bleeding deacon
n.— «There is also no professional clergy, but true-believing Program oldtimers are often referred to, more or less affectionately, as “bleeding deacons.”» —“A.A.: America’s Stealth Religion” by Gregg Easterbrook Beliefnet , 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Understanding the varieties of conversational styles can mean the difference between feeling you’re understood and being insulted. “High-involvement” speakers interrupt or talk along with someone else to signal their enthusiasm...
There are many proposed origins for the exclamation of surprise, holy Toledo! But the most likely one involves not the city in Ohio, but instead Toledo, Spain, which has been a major religious center for centuries in the traditions of both Islam and...