WWWD?: On The Language Of Faith

I still have some remnants of my German vocabulary and some very vague recollections of the grammatical structure of that language. As long as I stay in the shallow end of the German language baby pool, I can still construct a sentence. No one is likely, however, to mistake me for a native German on those rare occasions when, for whatever reason, I wax Germanic.

I sense a lack of "indigenousness" in the members of the Democratic Party who have, since the last election, decided they need to use the vocabulary and grammar of faith. Even those who have an acquaintance with Christianity, such as Robert Byrd, somehow manage to sound as if they were graduates of a "faith as a second language" class. There are also those who vaguely remember the language of the "old country" which they heard spoken in their childhood. They can speak a word or two, and can still identify the language when they hear it spoken. Think John Kerry and Ted Kennedy - well, maybe not Ted Kennedy. Then you have those who see this language as mere vocabulary and grammar, to be used as a tool of the propagandist. Think Nancy Pelosi's "A - L - T - A - R - E - D". The condescension is not too hidden because the words are not considered to have meaning based in reality.

Condescension, a product of the first of the Seven Deadly Sins, is the attitude of the Democratic strategists. They do not address equals but rather the stupid hillbillies of Jesusland. Even the name "Jesusland", which one might think of as a compliment, is a pejorative term. It is pejorative, not because they consider the occupants of Jesusland to be hypocrites primarily, but rather that they consider them to be self-deluded fantasists. Their problem is evident in their need to consult "outside" help to even use the vocabulary and grammar. But Gary Wills, Tony Campolo, and Jim Wallis can't make the foreign sound indigenous. "So Mr. Wallis, can you write a speech for me about the sanctity of freedom of choice for women? And use some of those Jesus words for the flat-earthers." It is the Democrat leadership's dilemma that the question for them really is"WWWD?" and not "WWJD?"