Is it ever acceptable for Christians to use cuss words? The question recently arose on Christian Twitter, springing up like wildfire, as Twitter debates often do. By the time you read this, it will probably have already dissipated. But I've spent time thinking about this previously, so I thought I could take the opportunity to air my opinions. Because what else is the internet for?
Like you, I grew up hearing that "good people," implicitly coded as Christians, don't use certain words. To this day, George Carlin's seven famous words get bleeped on broadcast media, because their very sounds are considered so offensive, that hearing them will cause sensitive hearers distress. Schools routinely punish children for saying these words, and they're a firing offense in many workplaces.
Like many children of Christian households, my adolescent rebellion included learning to use vulgarity. Working the words "shit" and "fuck" into my vocabulary became a goal in its own right. When I began, I sounded artificial, like a pretentious undergraduate forcing references to Plato and Derrida into lunchtime conversation. Eventually, though, the words sounded natural coming from my mouth. You decide whether that's much of an accomplishment.
Then, in 10th Grade, I discovered a fact that would change my views. The words we consider innately offensive are not decided according to their content. We don't object to people saying "shit" because feces are innately terrible. And we object to "fuck" not because sex is terrible, but because certain people describe sex that way.
The two English words used most commonly to describe coarse language, "vulgar" (from Latin) and "lewd" (from Anglo-Saxon) literally describe the common people. Even calling them "coarse" refers to the texture of their homespun clothing. The language and behavior classed as inappropriate by schoolmarms and church wardens across history, are the language and behavior of us numpties.
In other words, these concepts are offensive, not in themselves, but because they're the actions of the common masses. One could continue in a similar vein: the term "pagan," in its roots, describes country people, who worship loudly and fervently, not like us quiet, dignified city aristocrats. The term "rustic" doesn't mean something is quaint and bucolic, it means it's literally rotten. And so on.
Standards of polite discourse are designed to exclude the ordinary people. Even to describe discourse as "polite" associates it with the polis, the city where the king or magistrate holds court. Our standards of refined dress, cleanliness, and grammar, are designed to ensure that nobody mistakes us for bumpkins from the provinces. They're designed to identify us as gentry.
Recent trends in Christian culture, especially Protestantism, have relaxed standards on swearing. As a subset of American Christians have become more accepting of marginalized groups, particularly LGBTQIA+, they have likewise become willing to stop policing language, both their own and others'. I think this is a positive development, and foretells needed changes in how Christians relate to the world.
I first noticed it with public Christians like Nadia Bolz-Weber. A recovering substance abuser herself, Bolz-Weber comes from a "vulgar" background, where cusswords are simply the vernacular. To best serve her congregation, she felt that she should speak their language, which is often four letters long. When she began public life, though, this opinion was still an outlier.
As social media, Twitter in particular, has become part of Christianity's mission field, plain-English discourse has become mandatory. I follow multiple clergy, seminarians, and public theologians who feel increasingly disinhibited about using the language of the "great unwashed" in public. Where many pastors I know once felt obligated to apologize if the occasional "fuck" slipped through, it's now not even that controversial.
Like anything, moderation and self-discipline remain important. Just as public Christians can enjoy the occasional beer, but should refrain from drunkenness, there's a difference between cussing sometimes and talking like a sailor on shore leave. But prissy censoriousness, once the signature trait of the socially disconnected clergy, is a dying form. And good riddance, too, as it only separates Christians from "the least of these" that we're called to serve.
Because of the economically polarized, deeply divided world around us, strict rules basically serve to keep the poor excluded. Demanding that Christians never cuss is about equal to saying you can't attend church unless you own a fitted suit: it creates a buy-in so high that the poor can't afford to join. We're called to be a church, not a country club, and shouldn't have a bouncer on the door.
No comments:
Post a Comment