This morning I heard a member of Utah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delegation to the Republican National Convention tell a radio talk show host that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there is a really special feeling among the Republican delegation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Could you run that by me again? Because in my world, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special feeling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is Mormon code for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Holy Spirit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Can I help it if I suddenly had visions of a sacrament-meeting-esque convention with testimonies and tears? What is going on out there in Minnesota? <\/p>\n
Seriously, though, after I got done laughing, I started wondering about language. I really have no qualms with Mormons having a peculiar tongue; organizations as diverse as the federal government, international corporations, and college campuses all seem to acquire acronyms and other words to describe policies, programs, buildings, and regulations. So we go to RS Enrich and need to do our VT or HT but not on Monday night because that is FHE. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fine with that. At BYU you might want to go the WILK for lunch before you study in the MARB or Harold.<\/p>\n
I find it intriguing, however, when regular words are used as part of the secret code. Anyone could have heard the radio broadcast, and the words would have made sense. There is nothing innately Mormon about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special feelings.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The words might mean that there is a nice feeling of camaraderie at the convention or that patriotic emotions are running high. But the words mean something different to one schooled in Mormon code. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Special\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a cipher word, though it is a tricky one because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means different things depending on what it is describing. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special\u00e2\u20ac\u009d girl you went out with last week is not at all similar to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special feeling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you had during testimony meeting. Can you help me think of other words that have different meanings in an LDS cultural context? Possibly I should change that last question: do the words have a different meaning in a Utah LDS context? Do these code words have “special” meaning to anyone who is LDS? or are they American- or even Utah-based Mormon slang?<\/p>\n
You can let me know about it tomorrow because tonight I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be watching the Republican National Convention. I pray every day to follow the guidance of the Spirit, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m watching the RNC. You know, just in case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning I heard a member of Utah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delegation to the Republican National Convention tell a radio talk show host that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there is a really special feeling among the Republican delegation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Could you run that by me again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,55],"tags":[11,29],"class_list":["post-4762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mormon-life","category-news-politics","tag-politics","tag-popular-culture-and-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6176,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4762\/revisions\/6176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}