"How is your walk with the Lord"?
"Spiritual growth through trials"
"The Lord placed it on my heart to witness and win souls"
"Have you been in the Word?"
"I have prayer requests for my backsliding friend"
Christianese. It's one of my pet peeves. It drives me crazy when Christians use words and phrases that folks don't understand. Here is an example, "Brother, after church let's meet at the narthex." I want to scream when I hear Christians say "narthex". Can't we just say "lobby"?
Christianese: "I Don’t Feel Called."
Translation: "Get someone else to do it."
Christianese: "She is a godly woman with a soft heart for God"
Translation: "Dude, that chick is hot."
I like the phrase "Too Hip For The Room". What does that mean? It means that you are talking, acting or doing something that the average human being does not understand, connect with or relate to. Speaking Christianese is using language that is "Too Hip For The Room".
One blogger says this about Christianese: "It creates an illusion that one's proficiency in Christianese is a measure of his/her spirituality."
Need more examples of Christianese? Watch the clip below.
Click here for more examples of Christianese.
Thanks to the Kruse Kronicle blog for inspiring this post.
I so agree with this! I also used that clip on my blog last year about the very same subject! http://shonasspace.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html
ReplyDeleteI won't deny the need for Christians to become more sensitive about the way they talk to people, especially around those unfamiliar with Christianese.
ReplyDeleteYet I don't flinch at four letter words from people speaking their native tongue. I haven't always understood what Christians are saying, but I also don't always understand what a group of sports fans are talking about, and I couldn't begin to tell you who's hip and who's not.
With everything else Christians get bashed for, do we really need to bash one another? The world tears us down badly enough. We desperately need to be building up one another. I'm aching right now that I can't do it the way I want to.
It hurts me to for anyone to be bad-mouthed—whether a prostitute or pastor.
I love you, Mike. I pray for you all the time. I'm crying as I write this.