references "any religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles that includes rigid adherence to those principles," or specifically refers to "a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming." (Note: If you're going to refer to the latter, there cannot be "Islamic Fundamentalists", can there?) Drop that word bomb in a crowd of Christians and watch them scatter because it feels like it's a bad thing. "I'm no fundamentalist!" they'll object because they know they've just been insulted.

The meaning of words is becoming a very difficult concept. "Intelligent Design" is the same as "Creationism" which is the same as "Creation Science" which is, as everyone knows, quite ludicrous. Never mind that there are steps between the three terms and they are not synonymous. It's simply how we feel about them. Claim that you do believe in the Perseverance of the Saints but don't believe in "Once Saved Always Saved" and they'll look at you like you're a walking contradiction. Never mind that they have different meanings. Shorthand terms are drifting so far from their intended meaning that they are becoming useless. We all agree, for instance, what "Calvinist" means ... until you actually explain what you mean and find out that there are nearly as many definitions for the term as there are users of the term.

Here's the problem. When we can no longer agree on the definition of terms, communication breaks down. Worse, when how we feel about a word determines what the word means or, worse, how we feel about the person who used it or to whom it was applied, communication becomes nearly impossible. English is a popular language on the planet these days, but it is quickly becoming an unusable language. What do we mean, for instance, when we "sanction" something? It can mean "to grant approval" or it can mean "to express disapproval." Where are we going with the language when Christians are afraid to call themselves Christians because of how people feel about the word? How can we effectively communicate the Gospel in a world where language changes based on feelings and definitions are not definitive? We're going to have to stay on our toes, folks.