One recent president, though, knew how to speak Christian fluently.ĭuring his 2003 State of the Union address, George W. Lincoln won that congressional election, but the accusation stuck with him until his death, Leonard says. "Lincoln was less specific about his own experience and, while he used biblical language, it was less distinctively Christian or conversionistic than many of the evangelical preachers thought it should be,” Leonard says. Lincoln often referred to the Bible in his speeches, but he never joined a church or said he was born again like his congressional opponent, Leonard says. Abraham Lincoln was running for Congress when his opponent accused him of not being a Christian. One of our greatest presidents learned this early in his career. Political candidates have to learn how to speak Christian to win elections, says Bill Leonard, a professor of church history at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity in North Carolina. Speaking Christian isn’t confined to religion. Nobody had thought of what is now known as the rapture until about 1850,” says Borg, canon theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. The rapture, a phrase used to describe the sudden transport of true Christians to heaven while the rest of humanity is left behind to suffer, actually contradicts historic Christian teaching, Borg says. They’re also inventing counterfeit Christian terms such as “the rapture” as if they were a part of essential church teaching. People who speak Christian aren’t just mangling religious terminology, he says. Marcus Borg, an Episcopal theologian, calls this practice “speaking Christian.” He says he heard so many people misusing terms such as “born again” and “salvation” that he wrote a book about the practice. They constantly repeat Christian phrases that they don’t understand or distort.
They say that many contemporary Christians have become pious parrots. If this is you, some Christian pastors and scholars have some bad news: You may not know what you’re talking about. But mention religion and some become armchair preachers who pepper their conversations with popular Christian words and trendy theological phrases. They speak a secular language of sports talk, celebrity gossip and current events. Have you told anyone “I’m born again?” Have you “walked the aisle” to “pray the prayer?”ĭid you ever “name and claim” something and, after getting it, announce, “I’m highly blessed and favored?” His videos, like the one above, can be found on Vimeo, an online community where artists share their films.
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Editor's note: Kirby Ferguson is a New York-based writer, filmmaker and speaker who created the web video series Everything is a Remix.
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