01.23.07
CURSING IN THE PULPIT…SOMEBODY PLEASE ‘SPLAIN IT TO ME!
Please let me begin by stating that I am not coming down on other preachers from a ‘holier than thou’ position, or trying to be legalistic about this. But I have some honest questions, and a lack of understanding how profanity used in the course of a sermon can be God honoring and an example of godly self-control that we pastors are supposed to model to the flock.
You may be aware of John Piper’s use of the phrase ’sometimes God kicks our a**’ in one of his conferences recently. He has issued a ‘kinda’ apology for it, which you can read here…but this is not the first time he has cursed from the pulpit. He mentions his tendency to do that in his apology letter. So why has it suddenly become ‘hip’ or ‘cool’ to use profanity from the pulpit to try to make your point? Does profanity exude the image of being ‘with it’ or ‘relational’ to our generation?
There is another preacher of old that I have been enjoying reading and listening to lately, Len Ravenhill. His sermons are fiery and confrontational to pastors and believers that have become worldly and left their first love. He calls us back to revival and total commitment to our Lord and Savior. But just recently in a great sermon on Psalm 51, while confronting the false belief that we can live any way we like and still expect to be welcomed warmly by our savior, he told the audience to ‘go to hell’. I’m not sure if he was saying that this would be the natural consequence of a false profession, or if he was pronouncing a curse on those deceived hearers. It was a shock to me to hear him say that but he definitely was not doing it to play up to the crowd, like Piper admits he was.
Why am I making a big deal out of this? I ask myself the trite question…’what would Jesus do?’. And if his words in the scriptures are any indication, along with his personal example, I believe that if I were to resort to this kind of coarse language, at home, in front of my children or coworkers, or in the pulpit, I would be shaming Him and hurting the testimony of His church.
Ephesians 5:4 ‘let there be no filthiness or foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving…’
Tell me, what do YOU think??????
charles said,
January 24, 2007 at 12:05 pm
As a rule I think you’re right, but I think Ezekiel far out did Voddie Bachaum as to reference to excrement. Also, Paul wrote a word that probably can be translated along Bachaum’s lines although most publishing houses wouldn’t let it see the light of day for fear of cratering sales–but see the entry in BDAG for skubalon in which it quotes “to convey the crudity of the Greek…’It’s all crap’” for rendering Phil. 3:8 which I think is a bit sanitized as well. David says that he’s going to kill all the “wall pissers” in 1 Sam. 25:22, etc. and there are many, many more “edgy” phrases and statements in the Bible. Edward Ullendorff wrote an essay entitled “The Bawdy Bible” (Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 42:3, (1979) pages 425-456) in which he describes “vocabulary of lewdness” in the Old Testament including: bestiality, transsexualism, crushed testicles, rape, prostitution, euphemisms for phallic symbols, female pudenda, bodily functions, graphic sexual imagery in Song of Songs, etc. So, if the Bible itself uses lewd/bawdy language and preachers are preaching the Bible, what does this say about what language preachers should or should not use?
Pastor Bill said,
January 24, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hey Charles,
I have heard many of the examples you give, and there is validity to some of them, but there are also vast differences in them, and their intent. For the example of Ezekiel, I believe you are referring to God’s discussion with him in which he is supposed to cook his food over human waste. Isn’t this just a descriptive term which God uses to tell him exactly what he wants, instead of a crude euphemism or a human coarse slang term? Also for the word that Paul uses in Phil. 3:8, it has a very wide range of meaning, which after much study the translators of the ESV believed that ‘rubbish’ was the best meaning, given the context and use of the word. They did not try to sanitize the word but to give it it’s most accurate meaning in that place.
What is to be the guiding teaching for pastoral language….I believe that it is to be in public and private, language that follows the clear teaching of the new testament, always seasoned with grace, without filthiness or coarse language…but that’s how I take it! Thanks for you reply!
Pastor Bill said,
January 25, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Just a test…..
Dimitris said,
September 17, 2007 at 7:32 am
Cool…