A Show of Faith
Millennial, Priest, Minister, and Rabbi walk into a radio station...
A Show of Faith
January 19, 2025 The Transformative Power of Speech
Speech has the power to shape our world, but what happens when words are replaced by emojis and symbols? In this episode of "A Show of Faith," we explore the profound impact of language through the lens of religion and philosophy.
We kick off with a discussion about the transformative power of speech, drawing inspiration from the Hebrew scriptures and the unforgettable words of Martin Luther King Jr. As we navigate the intricacies of verbal and non-verbal communication in our digital age, we delve into the significance of understanding both spoken and written language, while sharing a few light-hearted musings about weather preferences.
Rudy takes us on a personal journey through his silent retreat experience, highlighting the importance of listening amidst the constant noise of modern life. We dive into the concept of self-revelation through language and the parallels between human interaction and divine revelation. The discussion addresses how our words serve as a reflection of our inner selves, acting as a barometer for our hearts' abundance.
The episode examines the dual nature of speech as both a biological function and cultural construct, with English and Judeo-Christian traditions playing a key role in shaping how we communicate.
The conversation shifts to the delicate balance of truth, love, and civility in communication. Through everyday scenarios and historical examples like Martin Luther King Jr., we highlight the importance of speaking truth with compassion. We also touch upon the divine aspect of humor and its role in communication, sharing a humorous anecdote about a monk in a silent order. As we wrap up, we celebrate contributions from notable figures such as Darrell Bock and Father Mario, and remind our listeners of the significance of events like Martin Luther King Day.
Join us as we reflect on the power of words and humor in connecting us to one another and fostering a sense of community.
Well, I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body. I know, not everybody has got a body like you, but I gotta think twice before I put my heart away. And I know all the games you play because I play them too. Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion Time to get my heart back off the floor. Oh, well, never comes down with an emotion. Well, it takes a strong man, baby. But I won't shoot the door Cause I gotta have faith. I gotta have faith Cause I gotta have to have faith. I've got to have faith Because I've got to have faith. Faith, faith. I've got to have faith, faith, faith.
Speaker 1:Welcome to A Show of Faith where professor, priest, millennial and rabbi discuss theology and philosophy and anything else of interest in religion. If you have any response to our topics or any comments regarding what we say, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at ashowoffaith at hotmailcom. You can hear our shows again and again by listening pretty much anywhere. Podcasts are heard. Our priest's father, mario Arroyo, retired pastor of St Cyril of Alexandria, in the 10,000 block of Westheimer.
Speaker 2:You know it really is. I am re-again. I am tired again. You're re-tired. I am re again. I am tired again, you're re-tired, I am re-tired.
Speaker 3:You aren't just tired.
Speaker 1:I am re-tired. You can go to discount tire shop for the re-tiring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I can even discount tire. Okay.
Speaker 1:Professor David Capes is our Baptist minister, director of academic programming for the Lanier Theological Library.
Speaker 4:Hey, great to be with you guys again this evening on the cold night in Houston.
Speaker 2:The night before the inauguration.
Speaker 4:I know, yeah, it's been moved indoors apparently.
Speaker 1:I don't like super cold, I don't like super hot.
Speaker 2:Then you must not like me.
Speaker 4:Super hot.
Speaker 2:yes, yes, but not cold, not cold, no, but I'm super hot.
Speaker 1:Let's see Rudy.
Speaker 5:Kog is our millennial.
Speaker 1:He's a systems engineer, has his master's degree in theology from the University of St Thomas Rudy.
Speaker 6:Howdy, howdy.
Speaker 1:Hey, I am Rabbi Stuart Federo, retired rabbi from Congregation Sha'ar HaShalom in the Clear Lake area of Houston, texas. Howdy, howdy, although we'd rather you email us.
Speaker 4:And Jim and Miranda and Crystal help us sound fantastic. It takes a hot priest too. Yeah, that makes all the difference.
Speaker 6:Hey, rudy, is it going to be snowing down in Guatemala in the next couple of days? They don't call it the eternal spring for nothing, and let me tell you, the weather here is actually pretty much the most consistently fantastic I've ever been in in my life.
Speaker 4:It's great steward is going to be moving down soon because he doesn't like hot or cold.
Speaker 6:No, I don't well, you just have to deal with volcanoes and earthquakes and a little bit of unstable government, you know, but that's great.
Speaker 4:Great. A little bit of unstable government, okay. Well, we've been up here and we've had unstable government for a big unstable government for a while. All right, hey, this is Martin Luther King weekend.
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 4:And it's really appropriate, Stuart, that you have chosen the idea of speech. Yes, language Because language is so very powerful and influential.
Speaker 1:Words can hurt, words can heal, and influential words can hurt, words can heal. And there's a bunch of verses that come to mind in the hebrew scriptures about speech. So, for example uh, god spoke and the world came into existence. Open up my lips that my mouth may declare your glory. Guard my lips from speaking, guile.
Speaker 2:Uh, plenty of verses in the hebrew scriptures about speaking I used to have a professor that we used to call ether lips ether lips.
Speaker 1:yeah, because what he spoke would put you to sleep. I think we've all had professors like that. Yeah, oh, but animals they communicate with each other, but I don't think they really have speech, not to the degree or the sophistication that humans do. You know, dogs, cats, pets they can make their will known so they can communicate, but it isn't speech, no.
Speaker 4:So speech is a specifically human advantage or characteristic or whatever you want to call it, but if you listen to communication experts, they tell us that about 70% of what we communicate is really non-verbal.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, but that means you have to see them. Okay, we text now, we email now.
Speaker 4:No, I don't mean that. I'm talking about our body, face-to-face, the body language.
Speaker 1:But that's all face-to-face. Yeah, I wonder what percentage of communication now isn't face-to-face because of our electronic world. Yeah, like I was telling you earlier, I'm teaching this class this past Friday in Indonesia.
Speaker 4:75 students there and we're 12 hours, 13 hours apart. It's their evening, my morning, and you know a lot of communication goes on between them and me, and me and them, but that's the way the world works.
Speaker 1:Now it's not face-to-face Exactly, but there are rules for speech, there are rules of etiquette for speech and there are rules for etiquette of the written word, like in an email or a text message. There are certain things you will say and certain things you will not say. There's a certain way to say things when we do it electronically. There are rules that we follow. Either we know the rules or we don't know them, or we know them in the back of our heads. We follow them even without thinking, and I'm not talking grammar. I'm talking about how you formulate whatever it is you're trying to communicate. Okay, we now have the little symbol Emojis, emojis, emojis to help us communicate, which is speech, but there are certain single finger hand symbols. You're not going to send over an email Talking about crude things. Yes, okay, there's an etiquette to it, and etiquette are rules. So we organize our speech. We have rules about not only how you can say, which would be like grammar but also in terms of what we say, and the Bible talks about gossip.
Speaker 4:So we Is it for gossip or against it?
Speaker 1:Pretty sure it's against it, okay, I want to make sure I'm against it.
Speaker 4:You're against it.
Speaker 1:I'm against it. All right. So speech is one of the most powerful we have. Well, I'm not sure I can include Rudy is one of the most powerful we have. Well, I'm not sure I can include Rudy, but we have three clergy who, until retirement at least, we were having to give speeches, sermons. Well, mario still does it. Yes, he does.
Speaker 1:And you also teach, yeah, and I'm free. No, just kidding. So Everything that we do teach, yeah, so, and I'm free, notice. So everything that we do in terms of speech has expectations.
Speaker 1:So I just think, and speech also our language, what we say, how we say, how we say it, who we say it to, what we say to one person about someone else, which may or may not be actual gossip. Okay, a lot of times it is, we don't think it is, but that's why I thought we would talk about speech tonight, because of its incredible importance, and I think it was Rudy who brought up the idea about how do we talk to God. You know, we, I would hope, approach God with respect, love, but is it okay to be angry at God? And if it is, is that reflected in what we say to God? I mean, it can go in so many different directions, but that's why I thought I would bring it up. So, prayer being a part of that, and prayer is a part of that, although we've talked about prayer in recent weeks, I even think Well, one of the dumbest things I ever heard was sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me, right?
Speaker 4:That's one of the dumbest things anybody has ever said, has ever put into poetic form Now.
Speaker 4:I've been hurt with some sticks and stones, but probably throughout most of my life. I don't know about you, mario, but the greatest pains that I have gone through have often been words spoken to me. Words spoken about me Right Can be very painful and very lasting. I remember talking to a woman one time whose husband was verbally abusive to her and she said I wish that he would hit me because I know that that pain would go away quicker than the verbal abuse she really did. And I think when she said that she really meant it, that she would prefer to be hit than to be talked to the way that she no, he talked to her Right. So I mean that's one thing, and the other thing that is wise is the pen is mightier than the sword.
Speaker 4:Right that words spoken, words written can have a great deal of power. Not just God's word when he says let there be light.
Speaker 1:Brought the world into being. But, the things that we say. There's a book and I actually referred to it, not obviously by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, called Words that Heal, words that Hurt, words that Hurt, words that Heal. It's a great book. On watching our speech. Could you go? Oh, mario, there are, if I remember correctly, retreats like for a weekend in the Catholic tradition, where for the whole weekend nobody speaks. That's correct. Why? What's the advantage to having a weekend where you're not talking?
Speaker 2:It's to deepen your understanding of the deeper word that's inside.
Speaker 1:What does that mean?
Speaker 2:This is something that I was thinking while you guys were talking the word. I think it's extremely important that God speaks creation into existence. That means that speech in some way is a communicator of spirit, which is why they hurt so much and they can heal, because there is an actual communication of spirit occurring and when God speaks to us, he speaks. I'm responding to your question. The reason that you are silent in the Catholic Spinal Retreat is that God's spirit can communicate with your spirit and many times what is lacking is speech. Listening to God speaks, listening Right, yeah, because I always tell people prayer is 98% listening, but you'll have to listen to something and what you listen to is God's speech to you, so you have to turn off your own speech to hear God's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have you ever thought about trying to think without speech?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:You can't, you can't, and so it's interesting, because then you can go link that insight to my thoughts are not your thoughts and my words are not your words.
Speaker 2:As high as the heavens are above the earth. Are my thoughts above your thoughts and your words above my words, my words above my words? So I think that the answer to you is you quit irrelevant or superficial speech in order to listen to the deeper speech. And it's the same thing with human beings. With human beings, if you only speak superficially to each other, you end up not being in common union, right. But if you only if you make sure to intentionally speak something that is substantive, substantive then you enter into common union. It's always. I find it interesting that jesus said if, if my words stay a part of you, then you will remain in me and I in you. He didn't say that only about the Eucharist, he said that about his Word.
Speaker 2:So, I think that the communication of spirit and the ability to be in common union with another…. When we come back.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that.
Speaker 2:My spirit.
Speaker 1:Are you talking about the Christian Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2:I'm talking about any kind of spirit.
Speaker 1:You mean the spiritual?
Speaker 2:We'll get it when we come back. This is KMTH 1070 and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 9:Q Hewitt doesn't see anyone taking responsibility, so I am mad at government.
Speaker 7:Government failed comprehensively and every day brings a new feature of the failure, from the top to the bottom, and we still do not have one resignation. Not one person has said I screwed up, I resign. Just say a prayer for the city of angels because it needs all the angels to come back.
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Speaker 1:The Answer Max, is there a time for a sign? Sure.
Speaker 4:One of the greatest songs in Chicago history. What is it 25 or 64? Terry Katz plays this amazing guitar improvisation in the middle of it.
Speaker 1:It's phenomenal okay, I have heard about a million different descriptions of what 25 or 64 means. Okay, welcome back to the show, faith and Antim sending the answers. So, david, what does 25 mean to you? No, I'm just kidding, martin, you were saying what I was talking about is spirit.
Speaker 2:Is that the foundation of all human interaction is spiritual? Okay Meaning, for example, when I so it's two, if I am common, listen to the word communication or common union. Okay, if I just go sense data, I am not. I don't know you by sense data. It's what sense data communicates. That I know, and what I know is the spirit that.
Speaker 5:I identify, as you know, a person's spirit. That's right.
Speaker 2:And so the word is the only way you can enter into another person's life, it's the only way we can enter into common union with each other is language.
Speaker 4:And part of that part of the language thing and I want to get Rudy in here on part of this in a second but is that we have to choose in that communication moment to reveal something of ourself? The only way we can know another person is if they choose to reveal. What is your name? What do you do? What do?
Speaker 1:you like, what do you dislike? Yeah, how do you spend?
Speaker 3:your time. What's your favorite?
Speaker 4:right. Chicago song 25 or 60, no, what? Whatever, whatever it might be, wait, david revolution is a part of, just like it is with, god. We wouldn't know God except for the fact that God reveals himself, he acts and speaks to disclose himself to us.
Speaker 1:So you're trying to say that we're not mind readers?
Speaker 4:We are not, not really Now. We do have intuitions and we do have things that we pick up on that are bodily based, because we are embodied creatures and our bodies do, in a sense, betray what's on the inside or tell what's on the inside, and so, gifted communicators, if a person's a speaker, let's say in a conference or something, he or she can normally sort of look at the audience and tell the degree to which the audience is capturing what he or she is saying, right, how they're responding, right, right.
Speaker 1:So, Rudy, are you a mind reader?
Speaker 6:I don't know if I would even want to be a mind reader. Can you imagine that? What about your wife?
Speaker 4:I would like to read her mind a little bit.
Speaker 11:No, no, if you could read my mind love.
Speaker 4:That could be a scary, scary thing, right it's a scary thing.
Speaker 6:No, no no.
Speaker 4:So let me ask, rudy have you ever been on a silent retreat?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I actually, funny enough, I did a. There was a time where I kind of was sort of discerning whether I was being called to the priesthood and I took a. I mean, I went on a retreat and it was a silent retreat and the focus was, just like Father Mario said, to listen. You know, especially in today's day and age there's so much noise. And I went to this retreat I don't know if you guys are familiar with it, it's on Memorial, are familiar with it? It's on memorial. I don't know if maybe they got flooded out after no, it's a little bit before Harvey. But I feel nice, that's a calm.
Speaker 6:Passion is good yeah, it's a holy name retreat house, mm-hmm right it's called holy name retreat the holy name retreat and and it was, it was actually, it was actually pretty great. I mean, when you're in it, like the first night and the first day, you're sort of like at least for myself, I was antsy, but then near the end of it, man, I didn't even want to pick up my phone, I didn't even want to really listen to music, I didn't. You know, I got out and there was traffic and people are honking and you're just like, oh, this is just terrible and it's. It's interesting when we, when we talk about speech right, and it's, I think, it in in some real aspect, it's sort of a mirror to the soul. It kind of reveals who we are and and what we value, right. And it's interesting because there's a lot of sort of debate between you know, whether speech emerged as sort of a pure biological function, right, because there's some animals that can mimic speech, like there's even parrots that show advanced communication, right, they can identify colors, shapes, all kinds of different things, right. Or is it more of a cultural construct? And I was thinking about this because there's this tribe. It's kind of a how would I say it? It's kind of a remote tribe and they don't have certain things like speech recursion, right. So the way that they say things, we would think of it as sort of very how would I say, sort of fundamental right.
Speaker 6:There's not a lot of complexity to the language and frankly, I think about this of English, actually, because my sister is a speech and language pathologist I think it is, but she works with people that have, for example, they were in an accident, right, and they have some sort of brain damage, so they have to relearn how to make sounds, and English is actually one of the most complex languages of sounds that has ever existed, with Chinese actually coming after. So people think about English. It's why a lot of people that are not native speakers of English or weren't or didn't grow up with English, have difficulty with particular words. So one thing I think about I know it's almost time to go, but how much you know in this sort of Judeo-Christian culture that we've grown in, right, how much has that actually developed our word usage, our language, the way we speak, the way we speak, the way we engage communally, culturally, with each other, I mean, I think they're fundamentally tied to each other.
Speaker 4:I think you're right in a lot of ways. Let me I know we've got to go to a break here in just a second, but let me quote Jesus, because I think you were in a a sense quoting Jesus a moment ago. You didn't, you didn't realize it, but you when you talked about that I don't use this word or not but that the mouth language is kind of a good barometer for the heart, right? I mean, you get a measure of the heart, jesus and Luke. Luke's Gospel says the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. The evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance whatever is abundant in your heart, that's what comes out. So if you want to see what is my heart like, take a look at what you say. Take a look at your mouth.
Speaker 2:Take a look at the things that you say. Got to go to a break Father Mario.
Speaker 9:1070 KNTH. We'll be right back AM 1070, the answer.
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Speaker 4:Here we go.
Speaker 11:The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane.
Speaker 3:What was that?
Speaker 6:The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Speaker 1:I think she's got it.
Speaker 11:Again. The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. I think she's got it.
Speaker 6:I think she's got it the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
Speaker 11:By George, she's got it. By George, she's got it. Now, once again, where does it rain? On the plain, on the plain.
Speaker 1:And where's that blasted and?
Speaker 11:where's that soggy plain In Spain? In Spain, the rain in Spain the rain in Spain.
Speaker 6:in the plane Bravo the rain in Spain.
Speaker 4:Welcome back to a show of favorites. Great, great, great great.
Speaker 1:And speech can be very regionally distinctive, shall we?
Speaker 4:say oh, it is Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine being with four other people in a dorm room? One is from New York City, one is from Boston, one is from Chicago, one is from Miami and the fifth one is from Lubbock Texas, and they can't even communicate? They all speak only English, but their accents are so thick they have to write it down before they can understand what each other's saying.
Speaker 4:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, but that's what happens.
Speaker 4:It can be.
Speaker 1:Because the pronunciation is so radically different?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like the rain in Spain, stays mainly in the plain. Stays mainly in the plain.
Speaker 4:Yes, All right. Well, what about? Here's one use of language Lying, lying.
Speaker 1:That's not true?
Speaker 4:No, just kidding. I mean, Stuart. Yes. What does your tradition say about lying? Is it a good thing, bad thing?
Speaker 1:Of course it's a bad thing. Okay, the thing I find most often with people is that they feel like they have been lied to, and I always have to point out to them that they were told things that were not true, but the people who told it to them weren't lying, because lying requires the intent to deceive. And even if they were told things that were not true, the person who told it to them believed it. They weren't trying to deceive them. It's just that what they were teaching was wrong.
Speaker 2:Is lying always wrong? No, no, of course not.
Speaker 1:No, it's like anything, anything at all, any act. You can create circumstances where it's the right thing to do and you can create circumstances where it's the wrong thing to do.
Speaker 2:Lying is one of them. Yeah, because it's interesting when I hear confessions. Periodically, I hear people say you know I have lied. And I said what about? I said, well, they say to me well, what does it matter, it's a lie. And I go, so is that a bad thing? And of course it's a bad thing. Lying is bad. And I said what if? Let me give you the. I can think of a couple. Yeah, just let me give you the, the I can think of a couple. Yeah, just let me give you an extreme situation. Uh, let's say that, uh, a murderer is seeking to find a person who has who they're chasing and uh, they just ran by and they just ran by you.
Speaker 2:You're gonna say, if you ask, if they ask you, have you seen them and you go. Uh no, which way do they go? Are you supposed? Have you seen them and you go?
Speaker 9:no, which way do they go?
Speaker 2:Are you supposed to? You know how I always tell people to make the distinction that the truth is a combination between fact and love.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:In other words, if you're telling the fact which does not need to lead to love, it is therefore not the full truth. And now, of course, I get this from Jesus, okay.
Speaker 1:I am the way.
Speaker 2:Wait say that last part again If it's not say it again If you're saying the fact, but the fact does not lead to love, it is not true.
Speaker 4:Okay, does not lead to love, it is not true, okay, in other words, to speak truth, you must to say what just to speak to me too.
Speaker 2:Okay to speak, to speak you say the truth see, the truth is a combination of fact and love oh, fact and love okay truth is a combination speak to fact and love right, that's right, it's
Speaker 1:factual without love. It's not the truth. If it's love.
Speaker 2:It's not the full truth if it's love without the facts, yeah because if god is uh, well for us in terms of christianity, if god is true and his love, there's no distinction between the two of them. The truth must be love in order loving in order for it to be the truth.
Speaker 4:So the most loving thing to do in the situation that you described a moment ago is not to tell the person the facts, the fact See, I make the distinction Because it would lead to a murder or injury.
Speaker 2:I make the distinction between the fact and the intent. If the intent is loving and it matches with the fact, you say that's the truth. Okay. If the intent is harmful and it matches with the fact, that's not the truth.
Speaker 4:Well, so many people lie to cover up things they've done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know how does that work?
Speaker 4:Could that be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, for example, if you know when I go, when I am invited somewhere and I don't really feel like going. Well, I don't know if this is what you're referring to, but I can say no, I really am busy some other place and you can say well, you can make up something in your own head. But in effect you're misleading. But misleading is not wrong if it is done out of a motive of love, because you don't want to hurt their feelings.
Speaker 2:Or like, for example, a little girl puts on all her mom's makeup and her shoes and she looks like a freaking clown and she goes do I look beautiful? You don't say, oh, you look stupid, right? You don't say that because there's a mixture. It has to lead to love, right?
Speaker 1:similarly does this dress make me look fat.
Speaker 4:You're wearing dresses now, Stuart. What is that? Golly Boy and women? Oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 8:No, what you say is no, but you need to get your eyes checked.
Speaker 2:There we go there we go Okay, this is.
Speaker 4:Oh, we've got five more minutes, we still do yeah, paul said in Ephesians let everyone speak truth to his neighbor. So if truth in that particular case and I'm assuming neighbor is broader than just the person who lives next door, right, right, speaking truth. Speaking truth is generally the thing that you want to do.
Speaker 2:But don't confuse truth with fact.
Speaker 4:Don't yeah, Because facts sometimes can be misleading.
Speaker 2:Especially if it's not loving.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, have you ever seen the movie Absence of Malice?
Speaker 4:It's been a long time Gosh, I don't.
Speaker 1:I can't think of the names of the actors and actresses, but basically the theme of the movie is that you can tell something that's totally factual and absolutely untrue and you can say something that's totally true but not based on fact, that's right.
Speaker 4:It's a great movie. That's exactly what I'm referring to what about there? About another aspect We'll get Rudy in here just in a minute, but to think about the lack of civility in speech of late in culture.
Speaker 1:And on our internet and in Facebook comments.
Speaker 2:But if you think about it, that's a lack of love.
Speaker 4:Well it is, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 4:Lack of civility, rudy, are you civil on the internet?
Speaker 6:I, you know I used to be way more involved in answering people and, you know, trying to make a point, but honestly I rarely get on anymore and answer anything. I just found that it just, I don't know, it tended to take my peace of mind and one of the things there's this saying in proverbs 18 and so the tongue has the power of life and death. Right, and it's interesting because there's a sort of dual nature of speech. Right, it's. It's creative and destructive. We participate in the image and likeness of God. So to say that you know what you were saying earlier, david, to say that you know words, and still you know they make my words, will never hurt me.
Speaker 6:It's not true you know we can really, we can really tear somebody down and drive them to to a point, you know. So, when we fail to see our neighbor with the same dignity, right, that in essence God sees us, right, we fail to reflect Him in that love. Going back to what Father Mario was saying, then speech really just becomes a means of destruction and what we find is absolute chaos, right, which is what we find ourselves in today in this world, and with the constant war, with the constant, you know, sort of death and everything just seems so apocalyptic. And it's just there's this comment that you know, father Mario said it a couple times, I know's just there's this comment that you know, I've told the Marius a couple times. I know we've got to go to a break, but it's almost.
Speaker 6:We bring God's wrath sort of on ourselves by failing to see each other in the same light of this Imago Dei, and when we stop treating and it starts with the way that we speak to each other right, and that doesn't mean that we have to lie to each other, right, we should be truthful, right, god is truth and love right, love is truth. But that doesn't mean that I have to be in a way that's harmful to you or with harmful words, right, I don't have to distort that image of God that we all bear, and I mean to some very large degree. I would even say that speech is really a sacred faculty, right? I mean, it's something that really creates or destroys. It's kind of incredible how God allows us to kind of participate in that too Obviously not to the same degree, right?
Speaker 4:I thought about Martin Luther King and how his words were so powerful in his speeches and his books and he helped create that world in a sense that brought about greater justice not where, no, we need to be, ought to be, but greater justice and and the the civil rights movement. So without those words, many of those mine, from the scriptures, book of amos, book, psalms, words of j, many of them from there, they helped create this new world, just like God's world.
Speaker 2:Father Mario, 1070 KNTH and we'll be right back.
Speaker 9:AM 1070,.
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Speaker 11:The Answer All we say to America is be true to what you said on paper. If I lived in China or even Russia or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges because they haven't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly, somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly, somewhere I read Of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read Of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.
Speaker 4:There you go. I mean, that's powerful. That's powerful stuff. I mean the voice. Thank you, miranda. Thank you, that's powerful, that's powerful stuff. I mean the voice. Thank you, miranda. Thank you, that's fantastic. That's an example of that which was used to move the world and change a nation.
Speaker 4:And eventually, you know, moves out. The little drop in the water moves out to other parts as well. So there's a passage in the book of James that talks about can you get salt water and can you get fresh water from the same spring? And obviously you can't. And it goes on to ask the question how is it that our tongue can praise God and yet tear down our neighbor? With the same tongue, we?
Speaker 1:praise the one, god, human choice.
Speaker 4:The issue isn't the speech, it's how we use it but it's like, it's like a spring, you know that gives sweet and bitter water at the same time.
Speaker 1:Right, because it's not the water, it's how we use the water, and you can have salt water and fresh water come out of the same thing. You just need a salt shaker.
Speaker 4:Smart Alec. But the point is, we who believe, who go to church, go to synagogue and praise God with our mouth, should we take it out on the next day or the next day and use it to run down, destroy, corrupt?
Speaker 1:again, words that heal, but it should not be.
Speaker 4:That's the point. It shouldn't be that way. From the same mouth should not come bitterness as well as praise, but it does.
Speaker 4:It's a part of urging people to think differently about their speech, and that's what James is on about. He's trying to help us to see that this grand, wonderful, amazing gift of speech that we have can be used for such great good, great terror at the same time, and urging us to choose and to seek to live better lives in God's eyes. At that point I don't know. Is it just a choice? Go ahead, rudy.
Speaker 6:I would argue, of course, from the Catholic tradition. It's something that is directly tied to sin, right, the more we sin, the more disordered we become, the more corrupt, let's say, our reality, our understanding becomes when this misuse of speech becomes, how would you say, a habit, right, it's something that has to be learned, it has to be sort of inculcated into somebody. It's, there's this famous book I forget the title, but it has to do with these German soldiers and we're taken right, initially, to a particular camp and were told by their commander, right, that they would have to do these gruesome tasks. And when they first started, these tasks were abhorrent. They were ordered, you know, to kill, to maim, to rape, to do all these things, and many of them in Italy, you know. They vomited, they couldn't do it. But over time, what happened? They became sort of a habit, right, it became something that they had performed.
Speaker 1:Yep, it became easier. It became easier.
Speaker 6:Right, exactly so, and unfortunately I think that's what we have in our culture is the more we've drifted away, going sort of back to this inherent understanding that all people are created in the image and likeness of God, the more we move away from that as a culture, the easier it becomes for me to destroy you with my words, especially easier with my words and especially with the detachment that we have today with technology. I mean when I can sit here and not do you David or Father, and I can just write you a text and say you know, you guys are always wrong, but I never see you, and it just becomes so impersonal. But if I'm telling you that to your face, you can hide behind being anonymous Also helps.
Speaker 6:Exactly. That's why it's so important what David was saying earlier, these non-verbals, right, what David was saying earlier, these non-verbals, right, these non-verbals, they are a fundamental part of the way we communicate and I mean, I would argue to some degree, speech, right, I mean we could get into what exactly speech is if it's something only that a vocal cord comes out of. But I mean, to some large extent, I think it has everything to do with how we communicate towards each other, right, even down to the way we dress, we carry ourselves. I mean, it just talks about us as much as it talks about our community and culture.
Speaker 1:Rudy quick story. It goes along, I think, with what you're saying. But when I was the Hillel director it included the Baylor College of Medicine and they teach surgery and the surgeon even though the patient is out cold from the anesthesia. The surgeon has to watch what they say and there's an automatic human response. Where something goes wrong and a person will verbally respond to it without thinking something will happen. It'll go oh, shoot, okay, and that's not the word I had in mind.
Speaker 1:And there's literally a place in the brain that these words of exclamation are stored and what you put in there is what you're going to get out of it. So the surgeons literally have to retrain their brain to put different words in that little section. So, god forbid, if on the surgery, on the operating table, something goes bad, they don't say something that's going to scare, even though they're out cold, their bodies will react and it'll be something like uh, I don't know what, candy bar or something innocuous, and that's the word that they're there because your vocal cords like, go to this part of your brain, grab the word and say it without even thinking. And they have to change the words in that section of the brain so they don't scare the patient on the table.
Speaker 4:Who may be completely out of it.
Speaker 1:They're completely out of it, but they're, physically, will react to this, to what they're consciously, subconsciously, whatever, hearing, and so you got to be careful what you put in your brain.
Speaker 6:You've got to be careful how you teach yourself to speak the amount of documented cases I've read from neurosurgeons, neurologists and people that have been proclaimed dead, okay, and somehow they have this out-of-body experience and they're able to hear things in the room, in the next room and then for some miracle, they come back and they remember it exactly what was going on and they can tell the surgeon exactly what they heard, who did what, where they were standing and be right.
Speaker 5:So the surgeon has to be careful with what they say.
Speaker 1:So they have to train themselves, because what you put in is what you're going to get out.
Speaker 2:So let me ask a question what does humor do?
Speaker 1:Also speech. But there are different kinds of humor too. I can make a joke at your expense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what does good humor?
Speaker 1:I mean, let's, the good humor man. Ice cream no.
Speaker 2:What does it? Because it teaches us to view, I think, the idiosyncrasies of life.
Speaker 1:Right. The absurdities of life. Humor can also teach us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can teach us, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think humor is amazing, yeah, amazing gift of speech.
Speaker 1:If you read the Bible in Hebrew, there are puns, there are plays on words, there are jokes. Yeah, and it's subtle, but it's there. And in the same way that I say this about love, I also say this about humor. God loves humor in us so much that God gives us the ability to have humor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by the way, did you hear the story? Which one?
Speaker 1:Oh boy, here we go.
Speaker 2:The story about the monk that joined a silent order. They were not allowed to speak. They could only speak two words every five years.
Speaker 2:Every five years, every five years, every two words every five years. And this monk goes in and he spends the first five years and his superior comes up and says what two words every five years. And this monk goes in and the first, he spends the first five years and his superior comes up, says what two words. He says bad food. Then 10 years later, his turn. Two words are now and he says too cold. The third year, the after 15 years, he gets the third chance and he says hard bed. And then after 20 years he says I quit. And the master says what happened? And he says I don't know. But ever since he's been here all he's done is complain.
Speaker 1:Very good, very good. See how speech is important. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:No, I think it's just a part of the gift of speech, right, and I know we've got to go here in a minute, but some great people out there that help make us laugh by observing things in such humorous, but through their speech, speech they make us appreciate it Darrell Bock.
Speaker 2:They make us laugh.
Speaker 4:Darrell Bock.
Speaker 3:All right, father Mario we've got to go, father Mario.
Speaker 4:Yes, darrell Bock On a Friday night, father Mario On a Friday night.
Speaker 3:I know Sunday night Darrell Bock, yes, Sunday, father.
Speaker 2:Mario.
Speaker 5:Sunday night.
Speaker 2:So, please, you've been listening to the Show of Faith and tomorrow, happy Martin Luther King Day and Inauguration Day. Keep us in your prayers. You're going to be in ours.
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