Feast of Kalimat (Words) – July 13, 2010 / 167 B.E.

The Power of Religious Language

“The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds. As for one whose words exceed his deeds, know truly that his death is better than his life.” — Bahaullah

Words are powerful. They can lift us up or put someone down. They can create understanding or increase confusion. Fighting words can erect insurmountable barriers and wreak unimaginable destruction, and words of love can make the mountains crumble and the valleys be filled.

Words can inspire action, but they themselves are not the action that is needed. For no amount of oratory, poetry or prose, no matter how magnificently crafted and delivered, can feed a hungry child, dispense life-saving medicine to the sick, bring the wicked to justice or bring justice to the persecuted and downtrodden of this world. No, what the world really needs is people whose deeds exceed their words — people who know that the essence of faith is how we live our lives, not how much we talk about our religious identity.

Many religious people seem to feel that it is more important that a person use the right words to describe themselves and their beliefs, than the substance that emanates from that which may remain unspoken, the convictions within our hearts that so often transcend the limitations of language. Is the native son of India, who is verbally identified as a “Hindu” and has never said that “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior” but who devotes his life to elevating the status and improving the lot of the Untouchable, more or less of a disciple of Christ than the American self-identified Evangelical Christian who worships in an air-conditioned megachurch every Sunday where they believe that billions of human beings who profess the “wrong creed,” such as the aforementioned Hindu, are headed for hell?

Dogmatic linguistic conventions are designed to divide humanity into groups based on whether they talk the talk of a particular religious faith. Have you had your “sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb” and “received the Holy Ghost through the outpouring of signs and wonders”? Are you “walking on the straight path of submission to Allah”? Are you “firm in the Covenant”? If one does not identify with the particular religion or denomination associated with such sayings, one is regarded as not one of us, outside the tribe of God’s chosen people, among the heathens and heretics, so to speak.

Those who believe religion should be about bringing people together rather than splitting and sequestering them in ideological tribes must be careful to avoid religious language that serves only to divide people from their brothers and sisters in the human family.

But religious language can also be used to move people to look beyond their present limitations to new horizons, growing and maturing as spiritual beings, and acting accordingly:

“In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ … They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.” (Isaiah 2:2-5)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be heirs of your Father in heaven.” (Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 5:43-45)

“The earth is but one country and humankind its citizens.” (Bahaullah)

THOUGHT: Words are powerful! Religious language can be used for good or for ill, so we must use it with great care, and focus on doing what is right moreso than talking about our beliefs.

PRAYER: O Pen in the hands of humanity, whose visible ink we are, held within Itself and dispensed therefrom, and with whose invisible ink of the spirit we write the story of our world: — Let my hand hesitate and tremble before I write with the ink of hatred, malice, or even the slightest lack of respect for any of my fellow human beings, Your beloved children. Let my hand be firm and confidently moving across the page of reality when I write with the ink of love, beneficence, compassion, hope, and faith in a better tomorrow. Let the divine ink flowing through me be manifested not only in my words, but in heroic and holy deeds that will be engraved as with a pen of diamond on tablets of chrysolite, recorded eternally in Your book of life.