The real dangers of decaying language

By Lethbridge Herald on December 31, 2025.

Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
For The Herald

Several years ago, a store in Tokyo displayed a crucified Santa Claus to bring “religion” back into Christmas, answering the criticism of excessive commercialism of Christmas.  I do celebrate different cultures accepted all over the world.  At the same time, we have to be careful when dealing with anything new. Customs and languages are alive and constantly changing; often they are sacred and allergic to alteration.

The following is about language. Once I managed to avoid a near disaster when I was a newly ordained minister. I conducted the funeral of someone who had treasured his Methodist heritage.  The family handed me his old Methodist Prayer Book to conduct his funeral.  I took a quick look at it and found not much difference from the United Church Book.  So I didn’t  bother to check all the details.

As the service progressed, I was shocked to find one sentence that contained the word “intercourse.” 

I guess it  meant something like “conversation with friends.” I stopped for a second, ignored the sentence that contained the inappropriate word, and carried on. I don’t think anybody noticed the omission. In the 1950s that “intercourse” was an inappropriate word to pronounce in the funeral service.

Languages change constantly. However, can it change so radically to such an extent that facts change into “fake news?” It is frightening how the meaning of familiar words are going through  radical transformation.  In her recently published book “At a Loss for Words,” Carol Off, a former CBC Radio host of  “As It Happens,” laments the deteriorating integrity of language. Her fear is that what we say does not mean what it is supposed to mean anymore. We can not blame only the advertising industry for that.

I taught at a university for eight years in an African country where spoken words carried more weight than deeds. For example: a student had a fight and stabbed a boy who sustained a superficial injury. The village chief gave him six lashes.

The same magistrate gave another student a much more severe punishment for verbally insulting an older woman working in the university cafeteria.  He said, “Superficial wounds will heal. But it is unforgivable that the boy’s hurtful words left a permanent scar on the soul of the person who is like his mother.” It’s a country where all men are addressed fathers, and women mothers.

I hate to see meaningful words squandered. When a politician employs toxic language as a weapon, it corrupts the soul of a nation. Dictators have done it and led  masses to their demise.

I am speaking about Hitler and Mussolini.  And now the narcissistic demagogue and pathological liar in the South of the border is following the path those dictators tread.

Carol Off lists a few examples of good words abused and corroded. The use of the word “freedom” by the “Freedom-Fighters” in the convoy of semi-trailers in Ottawa and a few border crossings in Ontario and Alberta denied the freedom of law-abiding hard working truck drivers to earn a living during the early days of COVID-19.  

Irresponsible exercise of freedom can mean denial of freedoms to others. She also lists words like “democracy” and “facts” as examples of abused and misused words. Communist East Germany was officially named the “Democratic” Republic of Germany. It was the most un-democratic regime known in history. When a journalist says “Don’t let facts get in the way of a good story” to increase readership, news becomes entertainment and truth becomes a joke.

I want to highlight one word that is so badly abused and has become meaningless, even poisonous.  It is “love.” It is a problem particularly for English speaking people. I want us to think carefully about it because it represents an important moral principle of the Judeo-Christian belief system. For me love is the foundation of moral ethics.

 I do not want to see love devalued. For that reason I want to do my best to make sure the word retains its integrity.

We may have to start borrowing languages from other cultures to repair the damage.  Otherwise we will have to qualify true love by referring to “mother’s love,” etc. I hope that my worry is not taken as a mere game played by a pedantic clergy.

I am serious. Decaying language can destroy people and society.