I think they come from the handy Berlitz guide to Christian phrases. If you are really stuck for a bit of spontaneous communication in a prayer meeting, you can always fall back on ‘lifting people up to God’, ‘leaving it at the foot of the cross’…really handy when you’ve been nervously preparing your prayer and some other bugger prays it just before you get the chance…yeah, Jesus waffle is really handy…
Have you ever rode over pot holes in an Artic….. its sodding painfull.
You get more pain from ignoring the issues than from exploring them!
I just love christian jargon, is there a manual I can buy, or should we write one and sell it to make money for charity…
My current pet peeve is “experiencing the presence of God” which a few years ago was “experience the power of the Spirit” or as my Elder puts it, “Get the shake rattles and rolls”
Jon this is spot on! There must be a Sunday version of Boardroom Bingo youcan play in the back pews!!
So why do so many Christian practices fall into the jargon trap? Is it because a lot of the things people say in church would not stand scrutiny if they were said in normal language?
My first thought on seeing this cartoon was that it was about words some people use that are incomprehensible to others, but from the discussion I can tell that it’s primarily about expressions. (There are some exceptions — I once told off a priest for using the word “escaton”; although I could guess what he meant, I suspected he was showing off his vocabulary).
When at university, I heard a high profile evangelical speaker (I’m not mentioning names) ask us “Do you put on the whole armour of Christ every day?” The implication was that he assumed we didn’t, and that we should feel guilty. But I wanted to shout at him “Surely you don’t think it’s meant literally!”
Several people have asked if there is a jargon guide available — there is, but unfortunately it’s out of print. The ” ‘101′ Survivor’s Guide to the Church” contains a Church-English dictionary, partially but not entirely flippant. Martin Wroe, a Greenbelt trustee, is one of the authors. It is part of the series “101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon”, hence the strange title. One of the suggestions of things to do during a dull sermon is something very similar to Boardroom Bingo! (My favourite suggestion is “Practice smiling insincerely”. Think about it.)
It’s interesting, actually when I saw this cartoon I didn’t stop so much to think what the Jargonaut meant (must be a language thing as English is my second language) and us such I did not think it’s about how we speak to other people.. but more thought about how people avoid thinking about issues just themselves and in general! (and drive over them with a jargonaut)
I went into a church for the first time once having moved to the area. Down to earth working class church in the city centre. Half way through the service we prayed “the interregnum prayer”. No explanation, no nothing.
Now I know what that is… but who else would? And why would anyone want to unless it is an occupational hazard?
BTD, isn’t it also a sobering demonstration of the fact that a visiting speaker has a less clear idea (than e.g. a resident pastor) of what it is you WANT to hear and has to hide behind jargonistic waffle to stay on safe ground? Considering the notionally shared faith, there is a surprisingly high chance of a speaker turning up at a church and getting it all horribly wrong.
No its more the fact this guy has a few buzz words (that are not spiritual words or phrases) and as he comes about 4 times a year we have come to know them.
here’s my attempt at an answer to jf’s very good question above.
i think there are different kinds of jargon. there’s an evangelical sales pitch type jargon… ‘are you washed in the blood?’ ‘do you know the lord in your life?’ it’s a bit like ‘are your dishes lemony fresh?’. there’s the names given to things in church buildings and cultures which outsiders have no equivalent to… ‘eucharist, vestments, interegnum, vestibule’etc. then there’s the words and phrases christians have like most people have in their jobs…
mostly, the desire to ‘belong’ will give people all the impetus they need to learn these words and phrases, so they can truly be at one with others. it is not long before these words and phrases become habit and people are utterly oblivious often to their meaninglessness when taken out of a very narrow context.
even ‘are you saved?’ is completely meaningless without an incredible amount of explanation. if you ask me, it’s a stupid question anyway. but then, nobody did ask me.
maybe there’s an analogy to be made with football (that’s proper football, like we play in europe )
the game would fall apart if it didn’t have it’s name for things. ‘throw in’ is shorthand, so is ‘off side’ etc… quick labels that for those ‘in the know’ express something of key importance.
then there’s the jargon, without which football culture would fall apart… ‘over the top’, ‘great left foot’, or even funnier ‘he can play with both feet’… even ‘putting it the back of the net’ makes no sense if you know nothing about football. not to mention the ‘game of two halves’, which i truly believe football to be, but would take some explaining to someone who knows it is a game where to halves are played but beyond that has no understanding or experience.
so… maybe everyone does it. short hand, ways of belonging… the danger is it easily becomes a way of keeping people out too.
“Why is it that prayers for intervention are particularly rich in ‘jargon’?”
Probably because we want God to take care of it rather than us taking the time and energy to do what needs done. It sounds more dramatic if they use christianese, as if God hears it better if we talk that way. I heard somebody say once that, “You shouldn’t pray for God’s help if you aren’t willing to be the answer.”
It’s kind of like if someone we know is struggling financially, we will tell them that we are praying for them. Whether individually or collectively, we should just help them!
The jargonaut that drives over the difficult problems is not just christian slang, it is an inherent failing in the dependancy on theology as an academic discipline.
Some people apparently think, that if they can quote the answer to life’s great questions from a ‘big guy’ (Paul, Luther, Augustine) that means they have understood both the question and the answer.
Worse, it mean that if they produce the quote to someone, that alone should be sufficient to answer that persons questions.
But really, what value does an answer have if it is obscured in justification, omniscience, original sin and other theological constructs?
(note: I am not denying the existence of justification, omniscience nor original sin, merely saying we have no experience nor intuitive understanding of those concepts, and that they therefore are of no value in explaining life’s big questions.)
As a member of the all-too-often criticied and/or despised discipline of ‘academic theology’, certain elements of that comment leave me feeling somewhat depressed
Sorry for that, I’m not a hater of theologians, many of my friends and my dad study/have studied theology.
I simply find that the academic approach have serious shortcomings, they are not unredeemable but they are shortcomings nonetheless.
And it’s hard for me to express my critique clearly if I pull my punches, so to speak.
I don’t want to depress people without reason, so if this explanation wasn’t sufficient to help you, feel free to explain what elements of the comment depressed you.
Hi Bo – we were obviously typing simu;taneously but I managed to close my browser half-way through and when I returned, your message had appeared.
Here’s what I was planning to say:
that was a rather unneccesarily grumpy response from me Bo. Sorry. However a walk in the forest with the dog has restored both my sense of humour and my sense of perspective and I’m able to admit the justice of, well at least some elements of your comment.
I’d interested to know what you see as the flaws of an academic approach. This is a serious question by the way, I have my own thoughts on this but they may be very different from yours
“Why is it that prayers for intervention are particularly rich in ‘jargon’?”
Either Gods too thick, or we fail to challenge sufficiently. Many words become memes in christian circles because of the lack of academic discipline which encourages the questioning of interpretation and meaning. (Sorry Bo but the academic thing cuts both ways) The corollary is the deference with which leadership is treated in most church settings.
I discovered awhiles ago that members in my congregation had noticed, I would not join in with some of our singing. This led to some really good discussion about words, meanings and the purpose of worship AND how do words render the ineffability of God.
Of course those of us who do have formal roles in this respect should always be mindful of audience and seek neither to patronise nor intimidate as both can lead to floccinauccinihilipilification of the subject and speaker. But the thing you can get right is to ensure that people feel comfortable enough to not be embarassed by questionning.
Yes, it is the longest non-technical word in the dictionary, and I haven’t used it for ages and it seemed appropriate to the point.
thanks themethatisme I value the academic aspect of theology precisely because it has given me the tools to examine and question the meanings we claim for the Christian story, and to think in a more disciplined and coherent way about how our understandings and experiences of God might inform and transform the lived reality of our lives and of the world which we inhabit.
I accept Bo’s comment about jargon’ – but I don’t find this to ne a problem confined to the academic sphere – far from it in fact. I also think that a fair few of the books which become popular in church circles and which maybe feed in to the sort of jargonese with which christian culture becomes imbued, are a million miles away from decent academically informed theology.
I think you are right in saying the art and skill (irrespective of particular discipline)is in bridging the gap between academia and ‘the real world’ in a way which is not patronising and which makes available the fruits of academic study in a usable way to those who want to take them up.
I also freely admit that I had to look floccinauccinihilipilification in the dictionary…and that I have no idea how to pronounce it
A lot of the jargon is also used to establish street cred – if you don’t use the right words, then you are seen as a moron. I refuse to use “jargon” and it’s amazing how I’m often labeled as totally ignorant of my subject.
Jon #26 – I see the beef with the “washed in the blood of the lamb” type jargon. Not sure I do with words like “Eucharist”. It’s a bit like complaining that we have the word TV instead of “flashing box in the corner making noises”. Words exist with meaning.
I complained about the word interregnum because it was used in a context where people potentially [read highly likely] had no idea what it meant. If an alien arrived on earth and we started talking about the TV it would be meaningless until we established what a TV was. With an “interregnum prayer” at a public act of worship where the general public are invited to walk through the door potentially for the first time it is never going to be established as a word in the common lexicon (ooooo -look at my big long word ).
I guess what I am trying to say is that the words aren’t wrong and using them isn’t wrong. Using the inappropriately is wrong.
Saying “have you been washed in the blood of the lamb” is always wrong
Antidisestablishmentarianism? Personally I am a disestablishmentarian. *Pft* to those antidisestablishmentarianists
#41 I’m with you Becky. Sometimes I find myself struggling to utter a coherent sentence in my obsession with avoiding jargon!
I guess there are two issues here though. Lots of people whose language is peppered with jargon are not in fact driving jargonauts. They are engaging with all these issues that are lying on that road in the image, but they just haven’t considered the need to use plain English, which is a great shame.
But absolutely, jon. There are lots of other people who are behaving just as your cartoon suggests, and are unaware that these issues are there for folk at all, or at least they are unaware that their glib answers aren’t answering the questions.
… and I think some questions don’t have answers at all and in such situations glib ones are even more inappropriate.
I’m thinking of the need “just to BE” with someone who is desperately grieving, rather than to come up with platitudes. The ONLY answer they would be happy with is to have the person back and since we can’t do that we should just park the jargonaut out of sight and come and be, just be.
does any one else get bugged by jargon that’s designed to assess other people’s levels of faith?
like taking a temperature without a thermometer, or reading T-leaves, people seem to randomly pronounce ‘the 4 key areas’, or ‘a reluctance to prophesy’, as though someone else knows about someone else’s standing with God! ahhh
@Jonbirch, this is exactly why I try to use plain (United States) English to describe my experience. The Jargon makes my stomach turn.
Comment by projectpastiche — May 14, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
Intercessor: Wejuswanna thank you Jesus for who you are. Wejuswanna praise because you’re so awesome, Lord …
Intercessor: Ouch! Lord, why’d you do that!
Intercessee: Because you keep contradicting yourself and insulting me with your banal drivel! Get thee to a proper Church that uses the BCP, and keep your yap shut and listen until you’ve learned how properly to pray – with dignity! Then try addressing me properly in a few months’ time. Capiche?
Intercessor: Wejuswanna thank you Jesus for who you are. Wejuswanna praise because you’re so awesome, Lord … *WHAP*
Intercessor: Ouch! Lord, why’d you do that!
Intercessee: Because you keep contradicting yourself and insulting me with your banal drivel! Get thee to a proper Church that uses the BCP, and keep your yap shut and listen until you’ve learned how properly to pray – with dignity! Then try addressing me properly in a few months’ time. Capiche?
Jon – have you been washed in the blood of the lamb?
Comment by Robb — May 11, 2009 @ 8:14 am
exactly!
Comment by jonbirch — May 11, 2009 @ 8:16 am
to protect from all attacks surround yourself with a hedge of protection (what???)
Comment by Miz — May 11, 2009 @ 8:21 am
I never heard that before. I love it!
Comment by Robb — May 11, 2009 @ 8:37 am
Haha! What a great cartoon! =)
Comment by Mimou — May 11, 2009 @ 8:37 am
The blood of the lamb – was that road kill from your Jargonaut?
Comment by Miriworm — May 11, 2009 @ 8:46 am
but also
…but thanks for the link, Robb (#4), great stuff
Comment by Caroline Too — May 11, 2009 @ 9:53 am
Jon, if only you’d get fully into the river, then these questions would be washed away in the tide of the Spirit
Comment by Jonathan — May 11, 2009 @ 9:54 am
I think they come from the handy Berlitz guide to Christian phrases. If you are really stuck for a bit of spontaneous communication in a prayer meeting, you can always fall back on ‘lifting people up to God’, ‘leaving it at the foot of the cross’…really handy when you’ve been nervously preparing your prayer and some other bugger prays it just before you get the chance…yeah, Jesus waffle is really handy…
Comment by Carole — May 11, 2009 @ 10:35 am
Have you ever rode over pot holes in an Artic….. its sodding painfull.
You get more pain from ignoring the issues than from exploring them!
I just love christian jargon, is there a manual I can buy, or should we write one and sell it to make money for charity…
My current pet peeve is “experiencing the presence of God” which a few years ago was “experience the power of the Spirit” or as my Elder puts it, “Get the shake rattles and rolls”
http://www.beatthedrum.wordpress.com
Comment by beatthedrum — May 11, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Jon this is spot on! There must be a Sunday version of Boardroom Bingo youcan play in the back pews!!
So why do so many Christian practices fall into the jargon trap? Is it because a lot of the things people say in church would not stand scrutiny if they were said in normal language?
Comment by JF — May 11, 2009 @ 10:59 am
Perfect!
“I just love christian jargon, is there a manual I can buy, or should we write one and sell it to make money for charity…”
Please do, I’d buy ten!
Comment by Aideen — May 11, 2009 @ 11:02 am
[continues thought process....] Why is it that prayers for intervention are particularly rich in ‘jargon’?
Comment by JF — May 11, 2009 @ 11:08 am
Some great satires btw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H-29cJSuv8
http://www.geocities.com/changes1611/christianese.html
Comment by Aideen — May 11, 2009 @ 11:12 am
Aideen
So funny! So true! So tragic! 
Comment by Carole — May 11, 2009 @ 11:21 am
My first thought on seeing this cartoon was that it was about words some people use that are incomprehensible to others, but from the discussion I can tell that it’s primarily about expressions. (There are some exceptions — I once told off a priest for using the word “escaton”; although I could guess what he meant, I suspected he was showing off his vocabulary).
When at university, I heard a high profile evangelical speaker (I’m not mentioning names) ask us “Do you put on the whole armour of Christ every day?” The implication was that he assumed we didn’t, and that we should feel guilty. But I wanted to shout at him “Surely you don’t think it’s meant literally!”
Several people have asked if there is a jargon guide available — there is, but unfortunately it’s out of print. The ” ‘101′ Survivor’s Guide to the Church” contains a Church-English dictionary, partially but not entirely flippant. Martin Wroe, a Greenbelt trustee, is one of the authors. It is part of the series “101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon”, hence the strange title. One of the suggestions of things to do during a dull sermon is something very similar to Boardroom Bingo! (My favourite suggestion is “Practice smiling insincerely”. Think about it.)
Comment by rebecca — May 11, 2009 @ 11:54 am
It’s interesting, actually when I saw this cartoon I didn’t stop so much to think what the Jargonaut meant (must be a language thing as English is my second language) and us such I did not think it’s about how we speak to other people.. but more thought about how people avoid thinking about issues just themselves and in general! (and drive over them with a jargonaut)
Comment by Mimou — May 11, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
Oops i miss read it as well…
Comment by beatthedrum — May 11, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
I went into a church for the first time once having moved to the area. Down to earth working class church in the city centre. Half way through the service we prayed “the interregnum prayer”. No explanation, no nothing.
Now I know what that is… but who else would? And why would anyone want to unless it is an occupational hazard?
Comment by Robb — May 11, 2009 @ 1:09 pm
BTW – rebecca – I love 101 things to do in a dull church.
My favourite from bingo is what to do if you win. “Jump from your seat and shout ‘It’s the rapture’!!”
Comment by Robb — May 11, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
Bingo – it’s amazing how we all hold on to certain things as though they’re more important than Jesus.
Comment by beckyG — May 11, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
We play buzz word bingo when one of the regular visiting speakers come.
Its fun
Comment by beatthedrum — May 11, 2009 @ 1:58 pm
BTD, isn’t it also a sobering demonstration of the fact that a visiting speaker has a less clear idea (than e.g. a resident pastor) of what it is you WANT to hear and has to hide behind jargonistic waffle to stay on safe ground? Considering the notionally shared faith, there is a surprisingly high chance of a speaker turning up at a church and getting it all horribly wrong.
Comment by JF — May 11, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Robb (20) that is an absolute classic! What do you think the people there would do??
Comment by Sophie — May 11, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
No its more the fact this guy has a few buzz words (that are not spiritual words or phrases) and as he comes about 4 times a year we have come to know them.
There is no Jargonistic waffle from him.
We just know him really well.
Comment by beatthedrum — May 11, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
here’s my attempt at an answer to jf’s very good question above.
i think there are different kinds of jargon. there’s an evangelical sales pitch type jargon… ‘are you washed in the blood?’ ‘do you know the lord in your life?’ it’s a bit like ‘are your dishes lemony fresh?’. there’s the names given to things in church buildings and cultures which outsiders have no equivalent to… ‘eucharist, vestments, interegnum, vestibule’etc. then there’s the words and phrases christians have like most people have in their jobs…
mostly, the desire to ‘belong’ will give people all the impetus they need to learn these words and phrases, so they can truly be at one with others. it is not long before these words and phrases become habit and people are utterly oblivious often to their meaninglessness when taken out of a very narrow context.
even ‘are you saved?’ is completely meaningless without an incredible amount of explanation. if you ask me, it’s a stupid question anyway. but then, nobody did ask me.
Comment by jonbirch — May 11, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
maybe there’s an analogy to be made with football (that’s proper football, like we play in europe
)
the game would fall apart if it didn’t have it’s name for things. ‘throw in’ is shorthand, so is ‘off side’ etc… quick labels that for those ‘in the know’ express something of key importance.
then there’s the jargon, without which football culture would fall apart… ‘over the top’, ‘great left foot’, or even funnier ‘he can play with both feet’… even ‘putting it the back of the net’ makes no sense if you know nothing about football. not to mention the ‘game of two halves’, which i truly believe football to be, but would take some explaining to someone who knows it is a game where to halves are played but beyond that has no understanding or experience.
so… maybe everyone does it. short hand, ways of belonging… the danger is it easily becomes a way of keeping people out too.
Comment by jonbirch — May 11, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
“Why is it that prayers for intervention are particularly rich in ‘jargon’?”
Probably because we want God to take care of it rather than us taking the time and energy to do what needs done. It sounds more dramatic if they use christianese, as if God hears it better if we talk that way. I heard somebody say once that, “You shouldn’t pray for God’s help if you aren’t willing to be the answer.”
It’s kind of like if someone we know is struggling financially, we will tell them that we are praying for them. Whether individually or collectively, we should just help them!
Comment by Andy M — May 11, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
Cliches and jargon – for lazy brained people who can’t be bothered to use their own words or arguments!
Comment by Ros — May 11, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
oh, how we idolise those big, shiny, churchy things
Comment by subo — May 11, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
But Ros, it takes too much time to ponder and examine the issue – can’t have someone else getting their words in ahead of mine!
Comment by Forrest — May 12, 2009 @ 12:10 am
The jargonaut that drives over the difficult problems is not just christian slang, it is an inherent failing in the dependancy on theology as an academic discipline.
Some people apparently think, that if they can quote the answer to life’s great questions from a ‘big guy’ (Paul, Luther, Augustine) that means they have understood both the question and the answer.
Worse, it mean that if they produce the quote to someone, that alone should be sufficient to answer that persons questions.
But really, what value does an answer have if it is obscured in justification, omniscience, original sin and other theological constructs?
(note: I am not denying the existence of justification, omniscience nor original sin, merely saying we have no experience nor intuitive understanding of those concepts, and that they therefore are of no value in explaining life’s big questions.)
Comment by Bo — May 12, 2009 @ 7:45 am
As a member of the all-too-often criticied and/or despised discipline of ‘academic theology’, certain elements of that comment leave me feeling somewhat depressed
Comment by Pat — May 12, 2009 @ 8:25 am
Sorry for that, I’m not a hater of theologians, many of my friends and my dad study/have studied theology.
I simply find that the academic approach have serious shortcomings, they are not unredeemable but they are shortcomings nonetheless.
And it’s hard for me to express my critique clearly if I pull my punches, so to speak.
I don’t want to depress people without reason, so if this explanation wasn’t sufficient to help you, feel free to explain what elements of the comment depressed you.
Comment by Bo — May 12, 2009 @ 9:26 am
Hi Bo – we were obviously typing simu;taneously but I managed to close my browser half-way through and when I returned, your message had appeared.
Here’s what I was planning to say:
I’d interested to know what you see as the flaws of an academic approach. This is a serious question by the way, I have my own thoughts on this but they may be very different from yours
Comment by Pat — May 12, 2009 @ 9:40 am
“Why is it that prayers for intervention are particularly rich in ‘jargon’?”
Either Gods too thick, or we fail to challenge sufficiently. Many words become memes in christian circles because of the lack of academic discipline which encourages the questioning of interpretation and meaning. (Sorry Bo but the academic thing cuts both ways) The corollary is the deference with which leadership is treated in most church settings.
I discovered awhiles ago that members in my congregation had noticed, I would not join in with some of our singing. This led to some really good discussion about words, meanings and the purpose of worship AND how do words render the ineffability of God.
Of course those of us who do have formal roles in this respect should always be mindful of audience and seek neither to patronise nor intimidate as both can lead to floccinauccinihilipilification of the subject and speaker. But the thing you can get right is to ensure that people feel comfortable enough to not be embarassed by questionning.
Yes, it is the longest non-technical word in the dictionary, and I haven’t used it for ages and it seemed appropriate to the point.
Cracking Cartoon!
Comment by themethatisme — May 12, 2009 @ 9:50 am
Pat, I love you! We may argue theology but that’s crticising the theology, not despising you.
Comment by themethatisme — May 12, 2009 @ 9:54 am
thanks themethatisme
I value the academic aspect of theology precisely because it has given me the tools to examine and question the meanings we claim for the Christian story, and to think in a more disciplined and coherent way about how our understandings and experiences of God might inform and transform the lived reality of our lives and of the world which we inhabit.
I accept Bo’s comment about jargon’ – but I don’t find this to ne a problem confined to the academic sphere – far from it in fact. I also think that a fair few of the books which become popular in church circles and which maybe feed in to the sort of jargonese with which christian culture becomes imbued, are a million miles away from decent academically informed theology.
I think you are right in saying the art and skill (irrespective of particular discipline)is in bridging the gap between academia and ‘the real world’ in a way which is not patronising and which makes available the fruits of academic study in a usable way to those who want to take them up.
I also freely admit that I had to look floccinauccinihilipilification in the dictionary…and that I have no idea how to pronounce it
Comment by Pat — May 12, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Let’s save everyone else the trouble.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=floccinaucinihilipilification
Comment by rebecca — May 12, 2009 @ 11:51 am
hey rebecca thanks – now I can pronounce it I’ll waste no time in introducing it into conversation at church!
Comment by Pat — May 12, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
A lot of the jargon is also used to establish street cred – if you don’t use the right words, then you are seen as a moron. I refuse to use “jargon” and it’s amazing how I’m often labeled as totally ignorant of my subject.
Comment by beckyG — May 12, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
Jon #26 – I see the beef with the “washed in the blood of the lamb” type jargon. Not sure I do with words like “Eucharist”. It’s a bit like complaining that we have the word TV instead of “flashing box in the corner making noises”. Words exist with meaning.
I complained about the word interregnum because it was used in a context where people potentially [read highly likely] had no idea what it meant. If an alien arrived on earth and we started talking about the TV it would be meaningless until we established what a TV was. With an “interregnum prayer” at a public act of worship where the general public are invited to walk through the door potentially for the first time it is never going to be established as a word in the common lexicon (ooooo -look at my big long word
).
I guess what I am trying to say is that the words aren’t wrong and using them isn’t wrong. Using the inappropriately is wrong.
Saying “have you been washed in the blood of the lamb” is always wrong
Antidisestablishmentarianism? Personally I am a disestablishmentarian. *Pft* to those antidisestablishmentarianists
Comment by Robb — May 12, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
hey robb… i’m wasn’t complaining… your point is my point too.
like you say, everything needs a name.
Comment by jonbirch — May 12, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Comment by Robb — May 12, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
Great stuff – cartoon and debate.
#41 I’m with you Becky. Sometimes I find myself struggling to utter a coherent sentence in my obsession with avoiding jargon!
I guess there are two issues here though. Lots of people whose language is peppered with jargon are not in fact driving jargonauts. They are engaging with all these issues that are lying on that road in the image, but they just haven’t considered the need to use plain English, which is a great shame.
But absolutely, jon. There are lots of other people who are behaving just as your cartoon suggests, and are unaware that these issues are there for folk at all, or at least they are unaware that their glib answers aren’t answering the questions.
Comment by AnneDroid — May 12, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
… and I think some questions don’t have answers at all and in such situations glib ones are even more inappropriate.
I’m thinking of the need “just to BE” with someone who is desperately grieving, rather than to come up with platitudes. The ONLY answer they would be happy with is to have the person back and since we can’t do that we should just park the jargonaut out of sight and come and be, just be.
Comment by AnneDroid — May 12, 2009 @ 6:29 pm
does any one else get bugged by jargon that’s designed to assess other people’s levels of faith?
like taking a temperature without a thermometer, or reading T-leaves, people seem to randomly pronounce ‘the 4 key areas’, or ‘a reluctance to prophesy’, as though someone else knows about someone else’s standing with God! ahhh
Comment by subo — May 12, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
annedroid @ 45… good points well made… and @ 46… couldn’t agree more.
yes, subo… i’ve experienced a bit of that in the past, but for the most part have managed to give that sort of silliness a wide berth.
Comment by jonbirch — May 12, 2009 @ 10:16 pm
@Aideen #14,
Thank you, thank you, this is so awesome!
@Jonbirch, this is exactly why I try to use plain (United States) English to describe my experience. The Jargon makes my stomach turn.
Comment by projectpastiche — May 14, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
Intercessor: Wejuswanna thank you Jesus for who you are. Wejuswanna praise because you’re so awesome, Lord …
Intercessor: Ouch! Lord, why’d you do that!
Intercessee: Because you keep contradicting yourself and insulting me with your banal drivel! Get thee to a proper Church that uses the BCP, and keep your yap shut and listen until you’ve learned how properly to pray – with dignity! Then try addressing me properly in a few months’ time. Capiche?
Intercessor:
Comment by FrDarryl — May 16, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
Intercessor: Wejuswanna thank you Jesus for who you are. Wejuswanna praise because you’re so awesome, Lord … *WHAP*
Intercessor: Ouch! Lord, why’d you do that!
Intercessee: Because you keep contradicting yourself and insulting me with your banal drivel! Get thee to a proper Church that uses the BCP, and keep your yap shut and listen until you’ve learned how properly to pray – with dignity! Then try addressing me properly in a few months’ time. Capiche?
Intercessor: *gulp*
Comment by FrDarryl — May 16, 2009 @ 1:26 pm