I lead a small spiritual community in Denver, Living Waters Community Church. We don’t have a permanent physical space, and have met in parks, basements, living rooms, and various local churches. While I am a Christian, an American Baptist Pastor, and our stories and language are often Christian in content and analogy, I wouldn’t necessarily say that the Living Waters community is made up of Christians primarily. For many of us, simply owning our souls, our spiritual aspects, simply acknowledging that we are connected parts of an intentional Creation and that there is hope and light possible is in itself a huge task. We invite our community to think and question, explore and discover what truth is held, what guidance is given or needed, what new ways forward are opened.
Something that I’ve discovered while walking with such an eclectic group is that I have no idea where others’ pitfalls are. Which things from my tradition that I offer will hold within them toxic messages of rejection or judgement? For one former Catholic, singing the Tallis Canon spun her into spirals of anger and shame. I’d had no idea that was possible.
But usually, it’s around words. Language.
Language conflict can be subtle -like the shifting of a Pauline message that in Greek calls for the equitable redistribution of resources by need and ability into an English “fair balance” that promotes a very unjust practice of giving the same to everyone. There isn’t a huge learning curve when a different translation is offered in such a situation. Yes, this small but significant language shift does totally reframe the traditional take on Paul’s message to the church, both today and then in Corinth, but it brings that message more in line with the Gospel, more in line with other things Paul says, and is more helpful to any community learning how to love each other.
Language conflict can rest in different people holding different definitions of a single word or phrase. “Love” itself is a good example, and can mean many various things to people in various contexts.
Throughout all of the last 30 years of my ministry career, language has mattered a great deal. I’ve found that a primary ministry skill is my ability to code-switch, to find a common vocabulary, to use language that works for the person or group in front of me.
When I am at the bedside of the dying, I will “lift up my heart to the Father God” or “pass your soul into the arms of Jesus” or whatever is needful for that person to feel peace. I briefly memorized the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish so that my Latinx patients could hear more comforting words before surgery.
This awareness and adaptation of language does not mean that manipulative, erroneous, or toxic language can be acceptable. The insistence that All Lives Matter is equivalent to Black Lives Matter is nonsense, as the exercise itself erases the Black concern. Which was the point. The push back of #NotMe in response to #MeToo negated the solidarity message of the #MeToo movement. Which was the point. The distinction between Southern History and Southern Heritage may seem tiny from the outside but within it is a world of difference and denial.
Through sensationalism and loud vocal protest, and the additional support of vitriolic divisive men like Rush Limbaugh, the religious right established itself as the only true Christian voice in America. And none of us in the Mainline church noticed that the media as a whole bought it until it was too late. Words DO matter, and when we allow others to define us we are subject to those effects, to the dangers of becoming that thing itself.
It’s so subtle. All of this -the attempts to control classroom language and thwart Critical Race Theory, the slow shifting of the Image of God into a megachurch pastor, the substitution of homosexual for pedophile in New Testament letters, the assumption that America is about personal individual rights- all of it represents the slippery slopes that make fake news and fake faith possible.
I don’t recognize the America that Trumpers scream about, but I know our Constitution and have studied American History. When a New York Times reporter called me several years ago to poll my opinion on whether President Obama was a Socialist, I laughed out loud, told her no as I had a college education, and began a lovely conversation at her mutual laughter. But I dismissed it.
But when you teach a faith divested from the values or ethics taught by the One you claim to follow or a history devoid of uncomfortable facts, this kind of manipulation is easy. When you espouse a patriotism devoid of any collective obligation, it is simple to turn community members into a rabble capable of massive violence, as we saw on January 6, 2021 in DC.
It’s all related. Life is slippery slopes and grey shadows sometimes. But perhaps if we pay closer attention, and name the lies and heresies more broadly, cede less ground, perhaps then we can ride those slippery slopes like a mountain road, and even gain momentum.
Because this journey is treacherous, the ground is sacred, and it all matters.