My Newest Pet Peeve

I’ve noticed that it is trendy for Christians to play fast and loose with certain terms.  Every few years one term falls out of favor and a new one is added to the lexicon.

For example, some are rejecting “Christian” and instead using “Christ-followers” instead.  While I understand that the people insisting on this change are striving to lose the negative connotations, reinventing the wheel also leads to more confusion among everyone.

But my biggest pet peeve is applying the term “monasticism” to communal living by families and married persons.  Monasticism is defined as living in a monastery, convent, nunnery, or abbey by unmarried persons.   To say you are living “monastically” when you have really just moved to a commune with your wife and kids strikes me as missing the point at best and at worst completely misleading everyone.

Historically  for over 2,000 years, the terms has NOT been applied to married people.  By co-opting the term and applying it to a situation that is inaccurate diminishes its meaning to future generations and the significance in our history.

To be a monk in a monastic community meant (and means) that sacrifices were made: primarily marriage and family.  In Medieval times, living in a monastery may have been a benefit, as there was usually food, learning, and community.

Today, monastic living is more about the sacrifice – try living in today’s society as a single person.  From the outside looking in, the world believes you are homosexual, weird, and/or undesirable. Our society values pairing off, and to see someone deliberately or not so deliberately choose otherwise is disconcerting to society.

As a single Protestant woman, I often joke that at least Catholic singles receive the “spiritual benefit” of choosing to be singles as a nun or monk.  In my Protestant circles, which heavily value and tout marriage and family, I’m more often viewed as a anomaly.

Perhaps that is why I dislike the use of terms relating to singleness being redefined to include marriage.  I mean, as a single Christian, I have to forego sex, can’t you keep your married paws off my single-meaning terms?