Have you ever wondered how words work which make them so powerful in shaping our thought-life - our beliefs, values and so our actions?
Someone who considered this in great depth was the late Professor Donald MacKay who was not only a brain scientist at Keele University but also a committed Christian and profound thinker.
One way he tried to explain how messages - words - affect our brains was by using the following illustration.
The shunting yard
In a railway shunting yard, there is a box of levers. When the levers are set up in a certain pattern, the yard is ready to deal with traffic in a corresponding way. Even if there are no trains in the yard at the moment, it is ready to do business, sending trains this way or that, if they were to come. If you change the switches, the ability to cope with the traffic will also change. Putting it crudely, this is a picture of what goes on in our heads when we communicate with each other. Words are like specially designed tools which change the 'switch settings' of our brains. Not that they necessarily make us do things, but they get us ready to act differently, affecting what MacKay calls 'our conditional states of readiness'.
For example, if I were to say to a friend: 'I invite you to a roast beef lunch next Sunday', and he believes me, his brain state will have changed in a way which makes him ready to act in response to that message. He thus may decide to cancel his planned meal or apologise because he had already arranged to do something else on that day. Even just imagining it could have effects. He might be so passionate about roast beef that the very prospect starts him salivating, or if he is vegetarian, so appalled is he at the idea that he feels physically sick. The point is this: no communication is ever neutral - it will have an effect on us. Thinking is not neutral; looking or listening are not neutral; imagining is not neutral; even asking a question is not neutral at the level at which our brains operate. We are changed for good or ill by words.
If it is the case that messages shape our brain-states - affecting our beliefs and so how we behave - then the way we use words has very profound responsibilities. This is where the book of Proverbs comes in.
How are words to be used?
True
First of all, we must make sure they are true. Proverbs 24.26: 'An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.' Proverbs 11.9: 'With his mouth, the godless destroys his neighbour, but through knowledge the righteous escape.' Proverbs 12.22: 'The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.' Now why does God do that? What is so important about telling the truth?
For one thing, it reflects the character of God, he is truth, 'dead straight' in all his dealings with us. He doesn't pull the wool over our eyes and so neither should we with others. But also to engage in deceit is to damage ourselves and other people. To pervert the truth, even slightly, is to shape the way other people see things and are prepared to act on things that doesn't correspond with reality as God has made it. Thinking back to the illustration of the switch settings of our brain; lies set the switches in a pattern which will prepare people to act in a way which is out of kilter with the way things actually are and so we shouldn't be surprised if they are harmed as a result. Let's take the lie which has been portrayed as truth in our society since the early 1960s that 'sexual freedom is good'. That message has shaped the way we think and act. What has come in its wake? More teenage pregnancies, not fewer. More sexual disease, not less. More marital breakdown, not less. There was a news item on the main BBC news concerning university students who, in order to cope with the financial burdens of study, are getting involved in prostitution, young men as well as women. This was put over as a shocking thing. In one sense, yes it is. But then again, we might well ask: 'Why the big surprise?', given the message that has been pounding away over the last 30 years.
That is why truth is important.
Few
Second, words should be few. Proverbs 10.19: 'When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.' That may mean being careful of the man with the gift of the gab for he may well be trying to pull a fast one on you, or it could be the more you say unthinkingly, the more likely you are to say something which will be wrong - sin, whereas a wise person will weigh carefully his words before he opens his mouth - 'Think before you speak.' It doesn't always follow that the more words, the better the quality of the message. For instance, the Lord's prayer is made up of 56 words, the 23rd Psalm - 188 words, the Ten Commandments - 297 words, the US Department of Agriculture's order on the price of cabbage - 15,629 words!
Pure
Thirdly, our words should be pure. Proverbs 12.18: 'Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.' What we say should be wholesome, uplifting, life-enhancing, the exact opposite to that which is vulgar, base and demeaning. Words in the mouth of a Christian should be attractive and good, the foul mouth is the characteristic of a fool. Even when a rebuke has to be given, it is more like a scalpel in the hands of a skilful surgeon, building up a person, rather than thoughtless words which are like a sword destroying the person. How many Christians and indeed whole churches have been all but destroyed by gossip? The late Alan Redpath suggested that any gossip which comes our way should be subject to the following test summed up in the acronym think. T - is it true? H - is it helpful? I - is it inspiring? N - is it necessary? K - is it kind? Is it? If not, bin it.
What we hear?
This leads us to another important point regarding pure messages, which applies not just to giving them but also to receiving them. We are to guard ourselves in what we hear. Proverbs 4.23-24: 'Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.'
Let me quote Professor Donald MacKay: 'All our evidence suggests that human communication, mechanism and meaning are so inextricably interwoven that by communicating with a man, you cannot avoid effecting physical changes in him, some of which may not be reversible, just as surely and as fatefully as if you laid your hands on him.' (Human science and human dignity, Hodder). He argues that information has effects on our brains which are just as material as, say, arsenic or alcohol. It is amazing, he says, that we rightly have laws which restrict environmental pollution and yet hardly any which limit conceptual pollution - on TV for instance.
'Ah,' the sceptic replies, 'it's a myth that our behaviour is influenced by such things.' Apart from the neuroscientific evidence which points in the opposite direction, we may ponder what some teachers discovered in the United States. A Californian school district participated in a project on creative writing (according to the Education Reporter, 1992). The children were to imagine coming to school on a 'misty, foggy morning' to find a strange car in the field, with the teacher's voice coming from the car'. The tone of the opening line was one of mystery. We would never have guessed what the children actually did write. One story was about his teacher holding the class hostage with a machine-gun. One was about the teacher kidnapping a child. Another about the teacher planning to assassinate the Head. Sometimes the teacher was the victim, so one wrote about taping his teacher's mouth and pointing a gun to her heard. One even wrote about his teacher being brutally raped. These children were 8-9 years old. Should we therefore be so surprised but no less shocked at the recent shootings that have taken place in two schools in America? Or the recent alleged rape in this country of a five year-old by a 12 year-old? As they say: 'Rubbish in, rubbish out.' Do we know what our children and grandchildren are watching, what messages they are receiving? Do we care? We wouldn't dream of letting them drink a bottle of bleach, would we? Yet messages that come their way can be just as damaging. 'Guard your heart,' says the wise man.
Apt
Fourthly, our words should be apt; right words spoken in the right way for the right occasion. Proverbs 15.23: 'A man finds joy in giving an apt reply and how good is a timely word.' Proverbs 15.1: 'A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.' One of the dangers we run in communicating in a sloppy way is misunderstanding. Sometimes this can be amusing. So we have the following quotes from actual church publications: 'Don't let worry kill you - let the church help', 'This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar'.
But choice of the wrong word or things being said in the wrong way, non-verbal messages, can have serious results. We have the following typical conversation between a husband and wife. He says: 'Will you call the electrician?' She replies: 'I will if you ask me in a nice tone of voice.' 'I did ask in a nice way,' he exclaims. 'But you always whine when you want me to do something,' she protests. Finally he explodes: 'If you don't want to do it, just say so!' Do we see what has happened? The actual words of the husband were quite civil, but the tone indicated a reprimand. How we say a think can be just as important as what we say.
If we are going to honour our Lord and be a blessing to others, then we must follow the way of wisdom: our words must be true, few, pure and apt. 'From the fruit of his lips, a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands reward him' (Proverbs 12.14).
Melvin Tinker
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