Mennonite Weekly Review

Eighty-year-old Benjamin Forenz was a lawyer in the Nuremburg (Germany) trials after World War II, trials that insisted that Nazi leaders take responsibility for their actions. Reflecting on his experience in that courtroom, Forenz says that a first step in waging war is to dehumanize “the enemy,” to make the enemy “kill-able.” And that’s the job of words.

Stackley

Another step toward waging war is to discredit the conscientious objectors. That, too, is the job of words.

James, our letter writer, is not exaggerating when he compares the tongue to a horse’s bit, a ship’s rudder, the forest fire’s spark. People who are now demonizing Muslims and Arabic-speakers may recognize themselves in this text.

More jobs for words

Given their power, and magnified in the mouths of powerful people, words can change the course of history. Pope John Paul II apologized to the Jewish community for centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, for the Spanish Inquisition. He apologized to the Muslim world for the Crusades, when the streets of Jerusalem “ran with blood.” He apologized to the Eastern Orthodox Christians for their having been persecuted by Roman Catholicism. Thus he ended a thousand years of anathema and mended the Christian community.

(To my knowledge, no pope has yet apologized to descendants of “heretic” Anabaptists for the execution — along with the Reformers — of about 3,000 of our spiritual forebears. But Mennonite World Conference president Nancy Heisey did present Benedict XVI with the picture of 16th-century Anabaptist Dirk Willems rescuing his persecutor.) President Clinton rightly apologized to this country’s First Nations for the genocide perpetrated on them by whites.

Even when languages are incompatible, “words” in other forms will communicate. Last February the New York Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert in Pyongyang, North Korea. Few of the orchestra members spoke Korean; few Koreans in the audience spoke English. But, reported the principal bassist, “as we exited the stage, after the concert, the audience started waving. We musicians started waving back. Half of us, myself included, were weeping.” These were wise and thoughtful — and needed — “words.”

Out of the heart the mouth speaks

As people of words (spoken, signed, written, text-messaged) and as people of the Word, we do well to pay unhurried attention to this text in James’s letter. And a quick survey of the Bible yields a sample harvest of related wisdom. “[Use] only … words that are gracious and a means of grace” (Eph. 4:29-30). “By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). “An apt word is like a golden apple laid on silver network” (Prov. 25:15). “Let your talk always have a saving salt of grace about it” (Col. 4:6). “We reap the result of all our words” (Prov. 12:14). Add to this the 52 references to “mouth” in the Book of Proverbs.

Not a day goes by but wise, thoughtful words are desperately needed. Case in point came this afternoon in my apartment building. Baiting me, squinty-eyed, Mr. W said, “Did you know that Barack Obama’s grandfather was a Muslim?” Panicked at where this could lead, I answered, “My grandfather would have called himself a Christian, but he did not go to church and forbade his wife’s going to worship.” Mr. W paused, seemed surprised, and then: “I guess I’m an agnostic, but I haven’t killed anyone today.” It was my turn to be surprised. We parted amicably.

In that moment I would not describe my words as wise or thoughtful. But my belief system allows — pleads with — God to redeem whatever I say that needs redeeming. May it be so.