Resisting Redefinition

I wonder have you noticed a whole new vocabulary has been adopted and spread within our culture by the media and political elite. 'Same-sex marriage' is an oxymoron if ever there was one. 'LGBT community' presents a cohesive, friendly face. I won't bore you with a full glossary of terms. Some others may be pertinent, but I'm sure you could cite more.

Changing vocabulary is an age-old tool to brainwash. It was the favorite method  of the Babylonian ruling class to safely assimilate immigrants and erase the memory of their own culture, both political and religious. If you struggle to remember what Shadrach's Hebrew name was, it helps to prove my point and shows the technique had success!

Belteshazzar, as he was known, refused redefinition like the rest. Those who published the Bible were quite right to call his prophecy 'Daniel' and not 'The Book of Babylonian Belteshazzar'. How easy it is to spot assimilation in ancient times. I fear redefinition is more accepted in our own days. If this blog seems a quibble about words, the PC lobby has rightly recognized, words are more powerful than we think.

Take bXXXXXy or sXXXXy as almost unmentionable examples (I never feel comfortable to mouth or pen these words). I never hear anyone prepared to use those terms today. The standard term that's swallowed, conceded or chosen is the relatively recent term 'homosexual'. It is certainly more dignified but does it concede a condition (I am not so naive to think in this fallen world of ours some might not suffer from a 'condition' but as to the causes and how we deal with them, this term may be a red-herring, or lead us on a wild goose chase, or up a pastoral garden-path)?

So what are we dealing with and how do we address the matter of another like 'same sex attraction'? I really don't wish to unnecessarily tread on toes. I thank God I've been spared from that sort of inclination (as to other shameful temptations and sins and stains already forgiven, I've felt dark depravity nearer than I wish and only escaped by God's grace - there go I but for the grace of God)! I also know that many dear brothers and sisters, whom I esteem more highly than myself, have escaped their painful struggles and are at the coal face of counseling - some with great Gospel success (the Lord bless you in His work!). Yet having stated those caveats, would it not be simpler and clearer to recover or maintain biblical terms - should cases like this not be dealt with as a form of forbidden, damaging, sexual temptation and in such terms. It would facilitate those so perplexed to find the biblical answers that they need - my concern is that sheep lose their biblical bearings in a foggy forest of Babel-speak.

I am confident, in the Lord, that this is just what many good pastors do, in spite of the fact they choose to engage the culture on Babel's own terms. Perhaps there is a place for using the post-modern Babylonian phrasebook when talking or making apology in libertine, downtown Babel. Yet, some of the sheep are concerned and confused: they don't have the training or alacrity to answer complex objections slickly. They let their debates with friends get sucked into genetics, psychology and behavioral science, and before very long, for Peter and Paula in the pew, their basis for dealing with such questions has shifted from the scripture to our culture.

What is even more fearful, is that our children are re-programmed, and the next generation gives ground on the Scripture - that surely signals drastic withdrawal of light and death of the Church in the West. It would be very sad if muddy terminological waters became the circumstance (not the cause) for the blinding by Satan of some poor so-enslaved souls: those thus prevented from their rescue from the mire, in which we all began.

You maybe think this is scare-mongering and far-fetched! Perhaps.... but perhaps not! A recent conversation with a Christian friend, who has profile in the world, made my jaw hit the floor. His teens and twenties boys who profess Christian faith, would all, without doubt, contrary to the protests of their dad, if it came to a vote, tick the YES box for (as yet held back in Ulster) same-sex marriage. If the sources of drift are more multi-factorial than it appears, the language of Babel is far more persuasive and blinding than we assert!

I am certain of this - we are in a battle of fearful proportions in which there has already been many casualties! In all this, I worry, we risk making temptation and sin into a even more complex subject which is elusive and harder to pin down. We start groping around for answers on which the Word of God is silent. Far better, I suggest, to retain un-dumbed-down terms, and resist redefinition to fight the Tempter on God's terms.

I'm sure there are others who are more sober, wise and researched, who believe we need not worry about the loss of Zion-speak. Yet if my concerns leave you baffled I pray you might reflect, and give some careful thought as to whether 21st Century Belteshazzars should continue to use the lingua franca of Babel.

Call me a crusty old puritan - but I think we need to watch!