Difference between revisions of "Secularized Language"

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Revision as of 12:50, August 25, 2011

While the development of conservative words grows by doubling each century, those with an anti-Christian and anti-American agenda, such as liberals, homosexuals, atheists, evolutionists and leftists, have attempted to remove the Christian origins of our language by replacing common phrases with secularized versions. By appealing to tolerance and political correctness, they have succeeded in propagating these secularized versions, even among those who don't share their views. Such deceitful tactics are a prime example of Liberal redefinition and other Liberal tools.

Calendar Terms

Original expression Secularized version
God be with you Goodbye[1]
B.C./A.D. B.C.E./C.E.1
Christ's Mass Christmas [2]
Christmas Xmas2
Christmas Holiday Winter Break
Easter Holiday Spring Break
Gregorian calendar Civil calendar
All Hallow's Eve[3] Halloween
Holy Day Holiday [4]
Independence Day The Fourth of July
Merry Christmas Happy Holidays/Season's Greetings
Resurrection Sunday Easter3
Saint Patrick's Day Paddy's Day
Saint Valentine's Day Valentine's Day
Shrove Tuesday Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival
Thanksgiving Turkey Day
The Reverend Martin Luther King Day MLK Day [5]
Washington's Birthday4 President's Day

Expressions and Colloquialisms

Original expression Secularized version
God be with you Good luck
God be with you Goodbye
God bless you/Bless you Gesundheit
Godspeed Be good
God Willing Hopefully
Jesus! Gee whiz!
One nation under God One nation5
Praise the Lord Praise be
Thank God! Thank Goodness!
Thank heavens Thank goodness
Thank the Lord Give thanks

General Examples

Original expression Secularized version
Abomination Homosexual/Gay
Abomination Mistake
Abortion Birth control6
Act of God Natural disaster
Adultery Cheating
Adultery Fooling around
Angelic Pretty
Anti-Christian bigotry Separation of church and state
Anti-life Pro-choice
Bible study Fundamentalism
Blasphemy Secular opinion
Blessed Lucky
Chosen lifestyle Innate characteristic
Constitutionalist Birther
Contraception Protection
Covetousness Inequality
Creation Abiogenesis
Curse Bad luck
Disciple of Christ Christian
Diabolical Dishonest/Underhanded
Drunkard Alcoholic
Easter Egg Spring Sphere[3], Chocolate Egg
Father Old man
Fertile Breeder
Flood Flooding
Flood Flood waters
Glory Praise
God A higher power
God Mother Nature
God-fearing Intolerant
God-given Natural
Godless Secular
Golden Rule Altruism
Govern Rule
Harlot Sex worker
Harlot Prostitute
Harlot Slut
Harlot Empowerment
Harlot Liberated woman
Heathen Multicultural
Hell (or Heaven) Afterlife
Heavenly Beautiful
Heresy Scientific theory
Heretic Crackpot
Holy matrimony Civil union
Homosexual Gay
Homosexuality Lifestyle choice
Husband or wife Significant other/life partner
Immoral Personal choice
Islamic Terrorism Man-made disaster
Lazy Lacks motivation
Living in sin Shacking up/cohabitation/domestic partnership
Mankind Humankind
Meek Weak
Miraculous Amazing
Mother Parent
Nation Country/State/Government
Nature Social construct
Pagan Secular
Perversion Diversity
Possessed Crazy
Possessed Influenced
Pray Plead
Prayer/blessing Moment of silence
Principled Extremist
Pro-abortion Pro-choice
Pro-murder Pro-choice
Providence Lucky break
Rebuke Hate speech
Reckoning Accountability
Religion Spirituality
Righteous Law-abiding
Sacred Respected
Sanctify Set apart[6]
Saintly Well-behaved
Sex before marriage Liberated
Sin Crime
Sin Lifestyle Choice
Sodomite (generally) Gay; LGBT
Sodomite (in antiquity) Male shrine prostitute
Sodomy Relations
Solemn Dignified
Son/Daughter Offspring
Soul Spirit
The State The Government
Terrorist Freedom fighter
Unborn baby Fetus
Virgin Young woman
Wicked Antisocial
Wicked Naughty
Witchcraft Wicca, (Neo-)Pagan
With child Pregnant

Names

Original expression Secularized version
Christian Name Given Name, First Name, forename

Historical Examples

Starting in 1933 Nazi Germany had a program to secularize the German language. The Nazis themselves called it Sprachregelung (regulation of language). The Sprachregelung was mainly directed by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (RMVP) (Ministry for the enlightenment of the people and propaganda). While the RMVP concentrated mainly on controlling and censoring the language of the media and the language used in movies and other cultural ventures, there were other actions as well. The Nazi governement published a new dictionary, which contained only secularized language, that was in unison with the parties ideology.
The sad culmination of the Sprachregelung was in the vocabulary for the Endlösung.
Humans became units, murder became deportation etc.[7]

George Orwell's 1984 describes how a tyrannical government changes language to entrench its power. This is done by the so called Newspeak. Newspeak is a slimmed down version of normal English. Its goal is to prevent the speaker forming thoughts like rebellion or dislike against the government or one of its leaders. Even if an individual would be able to form such thoughts, it would be impossible to communicate them to others using Newspeak. Orwell's description of newspeak was heavily influenced by the language controls of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Avoiding Blasphemy

While motivations will vary from from one individual to the next there is a degree to which the secularization of language may be driven by some Christians wanting to avoid breaking the Third Commandment. In what is sometimes described as a 'minced oath'[8] a speaker, often under stress, begins to form a taboo term and then corrects himself with an acceptable term that rhymes or has a similar initial sound. Thus 'God' becomes 'gosh', 'golly' or 'goodness gracious'; 'Jesus' becomes 'gee' or 'jeepers creepers'; 'Christ' becomes 'crikey' or 'crumbs'. The taboo term may not have any religious connotations: 'shoot' and 'sugar' are used merely to avoid a vulgarity. The fact that words such as 'crikey' and 'gee' have become less prevalent in recent decades, to be replaced with the original 'Christ' or 'Jesus' may be as much down to a reduction concern about breeching the Third Commandment as it is to an increasing desire to reintroduce Christian terminology into everyday speech.

Notes

  • 1 Sometimes C.E. is an abbreviation for "Christian era" instead of "common era", but this also conceals the historical basis due to Jesus Christ being Jewish. Christianity would not exist as a separate religion until much later.
  • 2 The 'X' in "Xmas" was originally an abbreviation for the Greek letter "chi" translated as "Ch", though the abbreviation eventually became a means of "crossing out Christ".
  • 3 Easter was originally a pagan festival, upon which Christianity would later apply the Resurrection of Christ and surrounding events (such as the Crucifixion on Good Friday). "Resurrection Sunday" is often used to emphasize the Resurrection of Christ rather than the pagan holiday.
  • 4 Washington's Birthday was February 11th in the Julian calendar, while Lincoln's Birthday was February 12th in the Gregorian. Under the Gregorian calendar, Washington's Birthday would be February 22nd. Thus Washington's birthday would be more accurate. (source)
  • 5 This was part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. "Under God" was added in the 1950s at the request of President Eisenhower. (source) However, atheists such as Michael Newdow have been trying to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge through the federal courts (source)
  • 6 Pro-choice people often use the phrase "birth control" regardless of whether conception has occurred.

References

  1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/goodbye
  2. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Christmas
  3. All Hallow's Eve was originally the pre-Roman pagan Celtic holiday of Samhain's Day. In 835 Pope Gregory IV moved All Saint's Day, which celebrates the lives of Catholic martyrs and the communion of saints, to November 1. Thus, Halloween is not itself a Christian holiday, but the evening before the Catholic feast day. [1] [2]
  4. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=holiday
  5. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c103:6:./temp/~c103JkPHc3::
  6. See Jeremiah 1:5 in the Feminist Bible.
  7. Gerd Simon (Universität Tübingen): Art, Auslese, Ausmerze... etc.: Ein bisher unbekanntes Wörterbuch-Unternehmen aus dem SS-Hauptamt im Kontext der Weltanschauungslexika des 3. Reichs
  8. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/minced-oath.html

See Also