People certainly like to conflate polite language with Christianity. But Christ himself wasn’t unfamiliar with colorful figures of speech- He used the phrase ‘you viper’s brood’ which is a dynamic equivalent to our modern ‘son of a bitch’- it merely substitutes snakes for dogs.
Martin Luther, being a Medieval German and not a middle class American suburbanite, could turn a filthy phrase with the skill of a rap artist. It was acceptable in German society of that day even for an Augustinian monk.
Pretty much. I don’t know why people are so ignorant of history and unable to place issues in context, but it’s why we lose all the time.
Too ‘holy’ to fight at all, much less on the level required.
And then there’s Galatians, where Paul discusses the conflict between the Judaizers and the Gentile converts in that area, not to the Judaizers’ benefit, to be sure, and finally says that he just about wishes the guys who are pushing circumcision on the converts would turn the knife on themselves.
Is "turning a filthy phrase with the skill of a rap artist" supposed to be a good thing? Maybe I just haven't been reading the right threads, but this is probably my first time here seeing the skill of rap artists presented in a possibly positive light. (It's probably also my first time here seeing Martin Luther compared to a rap artist. I got 95 theses, but a...)
Here I also have in mind the policy of the Religion Moderator (yes, we're in "News/Activism"), which strikes me as unusually strict for our times on a forum for adults--though maybe in a refreshing way:
Any Religion Forum post which contains potty language - or references to potty language - will be pulled as soon as I see it. If you are new to the Religion Forum and wonder where your post went, it may well be that you used a word like "crap" or "BS".
All the same, I can't get too exercised about the example in the original post.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but one big reason is the "self-censoring" on the sign. I've noticed that presumably legitimate and serious news sources are spelling out certain words nowadays. The level of profanity seems to have gone up even around here lately--without even hunting for examples, I've seen multiple posts where a certain word is spelled out in full.