Watch Your Language

So a sign outside a church says, "Mine Eyes are Forever Towards the Lord."  For many people, under the age of 30, this might be a mystery.  They might drive past and think to themselves, "What are mine eyes?  Are these optical spheres which explode when stepped upon?  Are these some weapon, that upon immediate observation appear to be eyeballs in the sand?  And what of 'towards the Lord'?  Does this mean that such devices are strewn about on the way to the Lord?"  That doesn't seem like good news.

Such imaginative difficulties are not too far off from actual ones.  Inquisitive people are put off quite often by this type of religious language.  Why then would people use it?

I can only think it is proper to do so for historical reasons in contexts in which the historical could be appreciated.  To do otherwise might serve only to create distance, profoundly unnecessary distance, between one person and another.

To whom does language belong?  Is it only the author or speaker?  Or is meaning shared by means of linguistic signs that are mutually understood?  It seems to me that if we want to truly communicate, we might want to consider our language, our terminology, our Christianeze way of communicating that others may actually not understand. 

Even if we say something nice, we might say it in a way that encourages others to stop listening.  As the wise DJ says, "Be yourself so you don't have to be by yourself."