I was having a conversation with a teacher friend and I realized
something. We have texting acronyms to express humor, sarcasm,
anger, and sexual innuendo, but not for compassion or shared grief. (None
that I’ve seen)
If you wreck your car, I might LOL or SMDH. But
I don't FBFU (feel bad for you) or HURA (hope you're all right).
Our communication lacks the language of empathy.
If you wreck your car, I might LOL or SMDH. But I don't FBFU (feel bad for you) or
HURA (hope you're all right).
Our communication lacks the language of empathy.
As a society we’re training our hands and lips to be mean
and nothing else. We’re teaching
ourselves, especially our children, to interpret every event as something to be
laughed at or scoffed at.
What are we making of our children, of ourselves?
David described the product of such grammatical
manufacturing.
Pride serves as their
necklace;
Violence covers them like a garment.
Their eyes bulge with
abundance;
They have more than
heart could wish.
They scoff and speak
wickedly concerning oppression;
They speak loftily.
They set their mouth
against the heavens, (Psalm 73: 6-9)
Verse 9 prophetically describes the range of this kind of
communication.
And their tongue walks
through the earth.
Worldwide
WWW dot
Hashtag
No filter
Think about it. When's
the last time you saw a funeral broadcast on tv that didn't include some kind
of snarky commentary or supposed controversy?
When's the last time that a tragedy was just a tragedy and
not also a scandal?
What does it mean when the most important word in the last year was “selfie”?
SELFie.
Most daily communication is devoid of any emotion that cannot be expressed in a picture I took of me.
I of ME.
Culturally, we don’t talk anymore about loving our
neighbors. It takes too long, so we only
talk about loving ourselves.
We're losing the language of empathy and replacing it with the vocabulary of pandemic narcissism.
Linguistic history teaches that when a society loses the
words for a thing, the thing itself disappears.
What does that look like? Again, the ancient Book describes it well.
But know this, that in
the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without
self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
(2 Timothy 3: 1-4)
Any of this sounding the least bit familiar?
Solomon said: Death
and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18: 21).
Perhaps we should add a footnote saying, “and in the power
of the text, too.”
And if that’s true, then what are we doing by what we are
saying?
What are we losing by what we aren’t texting?
By what we have no acronyms to depict?
We have abbreviations for hate and lust and mockery, but we are losing the
language of genuine love.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in
Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO)
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for
Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
To listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry
at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .
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on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
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