Language Matters Part 3: I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

I am no film critic, but in my humble opinion “The Princess Bride” is one of the greatest movies ever made.  It is funny, sad, heroic, tragic, suspenseful and romantic all at the same time.  And it has some of the most memorable characters in film.  Vizzinni (Wallace Shawn) is the leader of the criminal trio hired by the Prince to capture and get rid of Princess Buttercup.  Whenever Vizzinni’s brilliance is challenged or he faces defeat, he cries out “inconceivable!”    After a few of these outbursts, one of his criminal companions, Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) says, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.

In recent weeks both while watching the 220^th GA and reading accounts of it, I find myself having some Inigo Montoya moments.  I do not think the words some people are using mean what they think they mean.  So here is a short lexicon of misused theological words regarding the 220^th GA.

Grace: Many speakers at GA urged the commissioners to show “grace” toward those who wanted to act out of conscience by opting out of the Board of Pensions or form non-geographic presbyteries with like-minded churches or take some other action that may run contrary to denominational policy or polity.  Grace, it was implied, is about letting people do things the way they want to do them without consequences.  

I do not think that word means what they think it means.

Grace does not mean giving you your way no matter what.  Grace is also not one sided.  Many of those who are calling on the denomination to act with grace toward congregations that wish to leave with property or pastors who refuse to abide by denominational requirements that they not categorically exclude anyone from consideration from office are the same people who have been baying for blood from those who felt their conscience violated by our old language of exclusion for ordination and our current language regarding marriage.  If grace is allowing people to do as they please, where was the grace for Scott Anderson or Lisa Larges?

Grace is not a get out of consequences free card you can demand because you do not like being a minority voice.  I wonder where these voices demanding “grace” were when the reputation and integrity of the vice-moderator elect were being attacked because she acted in conscience in a way disapproved of by some?

Apostate: More than one commentator inside and outside the PC(USA) has referred to this GA and to the denomination as a whole as “apostate.”  The reasoning behind most of these accusations is that the PC(USA) has departed from one very specific stance on scripture in terms of human sexuality. 

Again, I do not think that word means what they think it means.

To be apostate, in a theological sense, means to stand apart from God.  To call the PC(USA) apostate is to say that the church has wholly stood apart from God and declared itself no longer defined by its calling by God in the world.  To call this accusation hyperbole does not even scratch the surface.  Just because YOU do not agree with a stance the church takes does not mean that you somehow become the mouthpiece of God.  Say that you disagree.  Say that the church has become apostate to YOUR particular worldview.  But save the righteous indignation and the sweeping pronouncements as though any of us can fully know the mind and will of God. 

The men and women who gave their time and prayerful discernment to the 220th GA are not apostates they are discipiles and deserving of our thanks.

Integrity: Many PC(USA) leaders and others (myself include) have had their integrity questioned recently because of stances taken on divisive issues.   These questions of integrity occasionally have to do with a particular action, but most of them seem to stem from purely ad hominem attacks. 

Yet again, I do not think…well, you know.

An individual’s integrity is not based on whether or not someone else agrees with them.  The people who have attacked my integrity have never met me and know nothing about my ministry or character.  What they know is what they have read on my blog or in letters to the editor and from that they have determined that I lack integrity.  No, what I lack is an opinion they like.  Big difference. 

What is happening in the PC(USA) is, for lack of a more elegant term, the FOX-ification of the church.   Just because you disagree with something does not mean that you get to make up your own facts (like FOX and others tend to do).  Case in point, a headline on the Presbyterian Layman today read, “Turns Out 70% of GA Commissioners Aren’t Really Presbyterian.”  Really?  70% aren’t Presbyterian?  In truth, the headline linked to a blog that claimed that the 70% who voted for a particular ruling from the moderator with which the blog writer disagreed were not Presbyterian.  Being Presbyterian depends on having an opinion this guy likes?

We are dealing with big issues and serious matters of the faith and we need vigorous debate and discussion in the church to find our way forward.   The words we use in that debate matter and the church deserves better than this sort of nonsense.