Thanks for raising this question; too many Christian writers and thinkers don’t bother, and they simply wonder why their messages aren’t getting through. You write of these issues with compassion and care — and people like me need that.

Having found my way into a precious Christian faith after years of work and grace, perhaps I’ll surprise you by confessing some of the words Christians use that have alienated me for as long as I can remember: top of the list? “the Lord”!

It rolls off the tongue of believers without a thought as to what it means to a non-believer. When I was young, and desperate to find the Jesus I yearned to follow, I heard “lordnsavyr” from kindly Christian evangelizers, but when I sought Jesus in the Christian story, these were not the words Jesus used to describe himself.

In English, the word “Lord” also describes an inbred British aristocrat who abides on historically stolen land supported by unearned privilege and a caste system maintained by inherent violence. It’s part of the phrase “Lord and Master”; the words emerge from and support hegemonies of dominance, patriarchy, violence, slavery. When I read it, I try substituting the Greek, kyrios, but that’s not much better.

Yes, I get the requirement that “every knee should bend” to the power that is Christ, but using the language of venal human violence and unearned privilege to describe my Iesus Christus just grates on my sensibilities and always has.

I guess that’s why I have always loved Matthew 7:21–23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Keep the faith, my friend.