ViaCrucis
Confessional Lutheran
- Oct 2, 2011
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Here's the thing. I get it that some people are encultured to perceive certain words as verboten, and thus don't like them--they don't like using them and they don't like hearing them. And no problem. More power to them.
What I don't understand is how this relates to serious ethics and morality.
Not using words to hurt people I understand. From a Christian perspective I am reminded of Jesus' great commandment to love my neighbor, as well as St. James' statement that "with the same tongue comes blessing and cursing, with it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse our fellow man created in God's image, my brothers this should not be." St. Paul says "let no rotten speech proceed from your mouth, but let only that which is good and uplifting that it may grant others grace". Because language can be used to both cause pain to others, and to help others. But this isn't about a particular set of words, in and of themselves, it is fundamentally about our relationship toward our neighbor--how we treat other people.
If I stub my toe and responsively say the F-word, that is something completely different than if I say something cruel to another human being. The latter is wrong regardless of whether I use the F-word or not.
And so I am inherently put off by people who pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves for not saying certain words which, as a culture, we've arbitrarily chosen to to be naughty. As though this were somehow a moral accomplishment. It is almost the very definition of whitewashing a sepulcher, a meaningless moralistic rule one has chosen to keep for themselves, and then acting as though that were somehow an act of righteousness.
Moralism is not righteousness.
-CryptoLutheran
What I don't understand is how this relates to serious ethics and morality.
Not using words to hurt people I understand. From a Christian perspective I am reminded of Jesus' great commandment to love my neighbor, as well as St. James' statement that "with the same tongue comes blessing and cursing, with it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse our fellow man created in God's image, my brothers this should not be." St. Paul says "let no rotten speech proceed from your mouth, but let only that which is good and uplifting that it may grant others grace". Because language can be used to both cause pain to others, and to help others. But this isn't about a particular set of words, in and of themselves, it is fundamentally about our relationship toward our neighbor--how we treat other people.
If I stub my toe and responsively say the F-word, that is something completely different than if I say something cruel to another human being. The latter is wrong regardless of whether I use the F-word or not.
And so I am inherently put off by people who pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves for not saying certain words which, as a culture, we've arbitrarily chosen to to be naughty. As though this were somehow a moral accomplishment. It is almost the very definition of whitewashing a sepulcher, a meaningless moralistic rule one has chosen to keep for themselves, and then acting as though that were somehow an act of righteousness.
Moralism is not righteousness.
-CryptoLutheran
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