Two months without an update, and this is my big comeback?
On John C. Wright's blog, a reader leaves the comment:
When you said “Those of you who are Christian men and soldiers in this culture war”
Is there a particular reason for the choice of “Christian men” rather than “Christians”?
(I had shown this post to a lefter-leaning friend, one who does not hold with what NK Jemisin has said, and that friend found that choice of words…off putting, and confusing. My attempts to explain have not proven completely satisfactory – and are likely less accurate than yours would be.)Mr. Wright responds:
In grammar, as in life, the male embraces the female.
Your friend has been deceived. Have your friend look in any dictionary. Depending on the context, the word ‘man’ either means a male human or means any human. Likewise ‘dog’ either means male dog or any dog, or fox means any fox or male fox. (I believe only cats, oxen and horses have separate names for the male sex).
That has always been its meaning. Unlike women, we males do not get a separate word for ourselves in English as we enjoy in Greek.
Your friend was told that no one says ‘men’ unless he means to exclude and offend women. In this fashion, perfectly innocent men can be accused without a shred of proof or likelihood. It is a lie and a damned lie; an attempt to stir up enmity where none exists.
I use the correct grammar because I am deeply, deeply offended that the politically correct liars successfully deceive poor unwary victims like your friend. So I go out of my way to use the correct use, first because I hate lies, and second because if no one uses the correct usage, people like your unwary friend would never encounter it.
Every document written before 1984 uses the word in this way. Your unwary friend will read the Declaration of Independence, where it says all men are created equal, or read the Bible, where it says all men are created by God, and assume the authors in both cases mean that only males are equal, but that princesses outrank peasant girls; or think that God created males but not females. The liars, in effect make it so that you unwary friend cannot read any documents before 1984 correctly. It is the same as burning the library of Alexandria.
Your friend is now the third person this week who has been put off by ordinary English used in an ordinary fashion. The offense is absurd and contrived as if a mutual enemy told your friend that saying ‘Gesundheit’ was a German swear word, and then your friend sneezed and heard me say ‘Gesundheit.’
