Abstract
On Tuesday evening, after a long and crowded church service, Reverend Kelly of the Metaphysical Temple of Spiritual Life, went about her chores closing the church for the night and started speaking about the service that had just ended: »You see, like tonight I had them packed in, I read for thirty-five people... did you see those kids trying to test me with those mathematical questions, I tell them Spirit’s got more important things to do. And those women over there, sitting in the back, I think they’re from (Reverend) Watkin’s place... and who was that guy sitting on the side?... you see, they come here, half the time I don’t know who they are. They could be snoopin’ around trying to make trouble, or they could be just new and don’t know their way around here... I can’t place them... that’s why I say, we all in these churches, we have a code worked out, when I give them messages I tell them that vibration aren’t right or the conditions will improve or that Spirit sends you love and envelopes you with the great white light of eternal truth. My people know what I want to say to them, we understand one another. And the rest, they want me to say stuff I don’t want to say... well they can go elsewhere.«
»When I use a word«, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, »it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.« »The question is«, said Alice, »whether you can make words mean so many different things.« »The question is«, said Humpty Dumpty, »which is to be master — that’s all.«
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.
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Zaretsky, I.I. (1973). In the Beginning was the Word. The Relationship of Language to Social Organization in Spiritualist Churches. In: Dux, G., Luckmann, T., Matthes, J. (eds) Zur Theorie der Religion / Sociological Theories of Religion. Internationales Jahrbuch für Religionssoziologie / International Yearbook for the Sociology of Religion, vol 8. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-14253-9_6
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