Thursday, April 9, 2015

Christianese

I've heard a lot of people in the church make fun of Christianese over the years. What's "Christianese?" It's Christian jargon... or terminology. A word or phrase you wouldn't use anywhere and have it make sense... except the church.

I have to admit, I've been guilty at laughing at it too. I laugh at hip hop slang too... but that's another blog.

Anyway.

While in the middle of thinking about how useless it was I began to play MOBAs. It's a genera of game with a high skill ceiling. I'm not very good at them. However, they keep bringing me back because of the amount of strategy, reflex and timing you need to get good at them. 
One of the things that adds to the difficulty is the language. There are a lot of terms that get thrown around in the heat of a round.

One night, I am seated at my computer when I hear this come out of my mouth -

"My ult is up and I just got a DD  I'll roam to mid to gank SF, if you want to TP in that may help. We can take a tier 1 after and maybe even go to bot to push that back."

Wha? That has to be gibberish! Well, it is... Unless you know MOBAs. If you do then you know that there is a lot of detail and description in the sentence.

So what is the point of this blog?

Everything has it's own version of Christianese. Gaming, sewing, hip hop (seriously though, that one is ridiculous). People say things that make no sense to the uninformed all the time, but, to someone in on the hobby, it makes complete sense. Are all the terms necessary? 
No (I still think we've really messed up the definition of anointed), but because of Christianese we are able to convey vast concepts in only a few words. 
Redemption through the blood, the grace of God, being anointed. 
All of those are subjects that could have blogs of their own. However, we are able to put those thoughts down with just a few short words.


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