Sunday, December 30, 2007

Perversity of Language or Perversity of the Heart?

The background of this entry is based on a couple of brief conversations I've had concerning the big "Christian" faux pas of dropping the "f" bomb. Among my circle of friends it is not uncommon for any of us to use this word in our conversation. It's usage is used mainly as an adjective, not an angry rhetorical remark meant to demean someone.

I was raised in fairly conservative home, where that type of language was rarely heard. Growing up it always puzzled why some words like "fuck", "shit", "damn" were condemned, but if you said "Gosh darn it" or "jiminy christmas" it was seemingly ok(in my house even these euphemisms were frowned on, but didn't quite elicit the beating as dropping one of George Carlin's 7 dirty words). I know that if my parent's said not to say these words it was a sin because I was disobeying my parent's rules. Now that I am a parent and not under the rule of mom and dad is it still a sin for me to use any of these words? In order to better answer this question I will consult a little used text in America to find these answers, the Bible.
Matthew 15:17 states, ".Do you no know whatever goes into mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?" The Greek for expelled is into the latrine, so would it make a difference if the verse used expelled into the shitter. After all the use of word shit is traced back to the Old Norse word "skita" meaning to defecate from which we derive the word feces. Used in it's context the word shit has no inherently evil usage.
If I were to use the phrase absofuckinlutely or my personal favorite wtf or what the fuck, are these words the vulgar things spoke of in the Bible or is it just a image created by our culture that makes it bad.
James 3 speaks of controlling the tongue throughout the whole chapter it is said to be of deadly poison, an object that is can both bless and curse. Too many times people take the liberty of saying that the word "curse" in the Bible is the same as a "curse" word in our culture today. When in fact to curse someone in the Bible would be to slander, speak ill will, or be vile in your mannerisms toward someone. In fact, the only specific type of language that is frowned upon is taking the lord's name in vain and taking an oath by heaven (Matthew 5:33-34).
Where the Bible speaks on vulgar language it is speaking of the language that defiles a man.
Language was meant to be used to glorify God not to tear down the images of God. Which is why vulgar language is not to be used as it tears the man created in God's image.
Contextually, theses words can either be sin or no sin. When used to degrade people or rip them apart it doesn't matter whether we call someone an stupid idiot or dumb son of a bitch they are both sin. It is very difficult for me believe if I drop the "f" bomb in the presence of friends who aren't offended that I have committed an evil, reprehensible sin.
Finally, this subject wasn't meant to be an exegetical argument for the justification of using any type of language at any time. It is merely to point out uses of words aren't evil, it is the intent of the heart when using the words that make it evil.