Jargon Does Not Communicate
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Read the following title of a sermon given at an evangelical Protestant rally recently, then follow the link and get the context: How to Deal with the Guilt of Sexual Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global Cause.
I count it as a measure of my distance from evangelical Protestantism that the words “sexual failure” meant something completely different to me than they did, apparently, to the pastor who titled his sermon thus. Perhaps he did this to get our attention; well, it certainly got mine. For two paragraphs, and now I’m done.
But only because I immediately knew what he was talking about. I dipped back into that vocabularly and realized that he wasn’t talking about guilt over male erectile dysfunction. I’m no linguist, but I think others might have more difficulty if they’re not hip to the clique’s jargon.
I do this not to point fingers, but to drive home a point. What, exactly, is a prokeimenon? Oh, I know what it is, of course. I know words like stavrotheotokion and coenobium. But do visitors to your church know basic Orthodox jargon? Probably not.
Just something to think about. Maybe I’ll help out with those thoughts a little later on.