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(LifeSiteNews) — Question, “Mom, how can an atheist that supports abortion be a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life?” My answer: “I don’t think life means to them what life means to us.”
This interchange while watching a recent Remnant TV broadcast brought to mind the wise warning of Father Kenneth Baker, SJ at the Latin Mass conference in Monterey in 2018. Father, who is getting up there in years, did not give a talk but was in attendance. He was frequently acknowledged and more than once invited to speak. Eventually he did have one thing to add, and this one warning from Fr. Baker – along with Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s talk – was for me the most memorable moment of this conference. Father’s words of wisdom, restated in my much less sophisticated way were that there is a war on words and it is important to use the correct words and not adopt the words of those who want to destroy our Christian culture. We can do this by insisting on an agreement of terms, not adopting confusing terms, and challenging institutions that use terms that are designed to destroy our Christian culture.
An agreement of terms is important as seen in the opening conversation about the Pontifical Academy for Life. What do they mean by life? Under first impression, faithful Catholics would assume that this academy’s role is to protect innocent human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Then again, life is a pretty broad term. When considering those involved and those asked to speak, maybe they are more or less interested in quality life. Now quality of life is in the eye of the beholder. God values all life of varying qualities. The baby that is born, gasps for air, then passes out of this world after baptism lived a life of immeasurable value to God and is now in heaven with His angels. Would those who do not believe in God agree? No. They would see that baby’s life as lacking quality. Therefore it is important to agree on the definition of a word such as life even within the institutional Church.
Another word that is being used incorrectly by modernists is the word sin. The word sin is being changed to mean shortcomings or consequences of human behavior rather than direct disobedience of an individual to a law of God. The culture of death and modernists are masters at using confusing terms and we should force their hand and make them say what they mean.
We must also avoid adopting confusing terms in our own speech. Death with dignity and assisted suicide should always be called euthanasia. Euthanizing has a much uglier cogitation. The terms “same-sex marriage” and “gay unions” should be avoided in favor of words such as homosexual or sodomitical. Obviously the word marriage cannot be used when speaking of two homosexuals living together because that is not what marriage is. That would be a misuse of terms. You may feel like you are being old fashion or too descriptive when using words correctly but engaging in politically correct terminology aids in removing the healthy stigma associated with sinful acts.
There are other words that are trendy that seem innocuous upon first inspection but I believe may cause damage to our culture. I am not encouraging anyone to become the word police, but we all should consider terms that are entering our personal lexicon that may have the wrong cogitation. There has been a modern revival in the word sibling. A steep rise can be seen in the frequency of this word during the last 100 years reaching a plateau the last sixteen years or so. There are a few problems with this word. First, it probably became a term used more frequently as divorce and remarriage increased in our society as it alleviates the use of the term half-brother or step-brother or a messy explanation of your brothers and sisters from your parents previous and subsequent marriages. Secondly it really is a gender neutral word. I think that is the reason I squirm when I hear it said by young Catholics. The image of Led Zeppelin’s Icarus logo comes to my mind’s eye – neither brothers nor sisters just a bunch of unidentifiable Icaruses.
Another word I avoid using is evolved when I mean developed. Companies don’t evolve, concepts don’t evolve, car designs don’t evolve. They develop. Development is a much better term. Using evolve inappropriately encourages the acceptance of the evolution of man. The word evolved is dangerous to use because its use encourages the acceptance of scientific speculation as scientific fact, and it encourages the thought that man is ever-advancing which is a pure invention of the enlightenment. I prefer to use the word develop.
When you look at the trends for the word gay, it is clear the meaning of the word was changed. A slow decline in its popular use is visible as the word changed over the course of 200 years to mean homosexual, with a definite low usage in 1980 followed by a steep incline in the use of the word seen in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The word gay definitely played a role in normalizing homosexual acts in American culture. I believe the meaning of this word was intentionally changed which is regrettable.
The last word that I’m going to pick on is the word creator or creatives. We make things. We make amazing things, and we make beautiful things. Yet, we do not create. God creates. God created all things out of nothing. When a mother bakes a cake she needs flour, eggs and butter. She doesn’t create a cake, she makes a cake. When I see the trends of words on entomology websites and see them rise in a similar manner I can’t help but assume it is due to intentional word manipulation. Creatives has increased in popularity in a trajectory similar to the word sibling.
Of course this doesn’t mean that I stop my friends and neighbors and correct their terminology. That would be rude, but I do believe that we should challenge institutions that are intentionally changing Christian values by adopting new terminology on forms. The obvious institution that comes to mind is the medical institution. When I had a baby in 2020, nowhere on the paperwork were the traditional terms mother and father. Rather those terms were replaced with parent giving birth and parent not giving birth. Another example of this is a yearly patient update that used new gender terminology rather than the traditional male/female option. There were also many options for sexual preference. I was filling this form out for my twelve-year-old son. I complained to my doctor. He agreed with me but told me that he would no longer be able to accept medicare and medicaid plans if he didn’t use the forms. His passion is working with geriatric patients and the elderly love him. He told me he had written a letter to the senator and he got a form letter in response. Isn’t that sad that doctors aren’t even being listened to? Nonetheless, it is good he sent the letter. He advised me not to fill out the demographics as they don’t have anything to do with health, and he’s right. This conversation was important and we must keep speaking out.
Let’s force the modernists and culture of death people to agree to terms when engaging with them. Let’s analyze the words that we ourselves are using. And finally let’s be sure to challenge institutions that are using words that are intended to reshape our values. Even if it feels like an uphill battle, let’s not go down without a fight.
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