Do You Speak "Christian"?

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Fnord
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31 Jul 2011, 5:47 pm

I ran across This CNN Article, and it seems to make a lot of sense. It seems that there is a "Secret Language" that only Christians understand, and only those Christians of the elite class. Here's a direct quote:

Quote:

Many Americans are bilingual. They speak a secular language of sports talk, celebrity gossip and current events. But mention religion and some become armchair preachers who pepper their conversations with popular Christian words and trendy theological phrases ... When Christians develop their own private language for one another, they forget how Jesus made faith accessible to ordinary people ... Speaking Christian can become a way of suggesting a kind of spiritual status that others don’t have ... It communicates a kind of spiritual elitism that holds the spiritually ‘unwashed’ at arm’s length. By that time, they’ve reached the final stage of speaking Christian - they've become spiritual snobs.

This is simply more evidence of the kind of elitist mentality that tends to separate and isolate the "True" Christians from everyone else.

What next, secret handshakes and glow-in-the-dark tattoos?

DW_a_mom
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31 Jul 2011, 7:04 pm

Fnord wrote:

Quote:

This is simply more evidence of the kind of elitist mentality that tends to separate and isolate the "True" Christians from everyone else.

What next, secret handshakes and glow-in-the-dark tattoos?

Being raised Catholic, I had to struggle in college to learn the terminology of faith many fundamentalist / evangelicals use, just to get them to accept that I even was "Christian." Fail to answer the question correctly, and you are in desperate need of converting. It is a barrier of their own making, in my opinion, but if you want them to stop trying to convert you, and maybe even see you as an equal in being saved, you'd better cross it.

I don't think of them as spiritual snobs or elitists, however. I see them as too limited in experience and understanding to grasp that something which goes by a different name can actually be the same spiritual event. It seems like ignorance, and I think I have the advantage in now being able to speak the language of Catholicism, AND most of the language of evangelism / fundamentalism.

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blauSamstag
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31 Jul 2011, 7:06 pm

most subcultures do that to some extent or other

blauSamstag
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31 Jul 2011, 7:15 pm

seriously. Papists have one set, epistobapterians another, mormons yet another, don't get me started on jews . . .

and so do members of any other pervasive subculture. Like conspiracy theorists.

leejosepho
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31 Jul 2011, 7:16 pm

Fnord wrote:

This is simply more evidence of the kind of elitist mentality ...

No, you have only shown evidence of someone making that kind of assumption or accusation.

Geeks speak Geek, and nobody accuses them of being elitist.

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DW_a_mom
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31 Jul 2011, 7:36 pm

blauSamstag wrote:

seriously. Papists have one set, epistobapterians another, mormons yet another, don't get me started on jews . . .

and so do members of any other pervasive subculture. Like conspiracy theorists.

True. Good point.

But college was the only time in my life someone tried to use my lack of sub-culture language skill to tell me I was going to Hell.

And I'm a Christian. Wrong kind, apparently

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Philologos
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31 Jul 2011, 7:37 pm

Oh, it takes me back. Early days after I shifted gears, noticing the difference between Evangelical Christian talk [where you don't say something, you share, and if you bring a dish to share it is a pot faith] I even wrote a piece with the title "Can you share Christian?"

Of course, I was being descriptive linguits, not political boloney.

So - that is elitist.

But the not quite Navajo webtalkers with their LOL and QFT and LSMFT are not elitist.

And the political end zones with their buzz words and cutesy labels for the stupid and criminal opposition are not elitist [for sure they are not elite!]

And the academics, each department with its own jargon are not elitist - we ARE elite.

Another triumph for the ever alert Vexillifer. Keep her flying.

blauSamstag
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31 Jul 2011, 7:41 pm

Philologos wrote:

And the academics, each department with its own jargon are not elitist - we ARE elite.

Except the sociologists. Those guys just have science envy.

Master_Pedant
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31 Jul 2011, 11:04 pm

DW_a_mom wrote:

blauSamstag wrote:

seriously. Papists have one set, epistobapterians another, mormons yet another, don't get me started on jews . . .

and so do members of any other pervasive subculture. Like conspiracy theorists.

True. Good point.

But college was the only time in my life someone tried to use my lack of sub-culture language skill to tell me I was going to Hell.

And I'm a Christian. Wrong kind, apparently

Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants seem willing to accept Ultra-Traditionalist Catholics nowadays given their mutual animousity and hatred of gay/lesbian rights and abortion. So they'll probably form a "generic socially intolerant Christian" mixed dialect in the future.

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Oodain
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31 Jul 2011, 11:19 pm

how quaint, cross border chrsitians unite,
"the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of deal?

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Dessie
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31 Jul 2011, 11:38 pm

Fnord wrote:

Quote:

This is simply more evidence of the kind of elitist mentality that tends to separate and isolate the "True" Christians from everyone else.

What next, secret handshakes and glow-in-the-dark tattoos?

I think every religion has this at least a little bit. I never learned to speak Christian, but when I became Pagan I learned that language. Paganism has all of it's own special terms and "secret" rituals. In Paganism those who make the effort to learn are respected for that, but I do see how Pagan's could be considered snobish and elitist too: If you don't put forth any effort to learn then you aren't considered Pagan enough. :roll:

We actually have special terms for those people too.

blauSamstag wrote:

Except the sociologists. Those guys just have science envy.

As sociology is my own chosen field of study, I must disagree with you. We do not have "science envy."

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31 Jul 2011, 11:39 pm

Dessie wrote:

blauSamstag wrote:

Except the sociologists. Those guys just have science envy.

As sociology is my own chosen field of study, I must disagree with you. We do not have "science envy."

Economics has a really bad case of physics envy.

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DW_a_mom
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31 Jul 2011, 11:52 pm

Master_Pedant wrote:

DW_a_mom wrote:

blauSamstag wrote:

seriously. Papists have one set, epistobapterians another, mormons yet another, don't get me started on jews . . .

and so do members of any other pervasive subculture. Like conspiracy theorists.

True. Good point.

But college was the only time in my life someone tried to use my lack of sub-culture language skill to tell me I was going to Hell.

And I'm a Christian. Wrong kind, apparently

I'm a liberal social justice Kennedy style Catholic, though.

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Master_Pedant
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01 Aug 2011, 12:02 am

DW_a_mom wrote:

Master_Pedant wrote:

DW_a_mom wrote:

blauSamstag wrote:

seriously. Papists have one set, epistobapterians another, mormons yet another, don't get me started on jews . . .

and so do members of any other pervasive subculture. Like conspiracy theorists.

True. Good point.

But college was the only time in my life someone tried to use my lack of sub-culture language skill to tell me I was going to Hell.

And I'm a Christian. Wrong kind, apparently

I'm a liberal social justice Kennedy style Catholic, though.

The Traditionalist/Fundamentalist coalition is still a pretty ironic recent trend.

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01 Aug 2011, 12:10 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

Not really. At that level the difference between Catholic and Protestant is actually at its most stark. The relationship certainly is better now than it used to be, but that does not stop people like Dr. Craig taking relatively consistent pot shots at Catholic Doctrine and vice versa. Organizations like CARM (one of the most pig headed of all apologetics groups) are certainly about as anti-Catholic as they are anti-atheist. I certainly hope that real middle ground can be reached, failing that, they can all become Catholics and admit that we were right all along :wink:

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Dessie
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01 Aug 2011, 12:12 am

Master_Pedant wrote:

Dessie wrote:

blauSamstag wrote:

Except the sociologists. Those guys just have science envy.

As sociology is my own chosen field of study, I must disagree with you. We do not have "science envy."

Economics has a really bad case of physics envy.

How so?

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