Tuesday, November 29, 2005

 

Talkin' About Cussin'

There seemed to be a reasonable amount of discussion in the last few days over the use of profanity in a Christian context. Evangelical Outpost has the best summary of the discussion and points that I have seen. I tend to be a bit more libertine that Joe on this issue, but I stand very much in the middle between the two poles he establishes.
While I am sympathetic to both points of view, I think they each go too far. Tim's view tends toward excessive legalism while Rigney's errs by invoking a naive view of "Christian freedom."
Stacy Harp has some interesting comments on the topic as well.

I think profanity comes in two forms. The first form is that which is inherently unsanctified. This would be those expletives that inherently call upon God's name, you know what they are. The second form are those words that are totally defined culturally. The best example of such I can think of these days is the so-called "N-word." Clearly an insult, in the last 30 years, the word has risen to the level of unspeakable profanity, entirely out of its cultural context. There are obviously words in between, those that refer to things which are clearly unclean, like defecation and incest, that are much more difficult to figure out what to think about.

Outside of the inherently unsanctified words, I think the question to ask when it comes to profanity is it's effect on the listener. In some cultural settings, a failure to cuss can call into question the veracity of the speaker. In others, cussing is such an impediment to the listener as to render anything else the speaker says moot. In some cases, profanity can add an appropriate amount of emphasis to a specific point, and in some cases, I personally find it downright eloquent.

It is never appropriate if your listener will be offended, if it is placing a stumbling block in his/her path.

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