Christianese

[auserna]

I'm curious about the particular idiomatic linguistic idiosyncrasies and buzzwords often used by religious people, especially evangelical Christians. Things like "Yours in Christ" and "washed in the blood", "prayed up", "I plead the blood".

I've just seen this comment (written by a Christian): "I learned several years ago that Christians have their own language called “Christianese.” It’s purely cultural and acts as a pseudo-wink to other Christians to let them know you’re in the club, not out of it." And that's how it comes across - exclusive, partly because I literally don't know what these phrases actually mean.

I'd like to belong to a church, but find the language off-putting. Can someone explain the point of this way of communicating if it's not to be cliquey, as it feels to me the opposite of welcoming.

The language you mentioned is quite old and some pastors do this and there is nothing wrong it. However, it is not everbody style and each to their own. I think more pentecostal pastors may do this style of speaking who are older to.

Different demoninations have different ways of preaching. I go to an Anglican church as a non demontional christian and none of the ministers speak like that. I have not seen recently in a Catholic church either. I think it would be a good idea to check out either if you want to go to church.

Thank you.

Yes, they mean the same thing.

We are quite blessed in our town to have numerous Christian denomination churches to choose from. I generally don't believe God will reject you for being a baptist as opposed to an anglican (unless you reject Bible and Gospel teaching). Jesus didn't proclaim the church as we know it, structurally it was established by St Peter and the Popes. But even by the 5th Century there were different forms of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

The advantage in many churches is you can choose your "brand" of christianese - whether modern Christian worship bands, CoE organ hymns or no hymns at all. Language can vary with all of them. The importance (to me and most Christians) is being bible led and bible based with opportunities to learn and develop and grow with God/walk in Christ.

My anglican church is considered very relaxed but strongly liturgical and bible led. I rarely see our Rev in a cassock.

I would suggest try different churches, see if they run a Freedom, Alpha or Christianity Explored course to see if you like/appreciate what they do.

I do bible one-ones with new Christian women to help support them. This may be really helpful for you if one of your local churches does this.

I generally don't believe God will reject you for being a baptist as opposed to an anglican (unless you reject Bible and Gospel teaching).

Why on earth would God reject a Christian for following a slightly different branch of Christianity? Is He really that picky?

When you go to these different styles of churches, how do you decide which one is closest to what God actually wants of you?

I'm a Catholic, and I've never heard any Catholics use this sort of language.

Yours in Christ means, 'As Christians we share the same beliefs about the purpose of our lives, because we are part of his body'. His body is the Christian church, the community of believers.

All language is code, and relies on associated knowledge to decode it. We say ‘in…’ phrases all the time-
in love, in fellowship etc. it’s a use of ‘in’ meaning similar to ‘with’.

All groups use shorthand, reduce big ideas into smaller ones. It’s not designed to keep people out, it’s just an inevitable development of familiarity. Like the family joke, or a shared memory. I think it’s a bit unreasonable to be prejudiced against people for shared history and experiences.
Regions of the country have their own words that are hard to directly translate. You start to pick it up when you’ve been there a while.

All groups do this. It’s perfectly normal for groups to develop words and phrases which reflect their culture.

Why would you assume God wants one more than another? I’ve always assumed we have individual responsibility to live a Godly life, and choose the paths that best help us. If organ hymns help one person focus on God, and guitar helps someone else, why is one better than another? They just assist different groups of people in different ways. Some people respond better still to silence.

I once left a church for a long list of reasons but one of them was their overuse of weird Christian phrases. There was a lot of "loving on" people and things happening "in your world" and everything was "a season".

Generally speaking though, I would disagree that Christianese is designed to be a nod and a wink to other Christians. A lot of it - like "in Christ" and "plead the blood" - refers to particular Bible verses and concepts. Sure, there might be more accessible language one could use to explain it, but in Evangelical churches the Bible holds the highest authority when it comes to how we understand and relate to God so those phrases are important.

Some churches can become quite insular and forget that newcomers may not understand them (or, being less generous, a minority of people like to peacock and demonstrate superiority by flaunting their Bible knowledge) but it's the same in any social group. MN has their abbreviations and in jokes (like DH and DC or "naice ham") and when you join a sports team you have to quickly learn the terms associated with it. Even joining an am-dram group, you'll have to learn your stage left from your stage right.

Any good priest/pastor/vicar/minister will take the time to sit with you and explain these phrases and concepts to you if you're struggling. Maybe see if they're running a member's course or Alpha course at a church near you. This is exactly the sort of thing they were developed for!

I was about to say that Catholics are too no-one for this kind of thing but I guess they have their own little quirks 🤣 more in the way of physical ornamentation rather than linguistic, perhaps!

Surely He shouldn't really care? I mean how precise do you have to be? You obviously (according to the Christian doctrine) can't be Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or Taoist, but it's also critical whether you're Baptist or Quaker or Wee Free? Surely Heaven is going to be pretty empty if you have to be that specific?

I don't really associate it with Catholicism. The liturgy is more the thing there, I think?

I took your initial post to be about the kind of conversations you get in bible studies and prayer meetings, not in services.

I don't think RCs do as much outside of their obligatory mass - certainly not in my experience.

I assume that because depending on which church you go to, or which faith you follow, you are told a wildly different story about what God wants from you and what qualifies as "a Godly life".

Some faiths welcome those who are homosexual, others don't. Some faiths are accepting of those who are divorced, others aren't. Some faiths require you to shun those who have left the faith, others don't. Some require you to contribute at least 10% of your income as tithes, some others will say you should contribute 2.5%, others will accept whatever you can afford. Some say that must you pray five times a day, others don't.

Are you suggesting that all of those are equally acceptable to God? If so, how do you know that?

Generally speaking though, I would disagree that Christianese is designed to be a nod and a wink to other Christians.

You may be right, but it was the pastor who wrote the webpage I was reading who said that - just in case I gave the impression it was me.

I find this kind of language really cringe and annoying. Its kind of cliquey and I think a lot of Christians use it without thinking about what it really means. I wish everyone would just use plain English sometimes!

I've always thought of "in Christ" meaning like a sign-off saying "Your sister/brother in Christ" in the sense that all Christians are my honorary sisters and brothers in the family of Christ.

I can see that this kind of thing can really put off non-believers!

Yes, it was. My mum is very religious and I see phrases like that written in Christmas cards from her church friends.

I don't know. If you go to a Catholic church then they're usually pretty explicit that you have to follow their interpretation of what God wants of you to be accepted. If you go to a JW temple then they'll have different requirements. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is quite different again. Or a hardcore Baptist church. You tell me - how do you know that you're close enough?

I have absolutely no idea. I mean three quarters of the world (figure pulled completely out of thin air, but it's going to be high) have got it completely wrong anyway (again, according to Christian doctrine) and are devoutly worshiping the "wrong god". It all seems a bit arbitrary to me, I'm afraid. I can't understand how you could, in theory, devote your life to worshiping God and still "get it wrong".

We don’t know either way. The aim is to do your best. We are only ever reaching towards the divine, following a blend of our knowledge, understanding, interpretation, feelings…
There’s a saying in Judaism along the lines that where there are 3 or 4 Jews in a room, there will be 5 or 6 opinions. We don’t know, we can’t know, we can only do our best.

I am hard core, passionate Christian. These sayings are not Christianese, they are Churchianism - people who go to church but live the rest of the week like the world.

prayed up - perhaps they mean they pray non stop as St Paul advises
in Christ - sending you loving reminder whose me and you are
under the blood - reminder why you are saved in the first place.

are you a Christian btw or a churchianist who really hates the true followers of the Lord.