How Effective Are Religious Clichés and Aphorisms?

One day, when I was in high school my grandparents came over for burgers and dogs on the grill. My dad set out the condiments and all was well, until Grandma saw the ketchup. "Hunt's!" she said. "Who buys Hunts? Where is the Heinz?" We all looked at each other in disbelief while Grandma denounced us with her stare. We tried to convince her that there was no difference, that they tasted the same. "There is definitely a difference!" she retorted, huffing and fidgeting in her distress. "Wow!" I thought. "Even if there is a difference between Hunt's and Heinz I don't think people really care that much anymore. These days it just doesn't seem to matter."

We finally convinced Grandma to sit and eat with us in peace, but it wasn't long before she dropped the next bomb, this time on me. She asked me what I was going to do with my life. I didn't know. In fact, I had not the slightest clue what I was going to do. She asked me why I didn't just go out and get a job, why I didn't just try things out. After all, my grandpa worked for twenty five years at the gas company simply because that's where he got a job. I buckled under the pressure and told her that God would help me figure it out someday and I was just going to be patient. "Well," she disparaged, "God helps those who help themselves, you know." Ouch! I knew what she was really saying: "Get off your butt! God won't help if you just sit there!"

Though I really wanted to protest, my wiser side advised me to shut up (nobody should mess with their grandma). But then I started to think that maybe her cliché was just like her ketchup. Maybe in Grandma's day nobody ate Hunt's. Maybe people found rat teeth in it or maybe it was made with rotten tomatoes. Nowadays, though, you can't tell the difference, and if there is one, it's just not enough to matter. In the same way maybe one day someone blurted out the cliché and it was really profound. Maybe it just rolled off some guy's tongue and the guy who received it dropped his jaw in admiration. Maybe he was sincerely grateful for the aphorism, jam-packed with useful wisdom. Maybe one day. But the aphorism turned into a cliché, and now it is just not enough.

What I mean is that I am convinced clichés are rarely used with much effect, anymore. Nobody likes clichés except the people who use them, because they are tools to articulate something they have that someone else doesn't. I am not saying all clichés are bad, but I guarantee you can't think of many times when they were used to actually help someone. When people use clichés to support their own ideology they often turn from useful tidbits to stinging jabs, misused and misunderstood.

For example maybe you have heard that "The road the Hell is paved with good intentions." I wonder, then, what the road to heaven is paved with-bad intentions? I realize there is a kernel of truth in there, like "You can't just say you had good intentions and expect that to get you somewhere", but the aphorism usually isn't used that way. It usually sounds more like, "If you don't act on your good intentions, you're going to Hell!" But isn't it better to have good intentions than bad ones, and even if I don't act on them, am I going to Hell? I thought our salvation was a gift from God.

There is a plethora of others out there. Here are a few: "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." Boy, Satan must never get anything done. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." So, who should throw stones? "Give according to your means or God will make your means according to your giving." Just like Job, of course. "God is not the author of confusion." So, if you are confused about God, it is from Satan, and you shouldn't bother any good Christians with your religious conundrums. One time I was driving along the highway and saw a billboard that speaks for itself. I am not kidding, it read, "Keep using my name in vain and I'll make rush hour longer.-God." Were they trying to turn people away from Christianity?

What bothers me so much is that people use clichés like a bad commentary on the Bible. If the clichés had a point at one time they don't now, because people use them to demean others and often end up contradicting the Bible. It is another case of Christians building Christ around their ideology, and it is simply not enough. It is not enough to help anybody who is struggling, even if they are doing something wrong, it is not enough to communicate God's truth, it is not enough to articulate your perspective, and it is not enough to motivate anybody to action.

I love my grandma, but I don't love her cliché. I suppose religious clichés are a lot like her ketchup. Maybe the quality of ketchup does make a difference. Maybe religious clichés are informative and packed with wisdom. Either way I don't think anybody notices anymore. Most of us are just irritated that anybody's talking about it. So my suggestion is that, unless you can create aphorisms that are unique and helpful on the spot, try to use them a lot less often. I could be wrong. Maybe if we stopped using them we'd become inarticulate and weak, but on the other hand, maybe our language would become inventive, sincere and relevant. In my experience the answer is clear- clichés are not enough! So next time you are talking with someone about God, think hard about your words and make sure what you say has substance for someone else's ears. And always remember that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."