No, I am not suggesting that words do not matter. In fact, they do. I believe, after all, in a Savior who has been made know as the Word made flesh. What I am speaking about is the constant equation of words you do not like to hear as words of violence or threat or terror or hate. It ought to say something that some today hold us hostage to the pronouns we would use (words which do not belong to them as much as they do to language itself) and to the theft of our rights to uphold the fragile myth of those who think that they can be a woman or a man because they feel like or some other falsehood that parades as truth. When we can no more define a male or a female with anything more concrete than a feeling or desire, we are long ago departed the time when words mattered. Words matter because they speak truth and apart from truth they hold less weight and command less respect.
There is real violence in this world and every day we hear of it on our newscasts and have it reported across every form of media. There are those who would insist that the violence they think they suffered in the form of words either justifies or makes understandable the violence that wounds or kills the bodies of those with whom they disagree. Grow up. Our world is growing ever more fragile because we allow the lies to stand and sweep the truth under the rug. Words are not violence -- certainly not in the same way as the weapons raised to maim and kill and so leave a mark of hate to stand in the broken hearts of those who have lost loved ones and friends. Violence is making us poorer as a people and those who believe that words carry the same freight as actions are making it impossible for us to ramp down the terrorism all around us.
The real effect of all of our walking on egg shells around the truth has made our society more susceptible to violence and more willing to explain it. It was shocking to me when an ABC reporter was speaking in empathetic terms of the texts and emails between the man who murdered Charlie Kirk and the murderer's trans lover. He was trying to get us to see the humanity in this man who did such an inhumane thing and it illustrates how the perpetrator of even the worst kind of violence -- premeditated murder -- can be framed in such a way where he is made a sympathetic figure. Imagine that. A gay or trans or otherwise confused young man who has gotten to the point where he cannot stand someone who does not agree or support his life has taken it upon himself to end that man's life. This is not about Charlie Kirk or about the killers of school children or adults but about the outrage that has come to define and justify harming another person or taking their life.
Things will not improve by isolating ourselves or insulating ourselves from such conversations or debates. In fact, by refusing to challenge the invention of right or identity with the truth, we have set up precisely the kind of environment in which violence will come and not in the form of words, either. You cannot fix dysphoria by surgery or retaliatory violence. The only was to fix it and the other ills across our land is a conversation in which truth is the arbiter of every debate. Lying to self or others will never deliver the health and peace that those troubled in heart and mind say they seek. Words matter because they are either truth or lies. Word are not violence. Once we begin to admit this, perhaps the clouds over us will begin to open up to light.
2 comments:
“Words matter because they are either truth or lies.” Your thoughtful insights on the relationship of words to violence reminds me of the childhood saying, “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Words often precede violence, especially in these days of chaos and lawlessness. Emotions can be inflamed by words, or calmed by the right words as well. In today’s hyper political and social climate, people have become more sensitive to words, their power to offend, to condemn, to enrage others. As Christians, we need to strive to avoid being pulled into a dispute by those who would use cruel words to intimidate us. Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Although it helps to be guided by this principle, in my own experience with social media, once I wrote a carefully written and what I believed was a civil piece against abortion on an Arizona news web site, citing statistics, and the moral arguments for the pro-life view. It was met with venomous and cruel words of commentary in response. No matter how politely you share your words, and point of view, somebody will be angry, contentious, accusatory, and mean in their response. These are the angry people who do not like words which are not amenable to their preordained beliefs. These are the people who are potentially agreeable to violence as a reaction to words spoken in opposition to their viewpoint. In many respects, Charlie Kirk was killed because his words offended his murderer. Evil persists in life, and words become instruments of violence against detractors. True, words themselves are not violence, but they can become the lightening rod for all forms of mayhem. I believe that the modern world is becoming more malevolent, schizophrenic, and violent, and I often wonder how close we are to the days of Noah as it was then. Are we in the last days? Only God knows. Let our words show the love of God and the wisdom needed by a world lost in sin. Soli Deo Gloria
Over many years, I have spent much energy defending my view, and that of some others, about why our Lord wept, before He raised Lazarus from the dead. It dawned on me recently that neither the weeping nor the resurrecting is as important as the WORDS to which they point, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Peace and Joy!
George A. Marquart
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