AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 1

Chelsea Long LING 442 Dr. Operstein 5 May 2012 An Analysis of Evangelical American Christianese

The flexibility of language is fascinating in that subcultures are able capitalize on semantic nuances to use language for their own purposes. One such subculture that exists in the United States of America is that of the Evangelical Christians. This group of people has its own use of language that has come to be referred to as

Christianese. It should be stated that Christianese is simply a jargon, not a dialect of

English. The American Heritage Dictionary defines jargon as, “The specialized language of a trade, profession, or similar group, especially when viewed as difficult to understand by outsiders (Hougton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).”

The first part of this paper will focus on varying sources for some commonly used words in this jargon, such as scriptural allusions, metaphors, and semantic or functional shifts. The second part of the paper will focus on uses of Christianese, such as softening, blame-shifting, and mutual face-saving. Lastly, this paper will discuss the influence of Christianese in the larger mainstream American culture.

Section 1: Sources for Christianese Words

One large source of words that make up the Christianese vernacular is allusions. Most of the allusions are biblical, which would make sense, as most

Christians are familiar with the . An example of this would be to say she has a

Jezebel spirit. The modern Christian may understand this to mean a woman who is manipulative, deceitful, or promiscuous. To understand this allusion, though, one would have to go back to the books of 1st and 2nd Kings in the Old Testament of the AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 2

Bible to read about the story of the manipulative Queen Jezebel who pushed her husband to commit evil acts. She tried to use her beauty to seduce other men, but she ended in ruin. On the other hand, a positive term for a woman would be to call her a Proverbs 31 Woman. This is an allusion to a chapter in the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament as well. This proverb speaks of the ideal wife “of noble character,” according to the Jewish culture at that time. Another example given by

Baker (2005) is that, “Christians are also encouraged to avoid being ‘lukewarm’—an allusion to Revelation 3:16—a state in which they are not wholehearted Christians, yet they are not completely ‘lost.’” Some other examples of Biblical allusions that have made their way into the common Christian vernacular are doubting Thomas,

Good Samaritan, and Job’s comforters.1

Another large source for the creation of Christianese words is metaphors.

These phrases, when said, do have a secular meaning that may confuse someone who didn’t understand the jargon. One such example is to talk about planting seeds.

In the common usage, this would refer to the first step to growing flowers or vegetables, for example. In Christianese the metaphorical meaning would refer to planting a seed of the knowledge of into someone’s mind, perhaps by speaking to someone about or by doing a good deed. Another example would be to say, bathed in prayer. One might hear a Christian talk about wanting to “bathe” a night in prayer, which is a metaphor for wanting to pray so much that the whole night is

1 Doubting Thomas comes from the book of John in the Bible—Thomas was one of ’ followers who did not believe he had died and come back to life. Good Samaritan from a parable that Jesus told in Luke, where a Samaritan helped a Jew, even though the two people groups did not get along. Job’s comforters from the book of Job, where Job was suffering from illness, and his friends kept giving him bad advice. AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 3 immersed and surrounded by prayer, quite like being immersed in a bathtub. Some more commonly heard phrases would be get plugged in to a church or on fire for God

(Baker, 2005).2

There is a third category that combines the first two mentioned in this paper.

That category is metaphors that come from the Bible that have found their way into common usage by Christians. One such word is to refer to the Bible as a sword. This comes from Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version) in the New Testament of the

Bible, which says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double- edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Some narrowing occurred to create Christianese words. Many of the words came from the Bible and may have a broader meaning outside of that group, but

Christians use the word in a very specific sense. One very common example is the word saved. To ask if someone is saved, it means to ask if he what the Bible says about Jesus. Another common word is fellowship. Again, the dictionary definition is common: “The companionship of individuals in a congenial atmosphere and on equal terms (Hougton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).” In Christianese, however, this word has a narrower meaning, which means to spend time with other

Christians. A few more examples of this type of word are testimony and worship.3

2 To get plugged into a church is to get involved with a church. To be on fire for God is to have a very passionate love and enthusiasm for God.

3 Testimony refers to a Christian’s story of how they came to believe in Jesus. Worship refers to the time of singing songs in church, typically at the beginning of the service. AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 4

Euphemisms enter into the Christian vernacular, as well. Some examples would be to say the hot place instead of hell, doubled eggs instead of deviled eggs, and to host a harvest celebration as opposed to a Halloween party. Oftentimes

Christians will refer to Satan, God’s antagonist according to the Bible, as the enemy.

The voluntary giving of money to the church is called tithing, yet sometimes churches will refer to it as a love offering. Christians refer to their moral failings as struggles. Christians aren’t the only ones to have euphemisms that refer to death, but in Christianese, there are specific euphemisms such as to say someone went home or flew off to heaven.

Surprisingly, it was difficult to find neologisms that are part of the Christian jargon. One such word is evangecube. This word combines the word evangelize (to share one’s faith, according to the Christianese definition) and cube. Essentially it is a cube made from cardboard that has pictures on all sides that one can use to share his or her Christian faith. Another recent neologism is Tebowing, which is the act of taking a knee in prayer when one has success in a sports game. This word ha sprung up because of the popularity of Christian football player Tim Tebow.

In addition, one can find metonymy within the Christianese jargon. One such example is the use of the word “church” to describe the whole group of Christians, rather than the building itself. Another example of metonymy is to refer to eating a meal together with other Christians as “breaking bread.” This is also a Biblical allusion, as it is found in Acts 2:42, which says of the early church, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 5

Another common source for Christianese is borrowings from other languages, typically the languages in which the Bible was originally written. This happens most often with names for God. A few examples are Jehovah and Yahweh.

Both come from the Hebrew spelling for God’s name, YHWH. Jehovah comes through Latin, while Yahweh comes directly from Hebrew, according to Collin’s

English Dictionary. Hallelujah and hosanna are both exclamations of praise for God, again, both originating from the Hebrew, although hosanna came through Greek,

Late Latin, and Old English to arrive into Modern English (Collin’s English

Dictionary). A few expressions from Aramaic is the word maranatha, which means

“our Lord come” or referring to God as Abba, which is the Aramaic word for father.

Baker (2005) offered an interesting insight into this phenomenon. She said, “Often, borrowed words are immediately reinforced with an English translation in common usage. This creates doublets like ‘Abba Father,’ ‘Jehovah Jireh, our provider,’ and ‘the

Alpha and the Omega: the Beginning and the End.’”

An additional way in which the Bible influences Christian vernacular is through technical terms describing Biblical concepts. One such word is

“propitiation” which is defined as “a conciliatory offering to a god (Hougton Mifflin,

2012)” Another such group of words is “premillenialism,” “amillenialism,” and

“postmillennialism,” which all refer to different versions of beliefs that Christians may have concerning the end times.

A last interesting aspect of Christianese is the shifting of function of words. A man can be a pastor (n.) but he can also pastor (v.) a church. Another such example would be to say that you went to worship (v.) at a worship (adj.) service. God AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 6 redeems (v.) one from his sin, but also someone who has been redeemed can refer to himself or herself as one of the redeemed (n.).

Section 2: Uses of Christianese

First and foremost, people speak Christianese for the reason that almost every group has it’s own jargon: because they want to be identified as part of the group. As Cho (2005) says, “To [Christians], it gives a sense of belonging, identity, and even superiority over outsiders.” When speaking of his own experience with learning the lingo, he says, “My own lack of proficiency has been a liability. I come across as ‘unspiritual,’ and consequently have a hard time fitting in.” According to the satirical website Baptized in Bullshit (2012), author Kristopher writes.

“Ultimately, it acts as a secret handshake between ‘believers’ (Christianese term for

Christians).”

There are some specific usage characteristics of Christianese besides the general use of helping to establish group membership. The indirect quality of

Christianese is one of its defining characteristics. Dzameshie (1995) explores one such concept in his article entitled, “Social Motivations for Politeness Behavior in

Christian Sermonic Discourse.” He uses Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory as a theoretical underpinning for his research. They assert that some speech acts “are intrinsically threatening to face and thus require ‘softening.’” This is often the case in Christianese. Dzameshie (1995) discusses politeness strategies (PSs) used by ministers while preaching. Often ministers must perform the duty of admonishing the congregation, saying some things that could be interpreted as face threatening acts (FTAs). The reason why this is a problem, according to Dzameshie, AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 7 is that, “In the church family, cardinal principles of interpersonal relationships such as love, friendliness, respect, humility, and gentleness are expected.”

As Brown and Levinson (1987) suggest in their study, a large component of the politeness theory is that people have a desire to help each other save face. This may become a problem when the pastor rebukes the congregation, so Dzameshie

(1995) suggests that pastors will defer to the congregation with kindness by using

“mitigating language” when presenting FTAs in their sermons, such as passive voice or indirect references to the hearers of the FTAs. In his article, he investigates politeness strategies used by ministers in their sermons. A few specific politeness strategies that Dzameshie noticed are inclusive pronouns, style switching, humor, quotations, and hedges. Although the previously mentioned article is specifically about ministers, this applies to the general Christian population as well. In

Ephesians, 4:15, the author Paul instructs the Christians to “speak the in love.”

Christians interpret this as having a responsibility to admonish one another for

“ungodly” behavior, but with gentleness.

Many expressions in Christianese are used for softening, or to shift the blame for what they are about to say. Someone might say, I felt convicted to do this, or God told me to say this. This is often said to cue the listener to be prepared for what will follow, because it may be shocking, controversial, or offensive. In other words, these phrases are a way to diminish the effects of a potential forthcoming FTA. To shift the blame to God may help to alleviate the blame the person feels. Similarly, a Christian might say that he or she was tempted by the devil as a way to shift blame for some negative behavior in their lives. AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 8

A last observation of the usage of Christianese is to evade responsibility. When someone has a problem, often a Christian will say, I’ll pray for you or God knows your needs in response. While the Christian may be genuine in saying that, perhaps there is something more practical that they can do, but they think that praying will cover their responsibility to help the person. If a Christian says something is in God’s will then he is asserting that he feels there is nothing that he can do to change the circumstance. Another example of this usage is to say it’s not my calling, meaning that they don’t want to help in that certain way. The Bible speaks of Christians as having spiritual talents that equip them to carry out certain roles in the church. If a

Christian doesn’t believe that he or she has the certain gift, then they might use that as an excuse to not serve the church in a specific way. Or a Christian might say, I’ll pray about it which is basically just a way to say no to a request.

Section 3: Christianese in Mainstream American Culture

Before the end of the nineteenth century, religion was more or less embedded into the ordinary culture, and so there was no separation in language between Christians and non-Christians (Baker, 2005). Due to the more recent divergence of Christian culture and secular society, there became the need for a creation of Christianese, as the mainstream society rejected certain words, and

Christians adopted new terms. Because of the lack of overlap between the two cultures, it caused a gap between the language of Christians and the language in common usage. According to Baker (2005), “Eventually…that was playfully dubbed

‘Christianese’—a term which rapidly became yet another word unique to religious circles.” According to McFedries (2012), the earliest citation of the word is in a 1986 AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 9 interview with a Christian artist named Michael W. Smith. Since then, however,

Christianese has come to be more widely known as a phenomenon in American culture.

The realm in which Christianese is notably used is in politics in the United

States. There is the notion of the “Religious Right” and the knowledge that whatever candidate the Evangelical Christians support will have success in the presidential elections. Students at Bucknell University (2011) composed a blog post entitled

“Obama and Perry, Speaking ‘Christianese’ during 2012 Presidential Rallies.” The article goes on to explain how both of the candidates were using their personal religious beliefs and rhetoric to identify with the Evangelical Christian audience.

One article from the online version of Huffington Post analyzes the speech of a politician in Washington and breaks down for its readers the portions of her speech that are “Evangelese.” The article goes on to say,

Takeaway for political candidates: If you're not a Christian, don't even try to

speak Evangelese. There are subtleties of sequence and jargon that

are invisible to outsiders, but violating them even slightly is a dead

giveaway that you are a sham. Refer to someone as "a good person,"

for example, and it's all over. All the same, if you want the

Evangelical/born again forty-ish percent of the public to find you

appealing, there are a few turns of phrase that are worth

incorporating into your campaign vocabulary…use evangelical or

biblical turns of phrase in a secular context. They will sound AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 10

appealingly familiar to a born again audience--without you pretending

to be something you aren't (Tarico, 2009).

Mike Huckabee is an example of a politician who used Christianese subtlety and effectively. One cited is example was using the term “vertical politics.”

According to Radosh (2008), this terminology comes from Christianese and refers to one’s relationship with God. He suggests that Mike Huckabee used the term intentionally to resonate with an Evangelical audience. Political blogger Josh

Marshall (2008) said about this specific terminology, “The more I look at this I don't think there's any question this is a clever dog whistle call out to Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals that his politics are God's politics.

Former president George W. Bush was somewhat notorious for being able to speak Christianese fluently. He spoke often of his Christian faith, and used

Christianese frequently. According to Blake (2011), George W. Bush used the phrase

“wonder-working power” to refer to the ability the American people had to effect good in the community. Many listeners were confused by that statement, but

Evangelicals would have recognized it as a phrase found in a popular 19th century hymn called “In the Precious Blood of the Lamb.”

In the article, Blake interviews Bill Leonard, a professor of church history.

According to Leonard, “The code says that one: I’m inside the community. And two:

These are the linguistic ways that I show I believe what is required of me.”

Turning to a completely different realm, Christianese used as satire is found in the character Ned Flanders and his sons in the television show . In one episode, Homer Simpson floods their town as an art project. Ned sees the water AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 11 and says, ‘It’s a miracle. The Lord has drowned the wicked and spared the righteous!” This is an allusion to the Biblical account of a time when God flooded the entire earth and only a few God-fearing people survived. His sons play games that are based off of Bible stories, like “Good Samaritan” or “Clothe the Leper.”

(Croucher, 2006).

A Google search for “Christianese” leads to page after page of results. There seem to be two categories—one group is people satirizing Christianese. Two more established websites to this end are Lark News (http://www.larknews.com/) and

Objective: Ministries (http://objectiveministries.org/). The other group commonly found is Christians urging other Christians to stop using Christianese in an attempt to be more relevant to the mainstream culture. They know that those outside of their Christian culture easily misunderstand these words and phrases, and there are many calls to Christians to be more genuine in their speech.

In conclusion, Christianese consists of a large lexicon of words that are mostly unoriginal; yet carry very distinct meaning from the mainstream vernacular.

The lexicon has come to identify a group of people, and is used as an indicator of in- group status, a way to speak indirectly, or perhaps, as some have suggested, as a form of manipulation (as seen by the examples of some political figures trying to gain support of the Religious Right.) Mainstream media uses it as satirical material,

Christians use it and implore people to stop using it. It exists and is part of the complex culture surrounding American Evangelical Christians. It will be interesting to see in the future if this culture continues to diverge, or to what extent

Christianese will continue to be a part of popular culture in the United States. AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 12

References

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http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/6362-baker.htm.

Baptized in Bullshit. (2011). Christianese. Retrieved May 4, 2012 from

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Blake, J. (2011). Do you speak Christian? Retrieved April 29, 2012 from

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/31/do-you-speak-christian/.

Brown, P. & Levinson, C. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage.

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Hougton Mifflin Harcourt (2012). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English

Language. Retrieved April 27, 2012 from http://ahdictionary.com/. AN ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIANESE 13

McFedries, P. (2012). Christianese. Retrieved April 29, 2012 from

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