I am writing this article in Jerusalem, where I am with a Moore College tour group. One of the notable features about Israel is the strong identity people have regarding their faith, or at least their nominal faith. They are either Jewish (even if 65% of these are non-religious ), Christian or Muslim, with a few Druze as well. This identity comes from the family and community rather than being an individual choice.
Different identities are marked in many ways, but I want to think about language as one of the main markers. In Israel, the road signs are in three kinds of alphabet, which reinforces the different identities: Hebrew letters for the Jews, Arabic for the Arabs (whether Muslim or Christian), Roman letters for tourists. At the Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem this Wednesday morning, I was one of three at the early communion service. The other two were Arabic speakers – if I hadn t been there, I wondered if they would have done the service in Arabic, or would they have followed the English service, because of the identity of St George’s Cathedral with its historic link to the English missionary effort?
I am interested in cross-cultural communication, so I face a dilemma here: I can t always tell what background people come from by looking at them, so I don t know whether to try to greet them in Hebrew (as Jews), or Arabic, or something else.
This obviously rich linguistic environment can help us think about the ways that language and identity so often go together, with important implications for ministry and mission, whether close to home or further away. Let me explore two statements and then tease out some problems and solutions.
Statement 1: The words we use reflect our identity
For people in a single-language environment – for example, many Anglo-Australians such as me, we take for granted that words communicate meaning. I want to say something, the words come out, people hear them and understand what I say. It’s that easy. But actually it’s not that easy. Even among English-speaking Australians there are all kinds of subgroups, with their own special varieties of language. Some of my children simply say lol now when they hear something funny – a new word that is more likely to be understood by the younger than the older. Even in my own language there are words and accents that will give clues as to where somebody comes from geographically, economically, spiritually, educationally, ethnically and socially. Whether we know it or not, our words reflect our identity – our words are giving out a message about who we are as well as the message that is contained in their meaning. In a multi-language environment like Sydney, this is true at an obvious level – a Cantonese speaker is likely to come from a Hong Kong family, a Greek speaker is likely to have a Greek heritage. But it is also demonstrated in other ways. Suburbs like Lakemba, Cabramatta and Fairfield are full of shop signs in languages other than English – this is not just so that potential customers can read a message, it is a way of saying this community is proud of a particular set of ethnic heritages. If we are speaking with Muslims who say peace be upon him at every mention of Muhammad, we are hearing something of their identity as a diligent, practising Muslim. If we speak with Christians who carefully avoid using masculine pronouns for God (the use of the word Godself is an example), we are hearing something of a theological identity. It is easy to notice this in others, but it is true of us too.
Statement 2: The words we use shape and strengthen our identity
Because words reflect and express our identity, they also have the ability to shape and strengthen our identity. In the communities I live in, the fact that I speak like those around me reinforces my sense of belonging to them. If I feel a bit on the outside, I might well use identity-marking words more, so that I have a sense of fitting in better. An example that seems very obvious in some social and age groups is the use of swearwords, but it is also obvious in the use of theological jargon in a place like Moore College and perhaps in our churches. Of course there is a place for jargon – it saves time, and communicates with precision. But because jargon also expresses identity, it has a way of becoming a tribal marker. If I get the formula right, I belong; if I don t, maybe I m an outsider. For example, you may have noticed how there are different ways of praying – if you haven t, I m sorry for drawing it to your attention! We are likely to pray in a similar way to those we pray with most frequently, or those whose identity we value most – whether this means sounding more formal, more conversational, more doctrinally precise, more fluent, or more emotionally involved. And the way I speak or pray inevitably shapes my identity as well as reflecting it. If I am with emotional pray-ers, I am likely to pray like them, and this will over time have an effect on my spiritual life and identity. If I am with doctrinal pray-ers, my spiritual identity is likely being shaped. Again, it is easy to notice this in others (especially when we feel we don t belong) and harder to see it in ourselves.
Problems and solutions
The problem is that meaning and identity can get mixed up, in various ways. Here are some examples.
1. We think we are communicating meaning, when we might in fact be communicating identity. This is particularly a risk in the interaction between Christians and others. When a lot of our time is spent within the Christian community, or when we talk about Christian things with fellow-believers rather than non-believers, we easily get used to what we sound like and it just sounds normal. To us, the words we say mean what we know they mean. But for others, the words we use may be giving a very different signal. It may be that our words (especially jargon words) press buttons for people in such a way that they don t hear our meaning it all – a wall goes up instantly and blocks the meaning. In a post-Christian environment, this might occur when even the most innocuous Christian word is used. We may think people are rejecting our message, when actually they haven t really even heard it. This seems so noticeable in feedback through the blogosphere and other parts of cyberspace. We might blame people for not listening but I think we must work harder to find ways of bypassing the identity markers.
2. People use identity words but bypass their meaning. This is particularly a risk within the growing Christian community. I recall hearing many Rembarrnga speakers in the Northern Territory praying prayers in their own language, except that they were sprinkled with English words like blessing and guiding . These words were Christian identity markers – they were used by Christians from other language groups when praying. But the fact that they were not Rembarrnga words suggested to me that their meaning was not clear. I ask myself what exactly I mean by words like bless or sin or save or Lord because the risk in our community is that the meaning gradually gets less clear. If insiders keep using the words but never unpack their meaning, those who are becoming insiders can happily absorb them as identity badges without really understanding their full meaning, or even having a completely distorted meaning. The solution isn t to laboriously unpack every word each time it is used. But we must keep thinking about how we express ourselves, particularly in the area of Christian truth.
3. We listen for meaning and fail to notice identity. The risk here is that we are skating across the surface of a communication, rather than heeding what is going on underneath. In some sense, of course, it is appropriate to take people’s words at face value – but we must be aware that this is more likely to result in straightforward communication when the people are most like us. It will always be more helpful to listen below the surface and think about whether there are identity issues being expressed as well, and to pick up on them when there are. People might be wanting to express that they belong with us, or that they don t want to belong with us – and this can occur between Christian groups as well as between Christians and others.
Of course we want to communicate meaning – particularly the truth about Jesus, about our life with God, about the riches in the Bible – with Christians and with others. It is not that identity gets in the way ; rather identity is part of the communication process. The more we are aware of it, the more effective our communication of God’s truth is likely to be.
