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{"id":42159,"date":"2017-11-07T06:08:28","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=42159"},"modified":"2017-11-10T08:25:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T13:25:37","slug":"visualizing-political-rhetoric-donald-trump-jesus-murder-morons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/11\/visualizing-political-rhetoric-donald-trump-jesus-murder-morons.html","title":{"rendered":"Words Matter: Donald Trump, Jesus, Terrorists, and Morons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Word clouds are not just for fun, as most people who work in the humanities know. They allow us to visualize important\u00a0information<\/em>, namely the frequency with which words are used in a particular data set. It can help both with analysis, and with communication of that information to a broader audience.<\/p>\n

And so with that in mind, here is a wordle or word cloud \u2013 actually, a comparison of two\u00a0<\/em>\u2013\u00a0that illustrates what CNN<\/em> and other news outlets have tried to highlight in the past in plain prose<\/a>, namely the different ways that\u00a0Donald Trump responds verbally to\u00a0murders depending on who commits them:<\/p>\n

$\"Trump$ <\/p>\n

Words matter. The words we say give expression to our values, and sometimes reveal things about ourselves that at least part of our conscious minds deny are true. But when we say \u201cI didn\u2019t mean it,\u201d often what we really mean is that, with hindsight, we regret what we said \u2013 not that the words do not reveal, perhaps to our own horror, what we do mean and intend on some deep level.<\/p>\n

Of course, thus far President Trump does not seem to be disturbed by, much less regretful of, the way he speaks.<\/p>\n

Of course, this connects with the starting theme of this post in other ways. Jesus is recorded as having said that it is what comes out of a person\u2019s mouth that makes them unclean \u2013 the words that reflect an uncleanness in the heart\/mind. \u201cFor\u00a0out of the abundance of the heart<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0mouth speaks.<\/em>\u201c<\/a><\/p>\n

My biggest concern, when it comes to criticizing the president, is that the use of common insults actually cheapens the criticism \u2013 as though what he is doing wrong in leading not merely himself but the world down a particular path is no more wrong than what anyone else does in day to day life life. Stronger words \u2013 in the sense of ones that highlight evil and genuinely expose it in\u00a0a substantive way \u2013 are called for.<\/p>\n

Because words matter. And for those who are concerned with following Jesus\u2019 example and teaching, phrases like \u201cwhitewashed tombs\u201d or \u201cthe blind leading the blind\u201d are preferable to mere insults that offer nothing in the way of a genuine critique and challenge to problematic things we see people doing in the world around us \u2013 so long as we are prepared not only to offer substantive criticism, but to receive it, and view the goal in both cases not as mere insult nor denigration, but challenge that we hope will lead to personal and social transformation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"