Words Matter

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is the phrase we always said when we were kids. It wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now. I think one of the reasons we said it was because we knew it wasn’t true but hoped against all hope that it might be. We know that words can in fact hurt, that’s why we teach our kids that saying some things is just inappropriate, and there are words we just don’t ever use. Why? Because we know they can hurt.

What we sometimes forget is that not only can our words hurt directly, but they can also hurt indirectly. When we spew anger and hate against other people, others can take those words as probable cause for action. We have seen this repeatedly in the shooting of abortion doctors. People’s rhetoric will say that these people need to be “taken care of” or even occasionally that they need to be killed, although the later is rarer. But even describing them as murderers and then also having as part of your rhetoric that murderers should be executed, gives some people enough justification in their mind to actually undertake violence.

Now when this has happened, those whose rhetoric has all along pushed this boundary have always said one of two things. First is that they, of course, never intended for this to happen that anyone who is reasonable understands it’s just rhetoric (although sometimes they also say they aren’t necessarily upset because, after all, “they were asking for it.”)

The second thing always said is, “I have the first amendment right to say what I think,” and that is certainly true. I am a staunch defender of the right to free speech, but normally what people forget is that with that right also comes responsibilities and consequences. It’s ironic that lately the right, which are normally the ones so strongly in support of “responsibilities”, are the ones pushing rights without responsibilities.

We do have the right to say what we want, but there are consequences. If I use the N-word I should expect that there are going to be repercussions to this, including being punched in the face or even losing my job. Just because I can say it doesn’t mean others have to like it, and if they don’t like it they have the right to voice their opinion on it as well.

In addition, the courts have continually ruled that there are limits to free speech. We do not have the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. In addition, although I don’t know that the courts have ruled on this, we also don’t have the right to say to someone in a crowded theater, “You should yell fire” if we believe there is a reasonable chance that they might yell fire. I suspect that if that happened we might be held as an accessory to the crime.

Words matter. Rhetoric matters. As a minister perhaps I understand this better than most. I deal in words all the time, that is the primary way I communicate the gospel message. Indeed we are communicating “the word made flesh.” Every Sunday when I stand up to preach, or when I’m teaching a class, I hope that my words will make a difference in people’s lives and that they will act on my words and make changes in their lives. I try and choose my words carefully in order to be able to affect this change.

If someone goes out and sells all their possessions in order to work with the poor, because I have said that Jesus calls us to do that, I cannot later say “I didn’t mean for you to actually do that” nor can I say “I have the right to say whatever I want, what happens has nothing to do with me.” Of course it has something to do with me. A lot of this has to do with my position.

I have a position of power and authority and am therefore held to a higher standard. If one of the ushers were to say to you as you were leaving, “sell everything and go work with the poor” you would not take it as seriously as if I were to say it from the pulpit. Why? Because it is my job to tell you how you should be applying Jesus’ teachings in your lives. While the usher is certainly also a disciple and might have something to say, we just don’t look at them or listen to their pronouncements in the same way we do to preachers.

The same is true of politicians and pundits on TV. They have positions of authority and respect, whether they deserve it or not, and therefore people take what they say more seriously then others. Again, a grocery store clerk saying we need to “target” members of Congress and to “reload” is going to be taken very differently than when Sarah Palin says exactly the same thing. It takes on a different meaning because of her position.

After Saturday’s shooting, Palin is now quickly trying to backpedal away from her map and her comments. The map, which “targeted” Rep. Giffords has been taken off of her website, but through the magic of the internet is still available, a copy of which is poster here. Now Palin says the marks are not gun sight marks, which is certainly how I see them, but instead “surveying marks.”

Now that might be true. I have never used surveying equipment so I would never know, which is the point. If you are going to use language that can be very easily misinterpreted then you shouldn’t use it. Again, I have to be aware of this all the time because of my position and what I do, and politicians and pundits should be as well. What we say matters. The rhetoric we use matters and is important.

Now do I think that Sarah Palin is culpable for what happened? Yes and no. She is merely one of the hundreds of people whose rhetoric is over the top on both the right and the left. It is not that one side is clean and that it is the other side that is dirty (although that is what both sides will claim). They are both wrong.

Keith Olbermann is just as wrong as Bill O’Reilly, and I'm sure they will both be over the top in vitriol with what is wrong with everyone else today. We have come to a place where we are so saturated with ideas and opinions that in order to be heard over the chaos people need to be more and more extreme and give greater and greater vitriol to their speech, and I believe we are reaping the whirlwind.

I pray that if anything good is to come out of this event it might be that rather than everyone pointing fingers and saying how everyone else is wrong, that instead we might take the time to calm everything down and to seriously and honestly take a look at what is going on and decide to stop, to tone down our arguments, to begin to say that even if we have disagreements that we can get along. That just because we have different understandings and beliefs about the role of government or of the people, that does not mean that those who disagree with us are evil and out to destroy everything that is good.

We are not all communists, fascists, socialists or Hitler. We simpy have differences of opinion. We have to learn to agree to disagree and then find the common ground. We have to move past the position that we are 100% right and the other side is 100% wrong because when we are in that position then no comprise can ever be reached, and we need to do everything we can to stop the other side because they are evil, and evil must be stopped any way possible, up to and including by ending their lives.

Rhetoric matters. Words matter. I pray that we will take this as an opportunity as an entire culture to stop and reflect on what is going on, what we have been doing and to change. Let's tone everything down a notch, agree to disagree and return some civility to life, in the words of Jon Stewart, “for the good of America.”