Oh. My. Golly.
So much powerful truth contained in this article. If you're a writer, speaker, reader, or simply one who loves--truly loves--words, you've got to read this article.
Here are a few salient points that resonated:
"It is hard to tell the truth these days, because the varieties of untruth are so many, so pervasive, and so well disguised."
"Imprecision had become acceptable in the interests of generalized good feeling—and perhaps in the interests of forestalling some critical scrutiny."
"The practice of precision requires not only attentiveness and effort: it may also require the courage to afflict the comfortable and, consequently, tolerate their resentment."
"The discourse of the church, the subtleties of biblical language and the nuances of translation, the ear for poetry and care for theological distinctions may be eroded when the language of popular media is allowed to overtake the dialect of worship and conversation among believers."
"We can practice noticing how words are used and considering how they may be heard; we can pick them up from the dusty corners where most of the good ones have been consigned to disuse and reintroduce them, hoping to ambush the careless listener contented with cliché."
Check out the article and let me know what you think.
Karen
