Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
The Words We Choose
Fr. Jim Kordaris
A few years after graduating from seminary, a young priest was
serving as an assistant priest in a parish in Long Island. Picking up
the phone one day, he heard the voice of his Dogmatics professor from
seminary. The professor politely asked, “How do you like your parish?”
The young priest responded that he loved it and felt lucky to be there.
The response from his professor would ring in his ears forever. “Luck
is not an Orthodox concept,” the professor told him. “We say we are
blessed.” From that day forward, the young priest replaced the word
“lucky” with the word “blessed.”
It seems like such a simple thing and maybe not that important –
until you think about it. Changing this one word in the way we describe
our feelings about good things in our life does something very
important. It gives credit where it is due. All good things in life come
from God and they are a blessing. There’s no luck involved.
We need to listen to new ways of expressing ourselves and to choose
our words carefully -- even if we have been saying things in a certain
way all of our life.
Archdeacon John Chryssavgis has written that “The Church is by
definition a place and a process of communion, ever open to and inviting
all people without discrimination. A place of hospitality and welcome….
an earthly reflection of the unity of God as Trinity. …a community of
people with different, yet complementary gifts. …a vision of wholeness
and healing, of caring, and sharing.” He goes on to say, “The Gospel of
Christ challenges us: ‘Just as the body is one and has many members . .
. so it is with Christ’ (1 Cor. 12.12).”
Fr John then asks the question: We all accept and proclaim that this
is what the Church is and stands for. Why is it then that, all too
often, certain people among us and around us – usually those whom we
consider as being unfamiliar or strangers, somehow being different – are
marginalized and even excluded? Wherever this happens, even by passive
omission, the Church is not what it is called to be. The Church is
denied its reality.
Saint Paul writes to the Romans “For as in one body we have many
members, and not all members have the same function, so we, though we
are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of
another . . . We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to
each of us” (Rom. 12.4-6). Every one of us brings a special and unique
set of characteristics, talents and gifts to the Church.
In his booklet, The Body of Christ (orthodoxmarketplace.com) about
making the Church accessible to those of us with disabilities, Fr. John
moves us from whatever phrase we have used in the past, such as
“crippled,” “handicapped” or “disabled” to the phrase that recognizes
individuals as people first – “People with disabilities.”
This might be dismissed as just the latest politically correct phrase
in a long line of politically correct phrases with which people are
always correcting us. But is it?
Words are important. Using the most appropriate words and phrases can
more correctly express our beliefs and our respect for others. In the
middle of the previous century, the word often used was “crippled,”
which hopefully makes us cringe today. In the same way we have set aside
the word “handicapped” because it diminishes the personhood of the one
to whom it refers. Handicapped originally implied a hat-in-hand into
which people placed money for the less fortunate.
Instead of the words, “handicapped,” “cripple,” “victim,” “retarded,”
“stricken,” “poor,” “unfortunate,” “autistic” or “special needs,” we
use the phrase “person with disabilities.” This is called “person-first”
language. It describes what a person has rather than what a person is. It reminds us that, first of all, we are describing a person – a person created by God with a unique set of gifts and abilities.
Many in our country recently observed the date of June 19th.
This date is celebrated by many as the day of emancipation for the
people that had been enslaved since before the founding of the United
States. We have all learned, since elementary school, that President
Lincoln “freed the slaves.” That was the phrase that was used. We may
have never thought much more about it. But in recent news and
commentaries, we heard the term “slave” replaced with “enslaved people.”
We may not have noticed it at first or at least didn’t think about the
importance for us as Christians to again adjust our vocabulary.
But words matter. The term “slaves” might make it easier to accept
the way people were treated for a long time in this country. We seem to
look the other way when we learn that George Washington, the “Father of
our Country” and other founding fathers had slaves. But at the time of
his death, George Washington had 317 slaves. These were 317 real people –
men, women and children – living in America, who were bought and sold
like a commodity.
So, once again, we might need to change our vocabulary, to recognize
the personhood of those about whom we are speaking. “Enslaved people”
makes us think and hopefully brings us to realize that God did not
create people to be slaves. These people were “enslaved” by other
people. The men and women it describes are human beings – persons
created by God; human beings with the same inherent dignity, rights and
feelings as anyone else.
In conclusion, we are called to see Jesus Christ in all people. He
told us, “…as you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it
to me.”
These seemingly small changes in the way we see and describe our
world can help to form in us virtues such as patience, kindness,
honesty, empathy, and forgiveness. These, in turn, help us to grow in
love for the other, and to avoid the pitfalls of fear, anger and
hatred. Instead of seeing only the appearance of the people God places
in our path each day, we can look into their eyes and see the person created by God.