How Language Softens Our Resolve, Part 2

Here’s a fact: God’s law is not complicated, but our efforts to get around it are. In fact, our efforts to circumvent God’s clear directives are excruciatingly tangled. Our aversion to law is so out-of-control that we even avoid the word. We talk about “God’s way” or “God’s will” or “God’s plan.” “God’s law” sounds… well, a bit legalistic, don’t you think? Downplaying “law” is only one of the gyrations we use when we try to get around a clear “right” and “wrong”. If our hearts are bent towards something, we fashion our language to bring that thing into cultural acceptance. So, I want to keep looking at the impact of our language on the erosion of our moral resolve.

I’m all for giving other people the freedom to chart their own course, to think their own thoughts, and to agree or disagree with my ways. But the language required for polite discourse with those of other beliefs is not the best language for me as I consider my challenges. If I even get close to thinking “My, she’s beautiful. I wonder how it would feel to…” I am not making a “poor choice.” I am not considering an “alternate lifestyle.” I am not even being “irresponsible.” Whether those phrases mildly approve or disapprove of what I imagine, they are all… well, too mild. There is still old-fashioned power in the word sin, and I need that power to jolt me out of self-indulgent ponderings.

We may think that “sin” is too judgmental. We may believe there are many different “normals,” many alternatives to the Judeo-Christian worldview, especially in regards to sexual issues. Yes, there are many alternatives to Bible injunctions. But there are also many alternatives to good food, some are even tasty, but that doesn’t make them preferable. We are bombarded by ads of people scarfing down all kinds of junk with smiles on their faces surrounded by healthy families. It’s a lie, and we know it, but we still joke about our addiction to some favorite treat, and we reach for the package that hisses “ssssinfully deliciousssss.” How has the use of the word “sin” become a twisted and enticing recommendation?

Healthy-people-eating-junk-food ads create a picture of health while promoting the very things that destroy it. Morally we are on the same junk food diet. Sexual integrity is more frequently, broadly, blatantly, and subtly attacked than is dietary integrity. Even the grocery store check-out line is almost more about sex than about food. Sexual misconduct is so ubiquitous it has almost become the canvas upon which our lives are painted. It is so pervasive that we don’t consciously notice the half of it.

While we struggle to live Christian lives of personal integrity we spend time and money to avoid looking “unsexy.” Why is it that one of our best Adventist marketers used the word “sexy” as a synonym for “energetic and persuasive,” even while shooting video in a room featuring all child models? I was there. Why is it a rising young Adventist pastor initially promoted his upcoming breakout session with the title “Pimping Your Website”? I was there, too. Why is it we are told that “for people under 30 the f-word is an accepted part of speech”? We are all witnessing this.

Ever since advertising stumbled on “Don’t sell the steak; sell the sizzle,” we have been inundated with a stream of sexual sizzle. It permeates our language, and erodes our personal congruence. While we want to see others as Jesus saw them, we are constantly trained to see them as potential objects of desire, eye candy, things to exploit. Whoever is not “hot” is not worth it.

Is it that big a deal? Am I being too sensitive? Am I simply failing to change with the ever-changing language? While it is true that language constantly changes (and now even faster than ever) it is also true that change is not always good. At tightly-packed public events I stay aware of my wallet. 

Changing it from my pocket to someone else’s is not a good change. In the same sneaky way language has stolen from our society a large amount of purity. Even to the point that “purity” seems a little bit flat. It’s just not “sexy.”

We need to back up and take a good look at the culture we are swimming in. Living in America today is like attending a seminar in Las Vegas. In the morning in our hotel rooms we spend time in worship. We try to remember that God loves each person, no matter how they look. We try to maintain a pure view of the worth of others. But then we have to walk on streets carpeted with pictures of flesh for sale. It’s totally incongruous. It can even be dizzying and disorienting. And the incongruence is not limited to Vegas. Don’t we rally to end human trafficking, and then talk of pimping our trucks? Don’t we assert the value of every person only to hear our kids say “my bitch” as a term of ownership and dominance?

Our culture preaches self-esteem, but it has planted the crudest term for sexual exploitation in the center of young mouths. Can we wake up from the hypocrisy? If so, can we unpolluted the river? We can’t claim high moral ground and fight for noble moral causes while filling our mouths or our entertainment with immoral language.