Trying to Find the Right Words

Sometimes I find myself in conversation with friends and need to explain something about my religion. And I find myself, in these moments, fumbling for verbiage that people not familiar with the mormon faith might be accustomed to. The problem is, I'm not sure what their lingo is. And I'm quite certain it's not mormon lingo.

For example, I'm pretty sure that only in mormon circles is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints synonymous with "The Church". I think saying that in other places could be odd (if not downright offensive).

And what about "callings". Do other churches have callings? I DO try to refer to my "ward" as my "congregation" or "church". But that one is easier than other translations. Most translations really aren't very easy. I know there are other people who go to church and they can relate to my involvement with my faith because they are also involved with churches and faiths of their very own. But they all seem to understand each other, even if they're not of the same faith. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like our terminology is a lot funkier. And more prolific.

Who came up with all these funny names and terms anyway? Wards, stakes, branches, callings, endowments, high counselors, home teachers, FHE. Somebody was just saying to me the other day that they thought it was odd that we (us mormon folk) always refer to kids as "young men" and "young women". And I hadn't even thought of that one! But once they mentioned it, I had to admit, it's a kind of dated terminology. And yet, I almost can't NOT use it. It's so familiar, so ingrained. But if I think about it, it's kind of a silly thing to call 15 year old boys, "young men". I mean, they GO to "Young Men's", but can't they just be teenagers, kids, adolescents... something? Why do I not use these words? Okay, maybe it's not silly to use that phrase. And it does describe the name of the actual organization. But when speaking about teenage boys from church in general terms, do I have to refer to them as, "one of the young men?" (because apparently I do.) It just sounds a little stuffy, perhaps.

We have a lot of terms. All things considered, I'm surprised we didn't come up with another name for baptism and the sacrament. Then we could really be hard to understand. Maybe I will get together with someone of another religious persuasion and they can help me develop a guidebook with phrases and terms that other faiths are familiar with that we could use as substitutes. This would make it a lot easier to communicate and speak matter-of-factly about day-to-day religious topics without confusing people of other faiths with our odd terminology. And I do mean odd.

I know we're supposed to be a peculiar people and all, but did we HAVE to take it so far? I'm just sayin....

Don't get me wrong. I'm not really upset about all the terminology. I'm just somewhat challenged in my efforts to talk with greater ease about church matters as I talk in passing with non-mormon friends and colleagues. And I notice, often, that what I was about to say was something that would make absolutely no sense to anyone who doesn't attend my church.