Thanks to Don Heatley

I’m busy the next couple days, co-producing Christianity21 — a gathering that promises to be unique on the Christian event landscape.  Here’s the Twitter feed for the event, a great way to listen in on what we’re doing:

<a href=”http://twubs.com/c21″>#c21</a>

We’re currently battling Christian euphemisms here on the blog.

Here’s a passage from my book, The New Christians, about my experience with one Christian euphemism while in college:

Back on campus, I chafed under some of the policies of Campus
Crusade. First, a glass ceiling inhibited women from ever achieving the coveted
position of campus director. When I asked about this, I got fuzzy arguments
from scripture–it turns out that Crusade doesn’t necessarily bar women from top
leadership positions, but the general discomfort with women’s leadership is a
part of a particular angle on biblical interpretation. This was lost on me at
the time, since I’d grown up at a church with ordained women ministers.

Second, we were being trained in so-called cold-call evangelism.
What that meant was, once per month, we left the MnM rally and spread across
campus to evangelize the unbelievers. A partner and I (because Jesus sent out
his followers two by two) went to the dorm we were assigned and began knocking
on doors. When a door was answered, we’d ask, “Are you willing to take a short
survey?” to which any undergrad who’d like to avoid homework answered, “Yes.”

[Read more...]

According to Wikipedia,

A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less
offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest
something unpleasant to the listener, or in the case of Doublespeak,
to make it less troublesome for the speaker. The deployment of
euphemisms is a central aspect within the public application of political correctness.

It also may be a substitution of a description of something or
someone rather than the name, to avoid revealing secret, holy, or
sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the
subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms
are intended to amuse.

I think that Christians, in our desire not to offend (either God or one another), are more heavily reliant upon euphemisms than many other people in our society.  And yet euphemisms don’t serve us well.  They push us toward at least convoluted communication, and at worst passive-aggressive communication.  They also tend toward “insider speak,” which works against our call to be missional.

So, please, help me stamp out Christian euphemisms by posting your (least) favorites in the comments below, and I’ll start posting them.

Only YOU can stop Christian euphemism!