Words Matter

In a September article in the Atlantic, Salena Zito suggested that we take Trump, “seriously but not literally.” Yesterday, in an opinion piece on CNN, Brad Todd wrote, “Just before the dawn of the Trump administration, journalism in Washington, DC, faces an existential crisis -- but virtually no one in the profession is willing to diagnose it. Here it is: For the first time, words don't matter.”

This troubles me deeply and it should trouble you too.

Words matter.

I was raised to, “say what I mean and mean what I say.” In doing so, it leaves less room for misinterpretation. This makes it much simpler to clear up any misunderstanding by using additional words to bring further clarity. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, in Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies, explains that “precision of expression is neither taught nor appreciated in a culture that has prostituted language in the service of propaganda. To the degree that we consent to cheap hyperbole, cheap slogans, and comfortably unexamined claims, we deprive ourselves of the felicity of expression that brings things worth looking at into focus.”

It appears that, in the seven years since McEntyre wrote her book, we have come to a point in our culture where we are no longer able to clearly evaluate and articulate important ideas and concepts. We are no longer able to clearly separate fact from fiction or truth from lies. We no longer mean what we say or say what we mean.

When Zito suggests that we take Trump “seriously but not literally” she gets it entirely wrong. As a pastor I am often asked if I believe the Bible to be literally true. My answer is no. I believe the Bible to be completely true but that does not make it literal. Literal and true are on two separate axes. On one axis is the differentiation between literal and metaphor and on the other is the differentiation between true and false. Unfortunately we tend to confuse these two axes. Just because some of the Bible uses metaphorical language it does not make it false or just because someone literally said something it does not make it true. Precision in language matters.

Truth matters.

In a chapter titled, “Don’t Tolerate Lies,” McEntyre states, “I’m not naïve enough to think there ever was a time when public office was free of calculated misrepresentations, broken promises, and organized deceptions. What has changed is both the scale of such offenses and the attitude of the public toward them. Tolerance may not be the right term. It may simply be passivity. Or a species of fatigue in the face of the mountains of information, misinformation, disinformation, and trivia that requires sorting out if we’re going to pursue the truth of even one significant narrative in the stream of current events.”

Later in the chapter she would ask, “So what, then? Do we shrug and say there's nothing we can do? I don't think so. It seems to me that to be called stewards of words requires of us some willingness to call liars to account - particularly when their lies threaten the welfare of the community. Certainly we need to do this with humility, aware of the ways in which each one of us has a heart that is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). ... Still if there is to be health in the body politic and Body of Christ, healing involves naming the insults and offenses. It involves holding each other and our leaders accountable. It means clarifying where there is confusion; naming where there is evasion; correcting where there is error; fine-tuning where there is imprecision; satirizing where there is folly; changing the terms when the terms falsify.”

To accept McEntyre’s challenge requires diligence on our part. It requires a thoughtful and discerning discourse in order to properly respond to the “lies that threaten the welfare of the community.”