Decline in Spiritual Vocabulary

You can imagine I was drawn to read this short article when I saw the title, the gist of which I use for the title of this inspiration reflection.  The actual title of the article is a little longer: “It’s Getting Harder to Talk About God: the decline in our spiritual vocabulary has many real-world consequences.”  The author, Jonathan Merritt, begins in a catchy fashion when he says, “More than 70 percent of Americans identify as Christian, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to them.  An overwhelming majority of people say that they don’t feel comfortable speaking about faith, most of the time.”

           

While I do not have any hard evidence, I suspect that Merritt is correct.  He hired a professional group to do research, so it is not just his opinion.  I am willing to go with what he thinks he has discovered.  It aligns with my own sense that many people who claim to be religious do see it in a private kind of way.  They are religious, but don’t acknowledge it publically.  They would be uncomfortable talking about it in their public lives.

           

Merritt speaks autobiographically when he tells us, “As a student of American Christianity and the son of a prominent megachurch pastor, I’ve been sensing for some time that sacred speech and spiritual conversation are in decline.”  This is what prompted him to solicit professional help of a social research firm to study the situation.  Only 7% of Americans affirm they have regular conversations about religion.  And I was surprised to hear him claim, “Practicing Christians who attend church regularly aren’t faring much better.  A mere 13 percent had a spiritual conversation around once a week.”

           

This probably means more people are spiritual than we would guess.  This is also accompanied by other markers.  Many folks would claim to be spiritual, but do not see it important to be part of a traditional faith group, i.e. a church, synagogue or temple.  When I was a kid, everyone I knew belonged to some kind of religious institution.  No longer true today.  When I think about myself, I realize I may not bring my spirituality up in a public way, although obviously as one who teaches religion, I am often talking publically---in class, for example---about religion.

           

I was intrigued by Merritt’s own experience.  He acknowledges that he lived in Georgia for a while.  There he had no trouble talking God and religion.  But to his surprise, “Five years ago, I moved from the Bible Belt to New York City and ran headfirst into an unexpected language barrier.  Sure, I could still speak English as well as I always had.  But I could no longer ‘speak God.’”  His conclusion seems true to me.  He declares, “In New York — as in much of America, increasingly — religious fluency is not assumed.” 

           

Interestingly, people talk about fluency in other languages.  In fact, I claim at one point I was fairly fluent in German.  I had studied German and lived in Germany for a year.  I had a big vocabulary and was comfortable speaking and hearing German.  As time has passed and I have not conversed in German, I have lost fluency.  The same happens to spiritual capabilities.  We have lost fluency.  There are many reasons for this, no doubt.  Many folks don’t believe.  There is little social stigma if we say we don’t believe in God or don’t go to church.  People do not see Sundays in the same way as when I was younger.  We have lost a sense of Sabbath.

           

Merritt then adds another point, which did surprise me a little.  He says, “A deeper look reveals that the decline in sacred speech is not a recent trend, though we are only now becoming fully aware of it.”  He offers this detail.  “By searching the Google Ngram corpus — a collection of millions of books, newspapers, webpages and speeches published between 1500 and 2008 — we can now determine the frequency of word usage over the centuries.  This data shows that most religious and spiritual words have been declining in the English-speaking world since the early 20th century.” 

           

The point of all this is the decline in spiritual vocabulary represents an unfortunate trend.  I agree with Merritt’s conclusion, “We must work together to revive sacred speech and rekindle confidence in the vocabulary of faith.”  Of course, we don’t do this in a superficial manner.  When I survey our current situation---the problems presented in our world and culture---I see a positive role for spirituality and, indeed, religion.  Of course, I would have little sympathy with requiring anything religiously.  And I don’t think atheists are anything less than faith believers.

           

But I do think the world was conceived in love, birthed in love and calls all of us to learn to be lovers---of God, each other and our world.  I urge us to continue to find a spiritual vocabulary that can be used meaningfully in our private lives and in public.  People will talk; the question is what kind of language will be used.  Our language will be a force for constructive building up of life and global community or language will be used destructively to create divisions, distortions and potential disaster.

           

This is a call to speak up and be spiritually fluent.