September 04, 2009
What's in a Name?
Many years ago I belonged to our women’s group that was called The Guild. The name had existed for as long as I can remember and the title seemed, well…a little out of date. In order to refurbish and energize the group a few of us younger gals petitioned the older ladies for a name change. While the new name helped to better describe us as a group, it really didn’t change us, or our mission. The new title did however have a personal affect on some of our older ladies. In their eyes I’d hoped to see enthusiasm for the make-over, but what I saw a certain loss of identity. It was a good lesson for me and is one of the factors for my current resistance to name changes just for the sake of change…like changing Sunday School to Bible Fellowship or Worship to Celebration. What we gain is not always worth what we lose.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Maybe the most useful way to understand the importance of a name is to look at some of the names left-wing organizations choose. Consider the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. for instance. Because the name implies both planning and parenthood, you would think this organization is primarily about planning for pregnancy and preparing for the effects a new child will bring to a family. But recognizing that Margaret Sanger, America’s early proponent for birth control and negative eugenics (the effort to “eliminate” any “unfit” humans from the gene pool, if you get my drift) formed this organization, you begin to realize that it is not about parenthood. Rather, it is about parents killing their children before they are born, quite the opposite of parenthood. But of course, we must grant that it is about planning the killing, which makes it murder. She originally named the organization The American Birth Control League, a name which did not draw much popularity in face of the early 20th Century resistance to birth control. You have to admit, Planned Parenthood gives a cozy connotation to birth control and abortion, if not being a bit over the line of sneaky. Ducks Unlimited, The American Wildlife Federation, The Sierra Club, and numerous other environmental groups, while certainly deserving of these innocuous names for their benefit to the environment, could also use names more telling of their activities. Rush Limbaugh spoke often during the late 1990’s about the share of EPA fines these and other environmental activist organizations receive. In turn, these organizations invest their funds less into the actual cleaning and preservation of real property for wildlife, and more into disseminating anti-capitalist philosophies, funding lawsuits which erode property rights, and lobbying legislation to enact regulations restricting personal, property, and business rights. This is precisely the effect legislators who made available to them EPA funds desire. So the circle is established, politicians legislate the availability of money for organizations who use the money to build support for the politicians who do it again, while the unsuspecting, public think they are contributing their money and sentiments for the ducks, the wildlife, and pristine air simply because of nice, innocuous sounding names. Never do they conceive, and rarely will they believe, these nicely named organizations are fascistically driving our society into a goose-stepping march from rugged individualism towards oppressive collectivism.
-----Seemingly I diverge from The Guild, probably a very non-intrusive, character-building little group of ladies. But I have used the poignant to illustrate the primary importance of a name. It must lend to everyone within and outside a group an honest reflection of the fundamental character and nature of the group. To those within, it becomes a benchmark for achievement. More importantly, those outside the group will usually relate to it with no more knowledge about it than what its name implies. I think “Christ’s Church of the Valley” and “The Wave of Mercy Church” are names speaking more honestly and clearly to the passerby, and setting higher benchmarks for their members than does “Saddleback Church”. In fact, I would maybe think I would be ridden by it for the purpose of its leaders as a member of that church.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment