July/August 2003 Newsletter

THE RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE NEWSLETTER
Volume 4, Issue 4 -- July/August 2003
==========================================================
The Religious Language Newsletter is written and published every other month by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. (linguistics), from the Ozark Center for Language Studies (OCLS), PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137 USA; e-mail OCLS@madisoncounty.net. It's available by e-mail only, in plain text, and is free to members of the Lovingkindness Network; thanks to generous donations, all issues are posted at http://www.forlovingkindness.org. To join the network and receive its newsletter, send $5.00 (annual dues for each calendar year) to OCLS; please be sure to include your e-mail address with your check, money order, or credit card information. (Supporting Memberships are $15.00.) Donations to Lovingkindness are tax-deductible. For more information, or to request a free sample issue, e-mail OCLS.
==========================================================
IN THIS ISSUE: Editor's Note; Network Input; Quotes & Comments; Correction; Poem; Cyberspace; Announcements

EDITOR'S NOTE

Thank you for all the materials that you've been sending; I'm very grateful. And please let me know if you would like for me to add your name to the subscriber list for the 2003 Peacetalk 101 Newsletter (which is free, and brief, and an experiment that may not continue past this year).

NETWORK INPUT

1. In a previous issue I expressed my surprise at a conservative theologian's statement that -- should scientific research prove the healing effects of prayer -- "Many people from my school of faith will say this type of healing is not from God but from the devil," and I asked for your input. Responses:

a. From Elizabeth Barrette:

"<boggle> So this means ... what? The devil is somehow stealing God's mail?"

b. From Douglas Dee:

"A number of Christian denominations preach that 'the Age of Miracles' is over. God performed miracles in Biblical times and then (some say) till the death of the last apostle, but God now works differently, so there are no more (genuine) miracles, and any apparent ones are accidents, works of the devil, etc. I don't know much about these views, but I googled a bit ... and found some references; for example, http://livingletters.org/radio/2002/021002.htm."

**My own ignorance on this topic seems to be both broad and deep. I had no idea that any Christian denomination believed the devil capable of working _good_ marvels. That is, I've heard a heart attack or stroke called "the work of the devil," but never the _healing_ of a heart attack or stroke. Presumably a healing performed by the devil would have to be part of some larger evil? You have to wonder: What do those who believe in this doctrine say to the person who has been healed? And how does the healed person who believes in this doctrine deal with the event? Suppose you were mortally ill and then healed, and you believed you had been healed by the devil for some evil purpose; how would you get on with your life?

2. From Claudia Camp:

"Weighing in on Lakoff's metaphors-- how about: Moral is Straight, Immoral is Crooked (good biblical precedent here!), and Immoral People are a Cancer (modern version of the ancient Immoral People are a Pollution)."

**I don't know, and I'm not at all certain that the words "moral" and "immoral" mean the same thing to me that they mean to Lakoff or to other Network members. I'm partial to the crooked and the assymetric myself. (Maybe it's because I am myself crooked and assymetric, thanks to polio -- that's possible.) I don't feel enough animosity toward immoral people to perceive them as cancers -- malignant and wildly destructive and out of control; they seem to me to be heartbreakingly crippled. I've never known an immoral person who seemed to me to have any knowledge whatsoever of joy. Maybe the difficulty finding an apt metaphor for moral/immoral means that our terms are improperly defined.

QUOTES & COMMENTS

1. After reading a glowing review in _The Women's Review of Books_, I bought a copy of _Mary Baker Eddy: Speaking for Herself_ (2002; ISBN 0-87952-275-5) for the Lovingkindness library. I'm not sorry I did that, because it's an appropriate purchase for any library of books on religion and religious language; the reviewer's comments about the rarity of a religion established by a woman are accurate, and the book (which is beautifully produced and printed) is of historical interest. I cannot recommend it as reading material, however. (And I must point out that the same could be said of many thousands of religious books; it's not unique to this one.) Here's one quotation from page 54:

"Why do Christian Scientists say God and His idea are the only realities, and then insist on the need of healing sickness and sin? Because Christian science heals sin as it heals sickness, by establishing the recognition that God _is All_, and there is none beside Him, -- that all is good, and there is in reality no evil, neither sickness nor sin. ... ...[W]e attack the belief of the sick in the reality of sickness, in order to heal them."

2. Here's something interesting -- and a bit startling -- from page 89 of the _Bellevue Literary Review_ for Spring 2003 (in "Ask Him If He Knows Jesus," by Clarence Smith, pp. 80-90): " 'A real miracle destroys your faith,' the doctor said, 'because when you see one, you have no choice but to believe.' "

This startled me because for the past few years I've been working on a novel about life in a world where -- because a single miracle has been seen by everyone -- everyone has no choice but to accept the existence of a Deity, and the ability of that Deity to interfere in human affairs, as fact. I'm interested in exploring what the repercussions of that would be. The paradoxical idea that that very circumstance would logically cancel out faith had not crossed my mind. In my falling-apart copy of _Madame Curie_, page 265, Eve Curie writes that "It matters little what god one believes in; it is the faith, and not the god, that makes miracles." The Smith quote and the Curie quote in combination make my head ache. Your input would be welcome. [The _Bellevue Literary Review_ is $12.00 a year for two issues, from the Dept. of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue OBV-612, NY, NY 10016.]

3. My thanks to Pat Mathews for a copy of "Seminary Article Sparks Alabama Tax-Code Revolt," by Shailagh Murray, in a 2/03 _Wall Street Journal_ , which says:

"For nearly a century, reformers have tried in vain to change this state's antiquated tax structure. ... Now an unlikely force is setting off a tax revolt in Alabama; religious fervor. The catalyst is Susan Pace Hamill, a tax-law professor who used a sabbatical at a divinity school to write 'An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics.' ... Her paper, published last month in the Alabama Law Review, has been cited by influential Alabamans in business and the state house... It has also brought some of the most powerful of Alabama's 8,000 churches into the fray, with pastors culling from the article to preach about the Christian duty to demand a tax code that falls more evenly on rich and poor."
A Google search with "Susan Pace Hamill Alabama tax code" as your search phrase brings up many interesting items, including a story identifying Hamill as "an accidental prophet" and a condensed version of her paper. Recommended.

4. Here's a tidy religious-language metaphor, from "The Power of Presence: An Interview with Spiritual Teacher Eckhart Tolle," by Steve Donoso (pp. 14-17, _Noetic Sciences Review_ for 3-5/03, sent by Sally Lloyd). On page 14:

"Tolle described the role of spiritual teacher as 'an open window through which a breeze is blowing.' It is easy to confuse 'the breeze,' he said, 'with the window through which the breeze is blowing,' ...."

5. From "Faith, not laughter, may be the best medicine," by Kevin Lamb, _Dayton Daily News_ for 4/19/05, sent by Hal Davis:

"Healing appears to come about as a byproduct of religion, not as an objective, said [Dr. Harold Koenig] the eminent Duke University researcher... Rather than flowing directly from the scripture or sanctuary, health benefits emanate from religion's more fundamental pursuits of purpose in life, a sense of control, social support, honorable living and serenity. "

Noting that "Only scant research has examined possible harmful effects of religion," Koenig insists that doctors should take a spiritual history of their patients, saying, "Perhaps the most powerful rationale for taking a spiritual history is not the positive effects of religion on health, but the potential negative effects." (For example, the negative effects of a patient's conviction that the illness is a punishment from God, or an abandonment by God.)

6. "In reading about South Africa, there is a word I come across constantly: _ubuntu_. _Ubuntu_ (in the Niger langauges) or _botho_ (in Sotho languages) serves as a spiritual foundation of African societies. It is a worldview reflected in the Zulu maxim _umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu_, which means 'a person is a person through other people.' ... Ubuntu, as explained by its most famous exponent, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, means that a person is human in being enveloped in the community of other human beings, 'caught up in the bundle of life.' It promotes compassion, hospitality, and forgiveness."

This is from "Ubuntu: Caught Up In The Bundle Of Life," by Katherine Kemp, pp. 93-94, _Whole Earth_ for Winter 2002, on page 94. Kemp goes on with a list of questions that can be summed up as "But then how to you explain the horrible things that have happened in South Africa?" And Kemp says: "These are the questions the skeptics ask, but they overlook a much greater question. Why has this country not seen _more_ violence? ... What happened to the vengeance?" Why the Truth & Reconciliation Commission instead of an eye for an eye? My thanks to Pat Mathews for the copy.

7. About the Harry Potter books.....

"The Catholic News Service, run by the American bishops, puts the books on its recommended list for children. Ministers preach sermons likening Harry's running through the wall of Platform 9 3/4 to a leap of faith. 'We're missing something if we can't tell stories from the Bible as compelling as _Harry Potter_,' says John Fleming, minister of First United Methodist in Henrietta, Texas. ["The Real Magic of Harry Potter," by Nancy Gibbs; pp. 60-67, _Time_ for 6/23/03; on page 66.]

I am particularly in agreement with Rev. Fleming's comment: We are for sure missing something if we can't tell stories from the Bible -- or from any other major source of narratives -- as compelling as the Harry Potter books. I don't think the problem is that we can't do it, I think the problem is that we're lazy. What makes the Harry Potter books shine is the fact that the good characters are far more interesting than the bad characters, and the good in the narrative is far more interesting than the evil; children by the millions see and understand that, even when adults around them don't. That kind of writing is Very Hard Work; it's so much easier to just rely on the old bag of writer-tricks instead.

8. "Since the early 1990s, 'intelligent design' has become the dominant anti-evolution movement in the United States. Its advocates argue for equivalence in the public square, claiming that design is every bit as scientific as evolution. ... Any scientist tempted to believe that the major figures in the anti-evolution movement are half-hearted, insincere, or simply opportunistic in their assault against mainstream science would do well to read this book. " [From a review by Kenneth R. Miller (titled "The Emperor's New Design") of Larry A. Witham's _Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America_; page 664, _Science_ for 1/31/03. Thanks to Tia Johnson for the copy.]

9. This is Steven Barnes, science fiction writer, in an interview on pp. 84-86 of the 3/03 _Locus_. On page 86:

"When black people came here, their names, their language, their religions were taken away, and they were told to worship a white man, someone who was the image of their oppressor. Now I was born Episcopal and I've always been Christian, but I'm quite aware how ironic this is. No wonder there were so few slave rebellions -- how can you rise up against someone who looks like God, when you don't?"

CORRECTION

In the May/June issue of this newsletter I incorrectly identified Ira Rifkin as the author of a book titled _Spiritual Perspectives on America's Role as Superpower_. His book (published by Skylight Paths, and in the same series as the other title) is _Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization: Making Sense of Economic and Cultural Upheaval_. My thanks to Mr. Rifkin for sending me the correction; I apologize for the error.

POEM

"WORDS"

In God's mouth, words work wonders.
Babies. Giraffes. Cottonwoods.
Great whales!
The word, in God's mouth, rises up and thunders,
making. Making
earthquakes quaking, torrents tumbling,
populations blessed and afflicted,
deep drifts of snow,
great gales.

In our mouths, words flounder and resist.
Limp. Lethargic. Stumbling. Frantic. Muddled.
Dragged out onto the page
or into the air,
the human word
makes precious little,
rises not at all, and
stands befuddled.

Praying is like gnawing
a sculpted bird
from a granite block
with the bare teeth.
Praying is like clawing
a carved angel
from a block of maple
with the bare nails.

In our mouths the word chokes up
and fails;
then falls,
shaking.

God be thanked, God has divine manners,
listens without regard to quality control.
Thank God that God reads the heart.
Thank God that God hears the soul.

In God's mouth,
words work wonders;
in our mouths,
words flounder and resist.
Even so, I insist:
Let us pray.
Please let us.
Amen.

CYBERSPACE

1. _PCA News_ for 4/9/03 ("Want Your Church to Grow? Then Bring in the Men") reported that "If a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow. If the mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a 17 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow. But if the father is first, there is a 93 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow." The only source provided for this was a note saying that it was from Baptist Press, plus a quoted comment from someone identified as "Sid Woodruff, men's ministry specialist" who feels that many American men don't see churches as being "male-friendly."

The implication intended, in my opinion, is that this statistic reflects the power of the male as religious example within the family; I'm not at all sure that that's the case. I know that when I was a child the typical situation was as follows: If the father in the household went to church everyone else had to go, period; if the mother went to church, the children _might_ have had to go, but the father didn't have to -- and if the father in that household said the children didn't have to go, that would have been the end of that. It had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the fact that families did whatever fathers wanted. Perhaps that has changed, and the implication is now accurate; I'd be interested in your input on this.

2. _Religion Bookline_ for 6/11/03 had a brief review of _The Healing Power of Prayer: The Surprising Connection between Prayer and Your Health_, by Chester L. Tolson and Harold G. Koenig, due out from Baker Books in 9/03:

"At times this book, co-written by a pastor and a physician, seems like two separate treatises. The first third convincingly lays out evidence from dozens of medical studies about the mind-body connection, while the rest is a fairly generic guide to prayer in the Christian life.... However, the book's first part alone is worth the price of admission -- it is filled with astonishing facts and statistics about the need for spiritual awareness in maintaining and regaining health. There is, for example, startling evidence of how stress disables the immune system, and how individuals with a strong religious orientation are statistically more likely than other patients to recover from a life-threatening illness. Prayer, according to the authors, 'has the potential to produce healing along with drugs, surgery, and other therapies, and should be considered a vital component of recovery.' "

3. _PCA News_ for 5/28/03 reported the formation (by Dr. Peter Jones) of Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, described as seeking to explain "the two religious options vying for the modern mind (Christianity and paganism)" and to equip the church to answer the questions associated with that circumstance. Because I found that particular choice -- Christianity and paganism -- very strange, I went to Google and did a search, but I found nothing useful; apparently CWPP doesn't yet have a website. What I hope this _doesn't_ mean is that all religious faiths have been divided by Dr. Jones into two parts, Christianity and other, with "other" being labeled "paganism." On the other hand, I see no signs that Paganism (or paganism) is taking over the struggle for the modern mind. If you find any material on this, I'd be interested.

4. From a Linguist List review on 5/6/03, by Guido Oebel, of Wei, Li et al., editors, _Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism_ :

"Joshua A. Fishman opens the first main section with a contribution entitled titled 'Holy languages in the context of social bilingualism' ,,, In it he critically analyses the process of 'sanctification' of languages within multilingual societies. Starting from Emile Durkheim's definition of 'holiness', Fishman examines different types of 'holy' languages throughout human history... ... From there, Fishman takes off to possible 'consequences of language sanctity beliefs' and the so-called 'staying power of sanctity', i.e. for example Latin or Hebrew, both languages which due to their 'direct sanctity' live on in holy texts."

5. From the Ordinary Theology Project website, at http://www.dur.ac.uk/ neice/ordinary.html:

"The overwhelming majority of contemporary 'God-talkers' have not studied theology formally, but if they speak and think about God with any seriousness at all, they are inevitably engaged in doing their own theology. This is because theology is essentially the attempt to speak reflectively of the divine. 'Ordinary theology' is an appropriate term for the articulation of ordinary people's religious understanding."

"Undergirding this project is the conviction that the ordinary theology of adult believers (and the 'atheology' of non-believers) deserves the same careful analysis and critique as that which is routinely given to the reflections of professional theologians and scholarly critics of theology. Only by taking people's theology that seriously can we discover what ordinary people really believe and why.... The theological and philosophical analysis of ordinary theology forms the major part of this study. It involves the careful description and unpacking of the language and forms of argument that people use when speaking of God and religion..."

I assume (from the web address) that this study will be done in the UK; we badly need a study of the same kind in the United States. The link for publications at this site takes you to a very interesting and lengthy bibliography, but not to any of the papers listed.

6. You might want to look at "The 9 Most Important Issues Facing the Evangelical Church," a brief paper by Michael J. Vlach online at http://www.theologicalstudies.org/9issues.html, where (under the ninth issue, "Biblical Illiteracy") I found the following interesting factoids:

"The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is 'God helps those who help themselves' -- which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.

Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.

When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen...."

No sources were given for these statements (although there's a link for the third one). I can understand the design of studies that would result in the first and third, but the second one is a different matter. Asking 1000 believers whether they base their decision-making and/or their behavior on a biblical worldview might get you "less than one out of ten" saying yes, I suppose, but I can't imagine believers (as defined by evangelicals) saying no to that unadorned question. Presumably the research involved a set of statements that were presented as constituting "a biblical worldview" -- in which case I'd like very much to see that set. Suppose it included the idea that a biblical worldview obligates you to turn the other cheek, return good for evil, and give away your wealth to the poor; then you might get lots of nos.

7. My thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for a review of _Kything: The Art of Spiritual Presence_, by Louis M. Savary and Patricia H. Berne (Paulist Press 1988), online at http://www.frimmin.com/books/kything.html. The review defines kything as "the communion which happens when one's spirit is present to another's" and says that it is in no way limited by distance; on the other hand, it says that kything is not occultism or telepathy or channeling -- that it is in no way "supernatural." It goes on to say that: "Savary and Berne offer an extremely simple method for initiating a kythe: 1.Get centered. 2. Focus on the other. 3. Establish connection."

I haven't yet read the book and therefore can't comment. I hope that it _explains_ that "extremely simple method" -- especially the "establish connection" portion -- with meticulous and clear and detailed instructions. It can be done, certainly, but it's not simple.

8. My thanks to Hal Davis for a long and interesting article about Islam from the London _Guardian_ for 4/19/03, titled "The Greatest Gulf," by Jonathan Raban. Here's an excerpt:

"In prayer, the self and its appetites are surrendered to God... There are strict instructions as to what to do with the body on these occasions. Each prayer-time should be preceded by ritual ablutions. Then, for the act of prostration, and the declaration of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), the knees must touch the ground before the hands, the fingers and toes must point toward Mecca, and the fingers must not be separated. Forehead, nose, both hands, both knees, and the underside of all the toes must be in contact with the ground. The body of the individual believer, identical in its posture to the bodies of all other believers, becomes one with the Ummah, the body of the Islamic community on earth. ...

The physical character of this prayer is unique to Islam. Jewry and Christendom have nothing like it. The Ummah, a body literally made up of bodies, has a corporeal substance that is in dramatic contrast to the airy, arbitrary, dissolving and reconstituting nations of Arabia. To see the invasion of Iraq as a brutal assault on the Ummah, and therefore on
one's own person, is not the far-fetched thought in the Islamic world that it would be in the west."

9. Websites and webpages to check out: a brief article discussing the changing portrayal of God in movies, at http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/ Movies/05/22/god.movies.ap/index.html (sent by Douglas Dee); The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam Through Calligraphy, at http://www.moa.ubc. ca/spiritofislam; the Internet Sacred Text Archive at http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm; an online study guide from the United Methodist Church on considering God's Word in time of war, at http://umns.umc.org/03/conflict/ study/canwetalkintro.htm.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. For any of you who are interested in doing Peacetalk 101 workshops or seminars, or using the material in Sunday School or other classes: You'll find a suggested handout and a set of seminar/workshop notes at my verbal self-defense webpages -- http://adrr.com/aa. And I'm always ready and willing to answer any questions you may have; just e-mail them to me, and I'll respond promptly.

2. We are putting _Peacetalk 101_ on audiotape and on CD; I'll let you know when it's available.

TO JOIN A NETWORK AND RECEIVE ITS NEWSLETTER: Send newsletter title, your e-mail address, and your check, money order, or credit card information (for Visa or Mastercard) to OCLS, PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137 USA. The newsletters are: _The Linguistics & Science Fiction Newsletter_; _The Religious Language Newsletter_; and _The Verbal Self-Defense Newsletter_. Each $5.00 a year ($15.00 Supporting) for the six issues of the calendar year, by e-mail only, advertising-free. For more information or a free sample issue, e-mail OCLS@madisoncounty.net. [Note: The new _Peacetalk 101 Newsletter_ is free; contact information is the same.]

Return to Content Page