On Joy and Solemnity

I am changing the tagline for my site, which changes its title appearance. I thought that ‘Joyful Curmudgeon’ was a fun tagline, but the number of Reformed/Evangelical blogs and social media accounts with ‘x curmudgeon’ as their title was high. I found that most of them to be curmudgeonly in the first sense of the word: malcontents who complained a lot, often using the curmudgeon label as cover to justify their crankiness, or griping as straight talking or high standards. I did not want my site to be subconsciously associated with that demeanor, and more importantly, do not want to slip into that posture myself.

So why have a tagline at all? First, because this WordPress template required a tagline and it looked bad without it. Why ‘Joy and Solemnity’? It does roll off the tongue well. The Christian life is a call to joy and Spirit-filled sobriety, both flowing from the sacred person and work of Jesus. Christian solemnity captures the essence of that sacredness and sobriety, while respecting the somber aspects of the faith, while remaining defined by joy and not sorrow. It is a good reminder to me of what sort of things I should post and the sort of person I want to be.