Evangelicalism Part 2: What's up with "Christianese"? The language of Evangelicalism in America; why it matters and the baggage it brings. Artwork

Like Minded Deviants

Like-Minded Deviants with Dr. Lindy Backues, Jon-Michael Odean, and Justin Stewart-Fritz is a podcast that seeks to deviate from the norm. As two of Lindy’s former graduate students, Justin and Jon-Michael bring an extended friendship with him cultivated over years, enriched by their present ministries, life as educators, a good dose of grassroots practitioning, and deep respect as close friends and colleagues. Each week these three come prepared to engage in a provocative conversation. A conversation that intentionally and sometimes irreverently unpacks events and ideas plucked from newspapers and headlines, unashamedly channeling these conversations through a theologically jarring lens.

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Like Minded Deviants

Evangelicalism Part 2: What's up with "Christianese"? The language of Evangelicalism in America; why it matters and the baggage it brings.

March 18, 2022 • Dr. Lindy Backues, Justin Stewart-Fritz, Jon-Michael Odean • Season 2 • Episode 2

Join us for our first Friday release for the second episode in the "Evangelicalism" module, where Lindy, JSF, and JM dive deep into a conversation on "Christianese" in America today (yes we know--very "meta').

It is commonplace knowledge that how we as humans talk and the language we use affects how we see the world around us. In short, the language we use helps shape the way we experience life.

An offshoot of this is – especially for those of us from the Evangelical world – the language we use easily ends up walling us off from real life, prompting us to offer simplistic answers to difficult questions. Worse yet, it often prohibits us from admitting when our language does not match the reality we encounter. We often come off to others as being phony and afraid to discuss topics of deep importance. In this episode, we take a look at how this works, and then we broaden our conversation to include a deeper look at the way we live.

We conclude that we must learn to speak more clearly, be more transparent, and open up more fully to important – even challenging – facets of life, especially those related to our relationship to God through Jesus. In short, we must avoid using religious platitudes or holy words that cloud sincere attempts to understand the puzzles of our world, even when that sort of speech uttered or a life lived makes us uncomfortable.

As always we want these to be informed by YOU, so let us know what you think, send us your thoughts, we may even try a few!