{"id":21573,"date":"2020-12-27T20:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T01:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=21573"},"modified":"2020-12-27T20:01:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T01:01:02","slug":"well-if-the-dictionary-says-it-it-must-be-so-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/well-if-the-dictionary-says-it-it-must-be-so-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, if the dictionary says it, it must be so! (Not!!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In \u201cThe Story of Ain\u2019t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published,\u201d<\/em> David Skinner describes the hostile reaction that greeted the release of \u201cWebster\u2019s Third Edition\u201d in 1961.\u00a0 The incident provides an excellent lesson for all of us, particularly church folk.<\/p>\n

But first, the context.<\/p>\n

Skinner\u2019s book traces the development of dictionaries in this country and their struggles to determine what goes in and what stays out. Then it chronicles the work of G. and C. Merriam Company to produce a new kind of dictionary, one unlike all the others.<\/p>\n

The editors had arrived at the interesting conclusion that no one had made them the authority over the English language.\u00a0 No one had put them in charge of English as spoken and written in America.\u00a0 In fact, they decided there is no authority.<\/p>\n

Imagine that.<\/p>\n

This must have come as a shock to every teacher I ever had in elementary and high school.\u00a0 Invariably, they would fault students for some breach of the language and add, \u201cCheck the dictionary.\u201d\u00a0 Yep, there it was, in black and white.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the fifth grade, I was \u201cset down\u201d in a spelling bee because of \u201cmama.\u201d\u00a0 I knew perfectly well how to spell that word because my mama spelled it that way when she wrote to her mama on the Alabama farm.\u00a0 But the dictionary spelled it \u201cmamma,\u201d and that was good enough for Mrs. Meadows, our teacher.<\/p>\n

Who would dare argue with a dictionary?\u00a0 If it\u2019s there, it\u2019s official, right?<\/p>\n

These days, I\u2019m finally experienced enough to want to say to the teacher, \u201cOh yeah?\u00a0 Who said? And who made them the authority?\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiley-face here, please.\u00a0 I\u2019m not upset, just making a point.<\/p>\n

When Webster’s Third Edition<\/em> was released, words like \u201cain\u2019t\u201d and other frowned-upon slang words were included.\u00a0 Many were upset because the definition did not flag \u201cain\u2019t\u201d as unacceptable, something spoken only by the uneducated and uncouth.<\/p>\n

It simply noted that \u201cain\u2019t\u201d was \u201cnot standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEditorializing has no place in definitions,\u201d said an internal memo at Merriam\u2019s.\u00a0 This Third Edition would contain no more snide putdowns of certain words as \u201ccolloquial among the uneducated and unsophisticated.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIlliterate.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cUnacceptable in normal circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that bothered the fire out of a lot of people.<\/p>\n

If there is no authority to say what\u2019s right in language and what\u2019s wrong, what are we to do?\u00a0 (I hope you’re smiling.)<\/p>\n

The management of G. and C. Merriam, owners of the Merriam-Webster dictionaries, pointed out five important facts about our language:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Language changes constantly.<\/em>\u00a0 It is forever transitioning, dropping off some words as obsolete, tweaking the definition of others, and inventing new words.<\/p>\n

2. Change is normal.<\/em>\u00a0 Every language of every civilization is a movable thing; none is static.<\/p>\n

3. Spoken language is the language<\/em>.\u00a0 No longer should written language be the official language and spoken language be considered second class.<\/p>\n

4. Correctness rests upon usage.<\/em>\u00a0 The context is everything.<\/p>\n

5. All usage is relative<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cIt depends\u201d is an iron-clad rule.<\/p>\n

Well!\u00a0 The nation went ballistic when the Third Edition was released in 1961. Editorials in magazines and newspapers bemoaned the death of language in America.<\/p>\n

Some editors listed slang-words found in the Third (jazz, crazy, hot, dig, beef up, etc.) and wrote whole paragraphs using them.\u00a0 \u201cAin\u2019t ain\u2019t wrong any more,\u201d headlines announced.\u00a0 And that just would not do.<\/p>\n

It turned out that almost every one of the slang words editors took exception to in the Third Edition could be found in the Second Edition which they were sanctifying as the divine standard of English usage.\u00a0 The naysayers who were rejecting the Third in favor of the Second had not even bothered to check the Second to see if the words had been listed there.<\/p>\n

As a preacher, I find the whole business so revealing.\u00a0 Ministers are so much this way. We are notorious for condemning books we have not read, movies we have not viewed, and positions we have not studied but have heard other people condemning.<\/p>\n

In sermons, it is practically a Mosaic law that we can say anything we wish so long as it\u2019s a quote.\u00a0 Any unusual position we take on a doctrine or text should have a reference to back it up. So long as we can cite someone else as the authority for the position, we\u2019re safe.<\/p>\n

Strange, huh?<\/p>\n

After the release of Webster\u2019s Third, never again would a dictionary be allowed to serve as the supreme court of the language.\u00a0 The die was cast, the gate was unlocked. No more would we be able to pen that flock again.<\/p>\n

It seems to be a human thing. We need an authority, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

Without an authority\u2013someone to say this is the standard\u2013how do we teach English usage and proper writing?\u00a0 How does a teacher mark a paper, red-circling some words as unacceptable and blue-lining others as great?<\/p>\n

When do we use\u00a0like\u00a0<\/em>and when do we use\u00a0as?\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>How about the difference in\u00a0will\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0shall?\u00a0<\/em>And who will decide?<\/p>\n

When I was coming along in school, you said something is\u00a0different from\u00a0<\/em>something else.\u00a0 But these days they say it is different than.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

All of this has application to so many areas of life in our country\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We look to the U.S. Constitution<\/strong><\/em> to do that and we grieve when told that \u201cit is a living document, ever-changing to fit the needs of a growing nation.\u201d\u00a0 Oh really?\u00a0 Who decided it was?\u00a0 (Answer: the Supreme Court did, for better or for worse.)\u00a0 A generation ago, the Court found \u201cthe right to privacy\u201d inherent in the Constitution and ruled in favor of a woman\u2019s right to have an abortion as a provision of that newly-discovered constitutional right.\u00a0 Once you start playing that game, you can make the Constitution say anything you like. And that\u2019s exactly what many are attempting.<\/p>\n

And that is why the battle over the definition and role of the Constitution has been raging for the past 40 years and is a life-or-death struggle for this country’s soul.<\/p>\n

Americans look to Congress<\/strong><\/em> as our law-making authority.\u00a0 Alas, that ever-changing body, which seems as hopelessly lost as it ever was, keeps vacillating and back-tracking and deliberating.\u00a0 Every two years the American people will throw out a large number of Congress members and install new ones, only to repeat the process twenty-four months later.<\/p>\n

We want authorities in our religion<\/strong><\/em>, and are lost without them.\u00a0 Each religion, to my knowledge, has some kind. The LDS has a body of ruling elders in Salt Lake City, the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses look to a mysterious ruling junta in Brooklyn, and most evangelical Christians turn to the Bible.<\/p>\n

The pastor of a Christian church may or may not have a body exercising authority over him.\u00a0 If he does\u2013elders, deacons, administrative committee, whoever\u2013then in all but the rarest of cases, he chafes at their intrusion.\u00a0 Biblically, God has given to the pastors the oversight of the church. See Acts 20:28 for starters.<\/p>\n

Biblically.\u00a0 Interesting adverb.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s our authority.\u00a0 \u201cWhat does the Bible say ?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also our problem.\u00a0 People disagree as to the answer in many cases.\u00a0 (Not, we hasten to add, 99 percent of the time. But that one percent contains some biggies.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where\u00a0the rule of love<\/strong>\u00a0comes in. \u201cBy this shall all men know you are my disciples that you love one another\u201d (John 13:33-34).\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0the reason for submission<\/strong>. \u201cBe subject to one another in the fear of the Lord\u201d (Ephesians 5:21).<\/p>\n

Love + submission = humility.<\/p>\n

Without love and submission\u2013and the humility they produce\u2013it\u2019s a constant dog fight.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known churches that were in \u201cconstant dog fights” as they struggled to decide who would call the shots.<\/p>\n

Pastors and other leaders must personify love and submission by the humility they exhibit in their daily walk, their public preaching\/teaching, and their leadership.<\/p>\n

Congregations must live by the love-submission standard of humility if they would please the Lord and be used of Him to bring the gospel to the world.<\/p>\n

Our Lord said, \u201cI will build my church\u201d (Matthew 16:18).<\/p>\n

I think He\u2019s saying He\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n

What a revolutionary thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In \u201cThe Story of Ain\u2019t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published,\u201d David Skinner describes the hostile reaction that greeted the release of \u201cWebster\u2019s Third Edition\u201d in 1961.\u00a0 The incident provides an excellent lesson for all of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,24,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-church","category-scriptures","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21573"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21666,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21573\/revisions\/21666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}