21 September 2007

Catholics and evangelicals and the power of words

If you remember, yesterday I was talking about a conversation I had with a friend, about language. The same day, after that, I also got to talk with a friend about the poverty of language, specifically in religious discourse. It was quite an interesting chat, so I thought I could share some of it.

My friend has the perception that evangelical preachers (in Argentina, and especially TV and radio preachers) have lowered the level of discourse to a crude minimum, and people sadly respond to it because they, too, have had their vocabularies shrunk, and their thought (and their ability for abstraction) as well. What he means is, you turn on the radio or the TV and you find pastors basically selling Jesus as a miracle product, or preying on the vulnerable without any kind of subtlety. We're talking of "ARE YOU IN PAIN? COME TO JESUS AND HEAL!" in big block letters across the screen, literally or figuratively.

My own contention is that the preachers are giving the people exactly what they want (a wind-up machine called Jesus who provides you with money and health and a comfortable house once you know the magic words) and that people might have a smaller vocabulary but do not necessarily have less ability to think and reason; that is, the preacher's speech is so plain, and so lacking in spirituality, and so incoherent at times, that you only need a basic command of language to see through the scam. That is, I don't believe that exposure to grossly simplistic religious language can be used to bring down your ability to think about deep spiritual matters, unless of course you accept that degraded language on your own volition and then become accustomed to it, which is what most people do.

On the other hand, my friend said, Catholic priests were still using "higher" language at times: less concrete, more superficially spiritual, possibly popular but not vulgar. I contended this was as bad as the evangelicals, only more weaselly. "Jesus will give you financial stability if you receive him and praise him in the assembly" is straightforward; "God takes care of all His children" is almost completely empty, although being empty it allows for the hearer to fill it with meaning, and is only useful for the hearer once completed with the warning that, in order to be a good child of God, you must go to church every Sunday.

I had the feeling that my friend was either not conveying his ideas wholly, or he lacked experience in a Catholic community, because if you've had that you know that most people in church are just there to gossip about their neighbours, and not to hear the priest using spiritual or abstract language. Moreover, they'd go straight to the evangelical preacher if they weren't culturally accustomed to being Catholics in an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The real difference between those sects is the level of commitment they require. In order to be a Catholic you have to do... well, nothing. If you want to be an active Catholic, you're only required to attend church and sit there. It's all a social community experience, no more. You may get something spiritual out of the priest's rambling, but you can safely ignore it and believe yourself to be OK most of the time. Catholic spirituality is based on suffering, self-abasement and mortification, but understandably they don't insist on those things too much; they remain safely in the abstract plane. On the other hand, evangelicals (in line with Weber's analysis of protestantism, I believe) see suffering and poverty as an indication that you're doing something wrong, and so try to correct it, actively. They call on you and insist that you have to turn around your life, through the use of Jesus, and if you dare tell them that you're fine, they tell you, emphatically, that you're not. You're filthy. You're addicted to money, sex, Internet porn, alcohol, dancing and parties, and all sorts of foul social intercourse with the unsaved — mundane stuff that you've got to get rid of.

The Evangelicals are proactive — they're in the minority and they need to make you suffer so they can save you. They'll dig up whatever is rotting inside you and show it to you, and describe the feeling and the smell graphically to you. The Catholics are in the majority, and they'd rather keep their ninety-nine sheep happily in the fold than go out of their way to look for the missing hundredth. They do the sensible thing, as expected from an old well-established sect. I can't guess what will happen to those two.

My friend is actually preparing a thesis about the exercise of power through language, and this is part of it, so I'll keep you updated.

2 comments:

  1. Greetings! Saw your post in Google Blogsearch and came to read it.

    >" if you've had that you know that most people in church are just there to gossip about their neighbours, and not to hear the priest using spiritual or abstract language"

    Argentina must be very diferent. I have never found this to be true in my area of the world. I attend mass at several churches and have yet see most people here to gossip. Worship, yes. Gossip, no.


    >" In order to be a Catholic you have to do... well, nothing."

    Not so. While baptism formally initiates one into the Catholic faith, Christ makes clear in the Gospels that to be Catholic is extremely difficult and requires much effort. Remember the whole give up family, friends, wealth and follow me speech? Camel. Eye of the needle?

    >"If you want to be an active Catholic, you're only required to attend church and sit there"

    Um, have you ever been to a Catholic Mass? Doesn't sound like it. There's a lot of standing and kneeling. Sitting is probably less than 1/3 the time of the service.

    >"The Catholics are in the majority, and they'd rather keep their ninety-nine sheep happily in the fold than go out of their way to look for the missing hundredth"

    Um, you do realize that it is the shephard who seeks out the missing sheep and not the sheep themselves? In our area, the bishops and priests work very hard to find the missing sheep and return them to the flock.

    As an online lay Catholic apologist, I frequently remind Catholics that it is time for them to return to their Catholic faith.

    Good luck on the papers and God bless...

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  2. Hi, Timothy! I suppose you're right and Argentina is very different from your area. It must be that, in places where it's comfortably established, the Catholic Church has relaxed a lot. They concentrate on keeping their political influence and forget about the faithful. It reminds me of what I've read about the Anglican Church in England. Make a religion the state religion, and you'll ruin it.

    You'll have to forgive me if my language is not terribly precise. In fact I've done my share (and more than the usual share) of sitting, standing and kneeling in Catholic mass, which I was taught to attend, and then forced to attend, until I left the fold for good at the end of my teens.

    I'm sure you understand a bit of sarcasm. I know it's difficult to be a Catholic, but it's not difficult to call oneself a Catholic and get away with it in Argentina. Nobody's going to challenge you to show you're a good, true Catholic. So that's what I meant.

    Thanks for writing and for being kind while being also critical.

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