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About Dangerous Conflations of the American Church (Unabridged)

Like many who will pick up this book, I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I grew up and currently participate in the American Church scene. I have been to churches in shopping plazas, historic towns, major metropolitan areas, suburbs, cultural hubs, bilingual demographics, and much more. While each has its virtues, singing with their own cadence and tempo, it is always the same tune. Our words have been watered down, beaten down, broken down, swapped, switched, shaded, and stuffed. To quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride "you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Whether it is our own laziness or the work of maleficent forces, we are unable to appropriately define and use many terms central to Christian living. A conflation is the merging of two ideas, as if they are interchangeable. This becomes dangerous when words that should not be transposed, are. We conflate validation and empathy; affirmation and love; division and debate; passivity and meekness; arrogance and confidence; belief and faith; and much more. In turn, we have a Church that is entirely misguided in the way we speak, think and behave. In this book, I seek the sanctification of language. The American Church needs to restore the words we use back to true and biblical meaning. Christians must understand "death and life are in the power of the tongue." (Proverbs 18:21) By no means is this an exhaustive text on the matter (though perhaps it may exhaust you). Yet, it is an attempt to spur believers in testing their words that we may indeed see the kingdom of God glorified all the more."