A sensate culture is one where what we feel is more important to us than what is so. A steady diet of the feels over the thinks makes us profoundly susceptible to manipulation. Last week I tweeted something to the effect that Allah and Yahweh are not the same being. The tweet shouldn’t be in the least controversial, one that should only be disputed by ecumenists of the most pernicious kind. Yet I had multiple people, friends and evangelicals in good standing who eagerly informed me, as if this was some arcane secret I must certainly be ignorant of, that “Allah” is the word for “God” in Arabic. Arabic Christians refer to the God of the Bible as Allah. True enough. They do not however, by virtue of being Christians, refer to the god of the Koran as the God of the Bible. Calling Yahweh Allah is perfectly fine if we mean by both the God of the Bible. Calling Allah Yahweh is crass idolatry if we mean by both the god of the Koran.
It is not, however, simply in the realm of apologetics or ecumenical theory that our language is sloppy. Another kerfluffle last week centered on whether an ongoing adulterous affair between two consenting adults is an example of sexual abuse. I for one believe it is. I believe any time a sexual encounter or relationship happens outside of biblical bounds we have an example of sexual abuse. I believe when that happens the man is especially guilty in that men are called to guard and protect women. I believe that when that man is in a position of power, he is all the more guilty. I also believe, however, that both partners are guilty of abuse. Both are sinning against the other. And neither are guilty of the still more grave sin of sexual contact without mutual consent. It’s abuse. And it is sexual. But if we mean by “sexual abuse” sexual acts against the will of someone, we’re not even close. Yet some want to use the same language for both.
I’m fairly confident that every husband and every wife has, at one time or another spoken unkindly to his or her spouse. In doing so the speaker is guilty of abuse. No husband or wife deserves to be treated that way. Because this type of abuse happens through what we say, we can call this, rightly, verbal abuse. Does this now mean, a. that all of us are guilty of constantly belittling our partner, of taking a perverse pleasure in beating him or her down with our tongues or b. that all of us are free to divorce on the grounds of abuse? The irony is that those who conflate the worst sort of verbal abuse with the universal sort of verbal abuse actually end up making the former look as small as the latter. Because they use sloppy language.
The driving force of post-modernism isn’t the mere observation that others abuse language for the sake of power but the embracing of that truth in the pursuit of power. What a shame that we who serve the Living Word are now doing much the same, manipulating language to score emotive points, at the cost of truth.