In praise of precise language

I have been known, on exceedingly rare occasions, to exasperate my children (and my wife … and, um, other people … ) with my insistence that language be used with as much precision and accuracy as possible. Many a pleasant mealtime has been rudely interrupted by a certain irritating someone insisting that a word was being used incorrectly. An unwelcome rupture in the proceedings, if ever there was one, and invariably followed by withering glares and the measured rolling of eyes. Still, I bravely soldier on. We all have our crosses to bear. 

There is a deep conviction behind this annoying tendency of mine: words and how we use them matter. They matter a great deal. Of this I am absolutely convinced, particularly in our cultural moment, characterized as it is by so much polarizing and unreflective language, so much sloppy and reactive discourse. Words are flung around casually and carelessly, as if we all know what they mean and why they function the way that they do in public discourse. Words like liberal and conservative, or progressive and traditional, to take a few of my favorite examples at present.

I regularly find myself in discursive circles where someone will simply assume that using one of these words is sufficient to settle an argument or reinforce a boundary or identity marker or whatever. You know, good conservative folks … You know, they’re a progressive church in so many ways … The people who use these words in conversation often seem to assume that they are stand-alones that require no further explanation or qualification, that they say something like, “You know, they’re one of us! I somehow seem to have positioned myself in such a way that liberals and conservatives and progressives and traditionalists all consider me to be an ally. This either makes me laudably dexterous and theologically adept, or a weak-kneed coward.