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Having actually taken a single college course in communication, plus a section of corporately mandated training during my retail years, and also having passed speech in high school, I can tell you that one of my biggest take aways is that different people have different communication styles. Knowing that there are formal names for ways things are communicated and industry specific jargon, I also know with very little doubt that there is a lot about communication that I do not know. Despite all this, I also found that I have strong opinions about communication. Like usual, this is an opinion-based piece, not actual fact. If you find you disagree, please feel free to communicate that in the comments section.
Idea one: When and where you were born indicates what rules you will follow, how you prefer to be contacted, and how long it will take you to respond more than any other factors.
What apps do you use? Although nobody wants a million apps cluttering up their phones, many people from younger generations will have conversations via snap, text, or some other chat-based option long before they will pick up the phone and call, but facetime is somehow an exception to this. Older generations will often see a text or message as rude while a phone call would show respect and care. Others swap seamlessly through the various methods because these methods have all existed in their lives in a semi-permanent way. It is not uncommon for people to have a text chat going via actual text messaging apps, but also a Discord thread and maybe also a snap chat conversation, all about different topics, all with different moods and levels of seriousness, and all with the same person or people. This constant stream of communication does not feel very different from the hours I spent on the phone as a teenager talking with friends. At the same time, in a professional setting, a conversation around the coffee machine has a very different feel than a hard copy letter, an email (with HR cc’ed), or a chat in teams or Slack or whatever technology your employer uses. Being able to use these methods to communicate is not the same as having a preference for one over another.
Grammar rules are now optional? As someone with a more formal communication style for written communication, but not for verbal communication, I can tell you that I’ve been outed before as a punctuation user. This makes me strange for texts across many generations, but punctuation of any kind is hostile to younger texters as opposed to unusual for older texters. I can always tell that a document has been prepared by someone who is older when there are two spaces between sentences when typed. I too was taught this rule in elementary school when we were taught typing, but this rule became outdated by the time I left high school because technology had advanced enough to handle the spacing issues. Throw in some other antiquated ideas- like all poetry must rhyme and you can’t use punctuation like that! (See Terry Pratchett’s writing for some wonderful, rule-breaking punctuation that clearly delivers the intended message.) Certain grammatical trends, slang, and other factors often can identify when someone was born.
Having a home computer is a luxury? Across the globe, this statement is still a truth in many places. Here in the United States it is not out of place for a child to have a laptop or tablet that functions as a home computer so that they can do their schoolwork. In places where electricity is still not guaranteed- either through political unrest or lack of infrastructure because of corruption or imperialism or colonialism continuing to oppress people or some other factor- people might have to go to a public place and rent time on a computer. You see, the first two, the choosing of apps and the preferences for rule following make a big assumption. It assumes that you come from a country or place where technology was readily available and commonplace. For those of you who watched the introduction of some technology in your lifetimes, you know that learning a new technology can be difficult enough if it is just a few steps ahead of what you were using. Going from nothing to top of the line technology can be inhibiting long before it fosters communication.
Idea two: How Scripture communicates with us is impacted by all of the above.
That’s it. That’s the big idea here. When you were born and where often has a bigger impact on how you read Scripture than almost any other factors in your life. And this isn’t just about that preference between using a Bible app or a Bible, but a bigger question of what in Scripture speaks to you based on your lived experience and values.
When you read about the king forgiving the debt of one servant who then turns around and has a fellow servant jailed for a significantly smaller debt, does that resonate with you? Is your first thought about how abundant and amazing God’s grace is? That we as believers know we are forgiven and can therefore forgive others. Or were you born into the world post WWII and taught that hard work always pays off? In theory what this means is that the servant who had their debt forgiven deserves it but the servant who was jailed clearly did not work hard enough and should be imprisoned for failing to repay their debt. That grace and forgiveness, like respect and money, are to be earned by the worthy. Or are you from a generation that assumes we will all have debts to survive because that is the current reality of life for many who would not equate debt with any sort of moral failing? That it sounds utopian to picture someone in power forgiving debts?
Scripture is rarely as simple as the words on the page. To understand it, the fullness of Scripture, often requires stretching beyond the communication styles we know and are familiar with to consider how others might read the same passage. May God open your eyes to see, your ears to hear, and your brain to comprehend whatever message Scripture is supposed to communicate to you.
