Bob the bloodhound and I are cartoon connoisseurs. You might not think pronouns are funny or important. Yet, there is pronoun trouble in the church.  Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck illustrate, with some hilarious dialogue, how significant a pronoun can be.

Check out one of our favorite Warner Brothers cartoons, “Rabbit Seasoning,” from 1952:

Bugs Bunny [to Elmer]:  Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?

Daffy Duck: Shoot him now! Shoot him now!

Bugs Bunny: You keep out of this! He doesn’t have to shoot you now!

Daffy Duck: He does so have to shoot me now! [to Elmer]: I demand that you shoot me now!

[Elmer shoots him.]

Daffy Duck: Let’s run through that again.

Bugs Bunny:  Okay.  [in a flat tone]: Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?

Daffy Duck: [flat tone] Shoot him now, shoot him now.

Bugs Bunny: [flat tone] You keep out of this. He doesn’t have to shoot you now.

Daffy Duck: [with sudden passion] Ha! That’s it! Hold it right there! [speaking to the audience]: Pronoun trouble.  [to Bugs] It’s not: “He doesn’t have to shoot you now.” It’s: “He doesn’t have to shoot me now.” Well, I say he does have to shoot me now! [to Elmer] So shoot me now!

[Elmer shoots him.]

Watch the “We” and “Us” Pronouns

Pronouns are important. I’m not trying to be some weird grammar nerd (although I would be okay with that reference). Instead, I point out that the use of pronouns, in the way Christians talk and write, belies how we view ourselves, our world, the church, and even God.  If we are not careful, pronoun trouble will get us sidelined from God’s agenda for the church.

For example, a person comes up to the pastor and says something like “we don’t like _____.”  Go ahead and fill in the blank.  It could be anything.  The gun goes off.  The important thing to note is that an individual is speaking on behalf of a group, or the entire congregation.  That says a lot about the person.

Not only is the person taking on a grandiose position of assuming that they know what everyone else is thinking, but, maybe even more significantly, they do not differentiate self, “me,” from the group.  The person is so enmeshed in the group or system that speaking as an individual is not practiced. Pronoun trouble.

Many people within Christian communities need the ability to step back and discern what it is they actually need and want, then state “I would like to see ______.”

Watch the “I” and “Me” Pronouns

Let’s take another example.  A parishioner approaches another congregant and emphatically states something like, “my needs are not getting met here, so I am going elsewhere.”  In this case, the individual is too detached from the larger congregation and can only use the personal pronoun. Yes, pronoun trouble.

The parishioner needs to adopt some plural pronouns in order to better connect with others.  The real trouble is one of not having a sense of community and the role that the individual plays within it.  There is too much focus on self and not a missional sense of working together to achieve a noble cause.

Pay Attention to Both the Singular and Plural Pronouns

So, then, there are two approaches of pronoun trouble to be avoided.  On the one hand, some congregations and believers can be so entrenched in a particular system and way of doing things, they cannot imagine doing things differently.  “We have always done it this way” are the seven deadly words of the church.

On the other hand, there is the solitary person who can never quite seem to think of others but constantly evaluates everything done in the church through the filter of what the individual can gain for “me.” 

The manner in which Christians talk of others outside the church community is also vitally important.  “They” and “them” are pronouns which are too easily used in reference to nameless people that “we” do not want within the fellowship.

It is prescient to keep in mind that a pronoun refers to a proper name.  Who are “they?”  Are “they” really a threat?  It is better to define who is being talking about and why. Sometimes pronoun trouble gets in the way of healthy relating to each other.  “The missions team would like to reach young urban professionals with the good news of Jesus” is better than an amorphous “we do not want them in our church services.”

I hope you get the picture here.  Pronouns are important.  Their proper use can either further the mission of the church, or they can get us into pronoun trouble.  Pay attention to your language, your words, and your pronouns.

Because the power of speech is given to the church as a sacred trust.

Be safe. Be strong. Be smart. Be spiritual. “We” are all in this together