Arise Ye Wordsmiths!
Why precision of language and definitions matter
Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. (1 Corinthians 14:9 NIV)
Do not underestimate the importance of precise language or the danger that lies in misleading wording. Failing to understand the necessity of accurate definitions and rigorously developed concepts makes one significantly more susceptible to exploitation and deception. There is peril in the perceived mundanity of definitions. People ignore how much wording can be weaponized against them because they think it is just a question for dry academic debates found only in dusty old tomes. Precision of language is a crucial shield against false narratives and deceitful manipulation.
That language can deceive is not new to anyone. We all know that people lie. Either in overt fashion, saying things that are blatantly false (and that they know are false), or more subtly, like telling white lies that leave out important information. Here I want to deal with a more specific issue. Leaving aside deliberate attempts at obfuscation or misdirection through loaded language, purposeful omission, or euphemisms. Instead, focusing on the less understood issue of definition.
Let’s take two words as an example of this problem. The first is gender. If I were to ask you how many genders there are, what would you say? Conservatives (the second word we will cover) might give a somewhat contrarian and counter-culture answer and say, “There are only two genders!” In emphatic fashion, too. Just look at the scandal that erupted when a seventh-grade student was told to remove and replace a shirt that said “There are only two genders” (see here). Those we commonly call “Social Justice advocates” might claim that there are many different genders. Far more than two, at least.
What is the right answer? Well, despite what “conservatives” might think, there are actually more than two genders. However, not in the way that their opponents think. The problem here is actually more fundamental. We have to back up a step and realize something. Gender is a grammatical construct. It is not a biological concept. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The truth is that words have gender, not people! Gender refers to a grammatical classification of words that roughly, and often very loosely (if at all), corresponds to the two sexes. Saying that there are only two genders is a trap. The trap is failing to recognize what has happened to the word gender.
It is only recently that people have used the word gender in a way that contradicts its original meaning. Previously, gender referred to other words, as its proper usage is grammatical, not biological, or it served as a synonym for biological sex (i.e. male or female). It wasn’t until John Money twisted the usage of gender and used it to refer to some trait people had outside of and separate from biological sex that it came to be used in such a disingenuous and ignorant way.
To see this, you just have to look at older dictionaries such as the 1919 Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (see here) or the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary (see here). The history of the word gender and how John Money twisted it can be found in Terry Goldie’s book The Man Who Invented Gender. In short, John Money needs to be understood as a fraud whose theories are deeply flawed, outright harmful, and the precursor of the nonsensical gender ideology we have today. He was the one who started the distorted and misleading usage of gender.
This matters because the right approach to such a perversion of language is to reject that language completely. Whenever conservatives keep using the word “gender” in this new way, they are unknowingly playing into the hands of the people who are pushing the harmful gender ideology on others. The definition of the word matters because one of the key tactics of deception used by opponents of Christianity is to redefine words so that they have the framing of their anti-Christian belief system.
Whenever people claim to have a gender, we need to recognize that the issue is the corrupted definition of gender. A corruption that comes from a false view of human nature. People don’t have genders; they have a biological sex. There are, of course, only two biological sexes: male and female. But there are actually three genders. That is because words are not people. If we intend to mean sex when we say gender, then it needs to be understood that people cannot have both a sex and a gender. Saying that becomes pure nonsense. It is department of redundancy department level speaking. Either the words mean exactly the same thing, and therefore cannot be treated as separate, or gender must refer to a grammatical construct, and is not something people can have. If it implies something other than these two things it isn’t real.
The next example here is what I have already mentioned. The term conservative. What exactly is a conservative, though? The way most understand it conservative refers to those on the “right” side of the political spectrum. The only problem is that this label doesn’t really mean much of anything if we think of it as a belief system.
What exactly do “conservatives” conserve? We like to think conservatives are more “traditional” but this doesn’t actually make much sense. What traditions are we talking about? Many might say “conservatives” support traditional marriage. Except, what about gay conservatives? There is an organization called the Log Cabin Republicans consisting of self described LGBT members who support the supposedly “conservative” Republican party. Depending on the study around 50% or more of so-called conservatives actually support gay marriage.
What about small government? This might be true, except for the neoconservative expansion of welfare programs and foreign intervention. President George W. Bush in his 2001-2009 terms in office oversaw one of the largest expansions of government in American history. He was the president who signed the USA Patriot Act and helped establish the Department of Homeland Security.
The truth is that conservative is a largely meaningless label, except for when it refers to membership in the Republican party. This might conflict with what many people think. Including those who identify as conservative. Even I fell into this trap earlier in my life. Thinking there was such a thing as “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) or that “true conservatives” should believe in some particular view towards government or tradition.
The problem is that conservative (or conservatism) has no meaningful definition apart from membership in a political alliance. It does not refer to a principled belief system. It refers to a politically aligned group that contains several contradictory beliefs. The only unifying factor is the opposition to the “leftist” or “liberal” political alliance. We cannot keep using this term if we intend to portray a coherent belief system. Because “conservatives” don’t conserve anything, don’t believe in anything in particular, and only have a set of associated beliefs because those beliefs just so happen to reflect the majority of people in the conservative movement at a specific time. Why do you think conservative means something different whenever we talk about different time frames separated by generational gaps?
These are only two words that showcase the problem we have with the lack of definitional precision. There are many, many other terms that suffer from this problem and poison discourse. Because the ambiguity and shifting nature of these words creates a space for serious confusion, if not outright deception. We can say the same thing about terms like woke, social justice, racism, non-believer, and many more. Future articles will address some of the most egregious examples. Because they are so important to understand.
If we continue to use casual language for serious arguments or wording that is based on prevarication and ignorance, we will continue to set ourselves up for failure. Do not think that this is just a pedantic exercise in hairsplitting. Christians who do not arm themselves properly in the war of ideas can expect defeat at every turn. We need wordsmiths who critically evaluate the language we use, the language our opponents use, and who help arm other Christians with the right understanding. This will help us recognize and then defeat the sophistry and deception of the false religions of our age.