For some reason, back in November I thought I would get back into the rhythm of regular blogging. I apparently wasn't looking at my calendar when I said that. Three holidays and two conferences later, I think I'm finally ready to make good on that intention.
Semantics
"What's in a name?", it turns out, is a pretty huge question
I'm not sure what your background is with the idea or word "semantics". Sometime in my past, probably in high school when I was at an all-time high in smarminess, I learned the word had something to do with splitting hairs over the meaning of a word.
So, whenever I found myself in an argument with someone about the meaning of a word or phrase, I would go through this quick mental flowchart:
[Tangent-within-a-tangent: Whenever I cringe about how annoying or mean I was as a kid, my mom says I'm being hard on my former self and that all little boys are annoying and mean. This may be true; the only evidence of boy-me I really have is family videos, and little boys do seem generally monstrous. But when it comes to High School Jonathan, my memory still serves pretty well. Trust me when I say I cared more about being right than I did about your feelings. Praise God for transformation.]
And with that backdrop, let's proceed to a discussion in which I actually do want to argue semantics, whether I "win" or not.
Christianity: religion or relationship?
Is it either/or? Can we just say "religionship"?
A popular mantra for commending Christianity is that "it's not a religion, it's a relationship." I get why people say it, I know what they're trying to communicate, but...
...is it true?
Google's awesome definition feature defines religion as "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods". Most longer dictionaries add further definitions to include the rituals and practices that align with those beliefs.
Sounds a lot like Christianity to me.
I think rather than saying the above cliche, or other variations of it (e.g. "religion is about what we can do to get to God, while the gospel is about what God has done to get to us"), we should communicate in a way that is semantically true. For example:
Christianity is unique among religions in that, while the others are about doing enough rituals or good deeds to please God, Christianity merely calls us to respond to what God has already done to initiate a relationship with us.
You might think that I'm communicating the exactly same thing as the thousands of relationship-mongers, but A. I'm not sure I am, and B. at least I'm doing it in a way that respects the actual meaning of the word "religion". You might also think that said respect to a word is unimportant, but I think respecting the word "religion" is important for a few reasons:
1. It's hard not to sound super-condescending to adherents of other religions if they overhear you laugh and say, "Oh no, I'm not part of a religion!! Those are for unevolved pagans. I'm part of a relationship. Huge difference. Way better."
2. It's not full of integrity. The reason we shy away from the word "religion" is that we don't want people to write us off due to their preconceived notions of religion -- that they'll have to be burdened by going to church, reading the Bible, avoiding pleasurable sins, etc. And it's true that they don't have to do these things to earn God's love or forgiveness. But come on -- as soon as the person converts, we're teaching them to go to church, read the Bible, and avoid sin.
3. It sets a weird precedent for casting off unpleasant words. For almost 2000 years, Christianity has been known to everyone as a religion. Suddenly that word gains a negative stigma, and we're kicking it to the curb. I know these aren't the same, but will we one day be saying, "Jesus wasn't a deity, he was a superevolved being; the Bible isn't authoritative, it's directive; heaven isn't future and literal and eternal, it's now and progressive and mystical."
Now, I understand that the meanings and connotations of words change over time, but I don't think the meaning of religion has changed appreciably. If the connotation has changed, I think we only have ourselves to blame for letting Christianity become a parody of itself. The solution has to be to change Christianity, not the word we use to label it.
Join the peaceful, non-argumentative discussion
Please, don't be mean. Or smarmy.
Religion? Relationship?
Or am I just splitting hairs?
Your religious friend,
Jon
Hello Jon, I'm a friend of Jana Kucharick's, and I read this post after she shared it on facebook. I've been mildly uneasy about the way we use the word religion in my Christian circle, if for no other reason than the Bible talks about what pure and undefiled religion is in the book of James. That passage makes it seem strange to me that religion has become something of a dirty word to us. I think you captured what made me uneasy, and communicated it clearly and intelligently without being ugly. I enjoyed the read and have passed it on to some others. Thanks!
ReplyDelete~Seth Ewing
Thanks Seth! I really appreciate the comment itself and the fact that you were bold enough to be the first to comment on a blog post where you're a stranger.
DeleteWe were just talking about this in our small group. We're studying Hebrews, and the idea of "religion" came up....I tend to be one of those "it's a relaaaaationship" type people, that feels all icky when people talk about Religion, or Religiousness (Ok, that second one isn't a word- but they are both capitalized for Emphasis. And Gravitas.) And my reason is exactly what you described- After volunteering with high schoolers for years, religion became a bit of a bad word because of the ideas it conjures up for that community. Tell a kid you're religious, and they're likely to write you off as a close minded, judgmental, boring stick-in-the-mud that they can't relate to. Talk to them about "having a relationship with Jesus"...well, they might listen for a minute or two before jumping to conclusions. So while I totally agree with you that we shouldn't hide the gospel behind semantics trickery, I do feel that there is something to be said for choosing the right word for your audience. We shouldn't be afraid of words like "religion" but we should be aware of what that concept could mean to people, and the stumbling block that it might be to further conversation.
ReplyDeleteAnd p.s. I too was a total know-it-all jerk for much of my childhood. Some people might have called me "precocious", but that's just semantics.
A little late in the game, but I'm throwing myself in: to go off of what Courtney was saying, I agree that Christianity is a religion (especially when you look at the super-awesome Google definition), but, as with any other word, we must use it only when appropriate. I will paint with an enormously wide brush and say that society in general rejects being told about a religion. It has gained a negative stigma, and if we want to avoid that we should avoid using the word.
ReplyDeleteIt's kinda like the word "semantics". It's gained a negative stigma, but it's really just the study of the meaning of words. However, you do sound smug (or smarmy) when you use it to win or nullify an argument.