The New Vocabularies

In our men's group we've talked quite often of the artificial language that has been produced to further a political agenda. One of these words is "homophobe". It is the result of the joining in what I will call a forced marriage of "homo" (Gk. same) and "phobia" (Gk. fear). I resist the use of such words as they are meant to give credibility to one of the movements currently gaining not only respectability, but also complete unequivocal conformity, and even celebratory kudos. What provoked this post was that I happened to be listening to Catholic radio and the very intelligent apologist advised a man who had been labeled because he did not agree with this new secular orthodoxy. He wondered about this concept of homophobia. The apologist replied that yes, we should resist being homophobes and that we could pray that we don't display homophobic characteristics. Such a statement--- from an apologist and a very intelligent one no less---was disconcerting to say the least. It certainly undermined my belief that intelligence and even biblical knowledge are safeguards against the manipulation of propagandic language. How, I wondered, could an intelligent apologist, as this man is, not recognize the use of new coinages meant to manipulate the mind and conform it to the world? Unfortunately, my dear friends, these new vocabularies are finding welcome upon our tongues which can only bring us not into conformity to Christ, but to Hollywood.