conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

This question interests me greatly: "How do we empower ourselves through our language without dictating the way other's use language?"

The first thing I would dictate is the removal of that extraneous apostrophe. :-)

But I'm curious about how far empowering one's own use of language can go towards healing, and at what point one must engage with the language others use to/about oneself?

To put out a fairly innocuous example, I call the current crop of Presidential candidates by their titles: Senator McCain, Senator Clinton, Governor Huckabee and Senator Obama. That's a deliberate choice intended to express my respect for their offices and achievements.

But I hear lots of people calling only one of those candidates consistently by her first name. And I believe that that habit of speech indicates and/or nurtures a diminishment of Senator Clinton because of her gender.

I never do it myself. But I believe I should "speak truth to power," as it were, by calling other people on their habit of sexist language.

What to do? Perhaps your panel will have new ideas.

Re: Sen. Clinton.

I understand and agree with what you say. But, I also see that is how she represents herself. If you look at the campaign sings for her they all say Hillary, while the rest have the last names. Was this a result of just accepting the "habit of speech", or a deliberate act?

I don't know. It is an interesting thing.

Tripp:

I'm curious ... does the fact that you are the "token straight white male" in any way imply that you are the one with greater "privilege" in the eyes of this group?

Likely so...Why?

First off, the video? Laugh out loud funny. That was awesome.

As to speech - seems to me the straight white male Baptist minister is a great representative for the church, if he is one who seems (as you seem, Tripp) to view the church as the place where all voices should be given an avenue to be heard. Sounds like a fascinating discussion.

Because depending on which sector of the culture you are talking about, someone in your category may have anything but privilege. Around my friends in the local dance community, I am DEFINITELY in the minority as a politically conservative evangelical. Lots of times I don't speak up b/c I don't want to catch grief about the way I vote, the way I eat, the way I practice my religion ... you get the picture.

Actually, address was listed wrong on the site...
it is 1014 S. Michigan in the dance center.

And, yes, Tripp is a wonderful addition to this group as he is a clear representative of the openness of the church and the challenge many in the church have with reaching out to underrepresented communities.

As for Tripp and privilege, some might argue that in the realm of language and social justice, he might be at a disadvantage in many conversations....

Welcome one and all!

Amy,

Yeah. I totally understand. In many of the circles I find myself, the fact that I am religious at all is off-putting to people. Like you (though, clearly there are differences between us), I get huge flack for being religious at all. And sometimes it is because I am supposed to be "enlightened" (read: liberal) and thus how could I possibly be religious...This sometimes happens. And it is seldom the start to a warm fuzzy conversation.

How do you handle that, Tripp?

And, has the panel happened? How was it?

Megan,

Carefully...Each person is different. If there's not too much alcohol inspiring the Q and A, I'll ask them what they believe and why. I ask them about their experience with Christianity etc. That usually unearths something helpful for me...something I can use to show either a distinction between me and, say, Pat Robertson, and then hopefully take the conversation to a place where we can talk of Christianity as a "spiritual tradition" as worthy as any other.

It's not always an easy conversation and sometimes I'm simply someone's pinata.

The panel is tonight. I'll blog about it tomorrow. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Tripp:

Ha! I understand the preconceived notions against those of us who are religious in some way. I sort of have two strikes against me: I'm *supposed* to be closed-minded (because I am religious) and bigoted (because I am conservative), and lo and behold! Look at all these non-white people I'm around on a regular basis. Look at all this non-European culture I steep myself in. Yeah, I'm a real xenophobe. :-p