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Your Turn / Re: The Church's Response to Government and Governing
« on: Today at 06:12:31 PM »OK this is kind of geeky. But in my second year of prep school in Milwaukee, we were taught English by a biology professor who really only knew from taxonomic organization - so we spent the entire term diagramming sentences. Which is very cool, actually, in understanding how words get put together. Useful for preachers. I like writing in long sentences with all kinds of meandering. But preaching is for short sentences. Subject/object/verb. Boom, boom, boom. Unless you're telling a story in the sermon, in which case all bets are off.Some tangentially related lore. RJN’s mother, my grandmother, who taught me to play scrabble for blood, considered correct grammar to be as indispensable as liberty and justice. One time when my mom called her in tears to commiserate about a genuinely terrible time my rebellious brother was going through in his late teens, Grandma Neuhaus responded, “It’s because he never learned to diagram sentences.”
This takes us to the Pledge of Allegiance, which is a diagrammer's late nite challenge. Check this out: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/pledge.htm.
The pledge is to the flag and to that for which it stands - the republic. What is the republic?
One nation
Under God
Indivisible
With (for all) liberty and justice.
I had only assumed that last component. We're not saying justice is for all, but not liberty, are we? So the diagram has to put "for all" in front of liberty and justice. Unless some ne'er do well thinks that our republic stands for justice for all, but not liberty for all.
Dave Benke