Rasmussen Reports published a poll on June 27 that got some wide reportage: apparently, 31% of Americans believe civil war is likely within the next 5 years. But 60% said, “Nah, don’t worry about it.” Almost that many pointed to opposition to Donald Trump’s policies as the spark to violence. That’s interesting—not the President’s policies themselves, but opposition to. I do have to wonder: when does overheated rhetoric become war?
The campus free-speech battles going on now are based on a premise that speech is violence: sticks, speech, and stones break my bones. I think it’s interesting that those more sensitive to verbal violence use the most violent words: Nazi, Fascist, bigot, racist, and much worse. In the infamous Charles Murray incident on the Middlebury campus last year, intemperate speech did lead to violence, but it wasn’t Charles Murray’s. He didn’t speak. They shouted him down.
The shouters do have a point, even though they misapply it: speech can be violence. Speech can also be love, temperance, pain, incentive, construction, inspiration, peace, and war. Words come so easily to most of us we forget where they come from and what they can do.
Where they come from is God. What they can do it create.
It’s no mere metaphor that Genesis 1 shows a Creator who creates by speaking. “Let there be” introduces a host of articulations that spin off untold quadrillions of particles, elements, classes, phyla, and species. That’s him–but for us it’s not all that different. Words are puffs of air—sounds shaped by breath and spit that ride on invisible waves to reach someone’s ear, where tiny bones and membranes convey them to nerves and synapses. This is a common-as-dirt example of the spiritual becoming material, as it did when “Let there be light” produced energy waves.
We see the same thing happen when Jerk! or Racist pig! or much more graphic terms produce a punch in the nose.
It’s easy to destroy with words; that’s why sins of the tongue get much more coverage in the Bible than any other kind. James 3 is only one example; you can open up the Psalms anywhere and find
The rules take counsel together, saying . .
He will speak to them in his wrath . . .
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?
Give ear to my words O Lord
You destroy those who speak lies
For there is no truth in their mouths;
They flatter with their tongues . . .
(A random selection from Psalms 1-5)
And why does Jesus say we’ll be held accountable for every word we speak? We act as though he didn’t really mean it. Though if anyone would mean what he says, Jesus would.
Destructive words are easy, quick, and effective. Constructive words are not as easy or quick, but can be just as effective. Back to the Bible:
Your sins are forgiven.
How great is the Father’s love, that we should be called the children of God. And so we are! (I John 3:1)
Those who were not my people I will call “my people.” (Hosea 1:10)
He called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (I Peter 2:9)
Words create—on legal contracts, peace negotiations, architectural blueprints, declarations and speeches. Families begin with them, cities rise on them, churches are sustained by them, peace returns with them, hope rises on them.
Words are always on our tongues to say, hurtful and helpful. Enough of them can cause a shooting war; it’s happened before. But enough of the right words can restore peace.
People are walking toward you every day; whether on the street or in your home or even in your head. What words do you have for them?