Sin is a strong word.

Language is changing fast. Some words, that were commonly used when I was growing up, are too powerful for today's discourse. Here are a few that are seldom used: man, virtue, coward, liar, wrong, false, chivalry, truth and sin.

I have noticed it in the bulletin at church. There is a place where we admit our lack of love and commitment to Christ. But the pastor alters the absolution phrase, that forgives us for our sin and substitutes words like "faults" or "shortcomings". What is the matter with the word "sin"? The word is too strong. A weaker word is used to avoid it.

Another word suffering the same fate is "man" and "men". I hear people avoiding this one all the time. The preferred alternative is "guy" or "guys". Never "gentlemen" or "gentleman". Man, once again, seems too strong for modern sensibiliites. Manliness (also avoided) consists of "virtue", the root of which is "man". No one "lies" or calls someone a "liar". Too strong. If people use a word that is not true, they are said to have misspoken. Hmmm.

Recently a congressman used the word "liar" during a presidential speech. He was correct, of course, in the choice of "liar" and in holding the President accountable for not speaking the truth. But "truth" is another word that is disappearing from our language, so the congressman was assailed from all sides for calling a "liar" a "liar". The President is considered to have been "wronged", even though he was wrong, in the strictest sense of the word, in stating his policies were not discriminating in favor of illegal aliens (er, undocumented immigrants) in healthcare.

When Jesus was with his disciples, he was asked who he really was and he said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

In the book of John, Pilate asks about Jesus kingship as reported in John's gospel,

³⁶ Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

³⁷ “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

³⁸ To which Pilate retorted, “What is truth?”

What is truth, indeed? In our time, lies are more common than truth. Truth and words that ring with strength are disappearing. How do we get them back? We seek, love and share the truth. We use powerful words to re-establish their meaning and existence in our time. We resist "politically correct" circumlocutions that bend and hide the truth.

Let's recognize our bent to sinning and the world of sin and death that we live in. Let's call sin sin. Let's call truth truth. Let's call courage courage and use the word hero for a hero, not a popular sports figure. Let's re-establish virtue, expecting it of others. Let's be men and leave the "guys" to the feminized community of metro-sexual persons.