Rampant Radical Rhetoric
I’m a person who likes to read. I read widely and appreciate many styles and genres from journalism and theology to poetry and fantasy. However, I tend to stay away from or only occasionally visit the popular forms of social media like Facebook and Instagram. After all, I can’t read everything.
Over the past years, I’ve observed a trend in much of my reading (unless it’s classics or specific, rigid genres). What I’m seeing is a movement toward radical forms of expression. Whether it’s descriptive writing, opinion pieces, news reports, contemporary fiction, non-fiction, or even academic writing that by definition is meant to be “objective,” the rhetoric is increasingly fervent, strident, and often hate-filled. We live in an age of extremes, and language reflects culture. With so many voices vying to be heard, language is undergoing a change that reflects this struggle. The louder or more provocative the voice, the more it will rise above the clamor of the commonplace.
As a follower of Jesus, the matrix in which I live and the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict make this trend highly visible. Opinions are expressed as absolute truths, giving no recourse for discussion or dialogue. This makes it difficult and even impossible to have a meeting of minds. How can closed minds meet? What will it take to open minds to entertain views that challenge or oppose our own? Must our narratives always support our preconceived views? The classic question of “where or what is truth?” remains sidelined and unanswered.
I once thought language could be used dispassionately. Today I’m no longer certain. Everything we say and write has an undercurrent, an agenda, or a perspective that often is not immediately visible, even to the author. Our emotions and our passions inform our choice of expression, and certainly the language with which we articulate our views and conclusions. This is part of being human, made in the image of God.
Reading the Bible is a journey into the mind of the Maker. That mind is both accessible and unfathomable. Certainly, the divine author expressed himself with great passion and motivation to persuade those who were his hearers. Reading the Bible is also a journey into the heart of the Maker who expresses himself in very human ways, having fully identified with humanity. As his children, we read and internalize his words and his character.
The radicalization and the current “weaponization” of language are a growing phenomena. Followers of Jesus are challenged to be more careful than ever to find ways of articulation that are faithful to the complexities of contemporary life, and at the same time are founded on and set within the unchanging biblical worldview. This does not imply that we cannot or should not speak with passion.
My prayer is that our words will be infused with Godly passion, not radical rhetoric to prove a point, or to support our preconceived positions, or to devalue or undercut those who see things from perspectives other than our own.
