Difference between revisions of "Secularized Language"

Latest revision as of 16:16, September 4, 2024

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 diluted the Christian origins of our language by replacing common phrases with secularized versions. See also Religious language.

For example, "God be with you" was secularized to "Goodbye". Many more examples are listed below.

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

Expressions and Colloquialisms

NOTE: In some cases, the secularized version is used as a "minced oath" in order to avoid using the original expression as a profanity.

General Examples

Names

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 government published a new dictionary, which contained only secularized language, that was in unison with the party's ideology.
The sad culmination of the Sprachregelung was in the vocabulary for the Endlösung.
Humans became units, murder became deportation etc.^[10]

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 from 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 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'^[11] 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 breaching the Third Commandment as it is to an increasing desire to reintroduce Christian terminology into everyday speech.

21st century, desecularization and language

See also: Desecularization

Donald Trump, courting the vote of religious conservatives, said, "If I become president, we're gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store ... You can leave happy holidays at the corner."^[12]

The 21st century is expected to be a time of the decline of atheism in terms of its global market share and religious conservatism/fundamentalism is expected to grow in both the developing world and the developed world (see: Desecularization). There are a number of causes of desecularization in the developed world (and the world at large), but two of the primary causes are the higher fertility rate of religious conservatives and immigration of the religious into developed countries.

The 21st century may see a growing desecularization of language.

Donald Trump, courting the vote of religious conservatives, said, "If I become president, we're gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store ... You can leave happy holidays at the corner."^[13] CNN reported about this incident, "Trump supporters in the room said it was precisely Trump's aversion to political correctness that attracted them to the colorful candidate."^[14] See also: Atheism and Christmas

See also

• Militant atheism
• Politically correct
• Atheists and the endurance of religion
• Secularization thesis
• Desecularization
• Liberal creep
• Liberal euphemisms
• Opposition to Christianity
• Contrast with Essay:Best New Conservative Words
• Transmigration of Words in Religion: an essay

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 11 in the Julian calendar, while Lincoln's Birthday was February 12 in the Gregorian. Under the Gregorian calendar, Washington's Birthday would be February 22. 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://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Christmas
2. ↑ Christian Book Store Struggles in Internet Culture, Fox News, December 5, 2011
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. ↑ Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor Act III, scene ii.
7. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/100024261101030/videos/182433154820785/?idorvanity=1565087340597515 Sermon by Pastor Manny Fernandez, Eagle River Baptist Church]
8. ↑ Terrorism Is a 'Man-Caused' Disaster?
9. ↑ See Jeremiah 1:5 in the Feminist Bible.
10. ↑ Gerd Simon (Universität Tübingen): Art, Auslese, Ausmerze... etc.: Ein bisher unbekanntes Wörterbuch-Unternehmen aus dem SS-Hauptamt im Kontext der Weltanschauungslexika des 3. Reichs
11. ↑ http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/minced-oath.html
12. ↑ Donald Trump's pledge: 'We're gonna be saying Merry Christmas'
13. ↑ Donald Trump's pledge: 'We're gonna be saying Merry Christmas'
14. ↑ Donald Trump's pledge: 'We're gonna be saying Merry Christmas'