"The Lost Religious/Character Components of Language"

"We willingly sacrifice much for that to which we are committed."

Maybe take a moment and ponder the thoughts expressed in that statement.

Look with me now at the particulars of the statement and understand the strength of same.  Historically sacrifice comes from two words.  Sacred or that which pertains to God and another word which means to take some course of action.  It has in most instances referred to a priestly function as in offering a sacrifice to God.

As you can see and as with so many other notions and ideas, this word has its origins in religion and since the religious roots of Judaism predates all other religions, it finds its most salient examples in the Jewish Scriptures and in particular in the books of Moses where we read of the people making sacrifice and then came the Mt Sinai experience and establishment of the laws governing sacrifice.  There also are numerous examples of the consequences of not offering sacrifice in the prescribed manner and thus are examples of sacrilege.  And we thought serving God on our own terms and not His is something new.

As an aside, think of the number of words that we use which can be traced to Judeo-Christian faith.  Words such as creation, sacred, love, sacrificial, reverent, sacred, discipline, evil, restoration, patience, sacrilege, sin, irreverent, and so many more.  We certainly find that to be so in other languages for instance Arabic and the word jihad

There was a time that people understood the religious component of life and as well understood the connection of these and other words with faith.  Read the original and unsanitized writings of those who founded America and you will not read long before you realize that they understood the connection of language with faith, in most of their cases Christianity.

One of the reasons that language has undergone change in terms of common usage is that such is necessary for it to be so in order that there be a secularization of the American culture.  Whether language influences culture (my position) or culture influences language or some combination of the two is up for debate.  Whichever view you embrace, such change is quite gradual and therefore more subtle than revising history and misinterpreting the concept of separation.  It has escaped the notice of most even people of faith in general and most religious leaders in particular.

As well we certainly can  add to the discussion that there has been a weakening of the ethical and character elements of language.  The two words in the original statement, "willingly" and "committed" are both character words.  The first speaks to one's volition--that is decision making function.  Such function or decision making apparatus is strongly influenced by one's grasp and application of character qualities such as integrity, honesty, orderliness, etc. in the day to day of life.  Absent character, absent consistency and strength of the volitional processes of life.

The last word, "committed" comes from "commitment" and speaks to one being in a state of that commitment.  Such of course means to be obligated to some course of action by pledge or promise.  The troubling problem is that today we find the common usage of the word is much less binding.  Again, it is a matter of one's character and one's ethical view of life lived out in the practices of day to day living. Again absent character, absent consistency and strength in the commitments we make in life.

The effects of secularizing and the blurring of meaning in language is much more significant than the previously listed trends because in insidious ways it has an effect upon the ways in which we fashion thoughts into expression, identify feelings, combine thoughts and feelings into attitudes, give expression to those thoughts and attitudes, and eventually end up in having an effect in and upon our actions, interactions, and reactions.

Taking then our original statement "We willingly sacrifice much for that to which we are committed"  we now may understand it to say, "We with will, strengthened by character, decide to make sacrificial actions unto God of that to which we have obligated ourselves through pledge and/or promise."  Said another way there is a  God and a character dimension to this statement and in reality to all we do.