Words matter

MODERATOR

IN the adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’, the musical ‘My Fair Lady’ has the heroine, Eliza Doolittle, singing: “Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words, I get words all day through…”

We live in a world where words largely predominate. Good words and bad words. Facebook and Twitter, email and a few of us still send proper letters with stamps and envelopes. Words from our televisions and radios, computers and electronic devices. Words on our phones as people seem to be talking to everyone all of the time on buses and trains, in cars and on the street. An old BT advert from a couple of decades ago told us that: “It’s good to talk”, but in the present day I wonder if we are ever silent long enough to listen. There is little point in talking if there is no one taking the time to listen.

Then there is the issue about what we are saying and communicating to those around us. Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians: “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” James in his Letter tells us to watch our tongues and what we say.

Words and how we use them can make or break relationships, business deals, political commitments, economic strategies and foreign policy. During World War Two the United States Office of War Information ran a publicity campaign that intoned “Loose Lips Sink Ships”, a warning against careless talk that might pass on information useful to the enemy.

Good communication, good speech and good words are not only for Christians and people of faith. They are for everyone. In 2015 the Church and Society Council launched the ‘Speak Out’ consultation that invited the wider Church to highlight issues that were of broad concern. The responses included the need to encourage flourishing local communities, investing in young people, health and well-being, caring for creation, building global friendships, and an economy driven by equality. The final issue was ‘Doing Politics Diff erently’. This raised concerns about the need for more direct and local democracy, questions around constitutional reform, disillusionment with many politicians, and a desire to move beyond party politics and tribalism. The Church, as a non-partisan advocate, is in a strong position to bring people together across the political spectrum to make the changes we want to see. One of the challenges the people of the Church might accept would be to speak to politicians, locally and nationally, support them, hold them to account, and affirm the overwhelming majority who seek to be good public servants. What are our public servants saying, on our behalf, to us, for us, or only at us? When they speak, are they also listening?

What we say, and how we say it, often says a lot more about us than it does about the people we are talking to, or the topics we are talking about.

In 2014 when Scotland was enthralled with or embroiled in the Independence Referendum, the Very Rev Dr John Chalmers launched a series of events in conjunction with others under the heading of ‘respectful dialogue’. How do we, whoever we are, whatever our position or role in society, use responsible words when we talk to each other about things that matter” How do we find ways, through words, and maybe silence, to come to an agreement or to disagree well?

As people of faith, how do we talk to each other and about each other on matters about which we agree and disagree? Global warming and how we care for creation; immigration and the plight of refugees; the ongoing debate about same-sex relationships; how we address the scandals of poverty and homelessness; what we do about arguing for better funding for resources for people with poor mental health; how we tackle food-justice. Will people know that we are Christians by the words we choose to speak, and the by the actions we choose to take?

The Bible tells us that there is a time for speech and a time for silence. We should use our words, and our silences, well.

The Rt Rev Dr Derek Browning is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2017 to 2018.

This article appears in the March 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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