Ben Wilson: Swearing in Church

I have a friend who swears the way most people would use a comma. When she's around me and suddenly becomes aware of her swearing she feels the need to apologize. Knowing I'm a Christian she believes it offends me. I actually don't notice her swearing. Nor do I care. It's kinda cute really.

Which begs the question, why do we as a church (especially) generally believe certain words to be bad?
“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” - Colossians 3:8 (NIV)

I think it's important we differentiate using a swear word from 'swearing'. There isn't much innately wrong with a swear word. The heart of swearing, the reason it's offensive is because it's been allied to wrath, impatience, frustration and insult. Swear words have become affiliated with these because of how they've been used down the ages. Using one of these words doesn't have to be inherently offensive, but the way you use it might.

If people started saying 'fluffy bunnies' in angry response, maybe it too could become a swear word. If used consistently and adopted by wider culture, perhaps the world at large would know the phrase 'fluffy bunnies' to be offensive.

I should hope nobody thinks I'm implying the liberal use of swearing is a good idea. There are better words to use and it's not particularly articulate. I use to swear at everything. Just for gigs and shiggles. I was pretty good at it too, but I gave up a few years ago - much to the lament of my friends. I found myself an angry person doing it and it wasn't worth the detriment of my character. Which is a shame 'cause swearing can make things funnier. Maybe it's the novelty, or maybe it's how the words sound. Regardless there are more skilful ways to induce comedy.

I've come to learn though that a swear word can be just like any other. A word isn't bad in itself because a 'u', k', 'c' and 'f' are arranged in certain order - rather from the malice they've been abused with, the malice we've connected it to.

I'm not against swear words, what I am against is the legalism that taboos them in absolute. It strikes me as absent from the redemption and freedom that Christ offers to our lives.

So the next time someone drops one from the pulpit, whether it's tacky or warranted, pointless or meaningful - look past the word and rather at the heart of what they're saying.

Amanda: Homosexuality

Amanda unpacks all the references to homosexuality in the bible and what that seems to point to. All this is held in tension with her own convictions and journey. Handled really sensitively and a good indication of where the pastoral team have landed on this as we wrestled with it as a community.

please note: Amanda had nothing to do with the above photo and will probably hurt me for it.

Singleness and Funny Times

Gotta love community sometimes.

The best nights we have at church are the nights when we get to laugh together, to make fun of ourselves and enjoy each other's company. This has always been the way for our Young Adults group, and as you can hear from this recording, this was us back in form. Afterwards we all headed down to a pub down the road and hung out longer than usual.

I think that's what I love most about church, and why I will look back on Sunday with fondness. Sure, we talked about some important stuff, but the way we did it was the coolest bit.

Love this group. IN A BIG WAY.

Rant Night Number 1

The rants are up! For those unaware, a couple of weeks ago we hosted our first 'rant night' - an evening involving three people presenting a rant of their choice. 10 minutes to rant, 10 minutes to discuss.

We've got quite a diverse range of topics here, comment away and have some discussion that we didn't get to have on the night!

Also, I apologise for my laugh making such a big appearance in all of them.

what is up with suffering?

Over the past few years, I have become near obsessed with the issue of suffering. It's strange really, because it's not like I've experienced huge amounts of tribulation or pain myself. I guess what I have begun to realise is that God so closely associates himself with suffering, and I find this intriguing. I have begun to ask myself the question: what if there is more to suffering than just trying to avoid it? It seems that it is not something that God is interested in simply getting rid of, but an important part of the way He reveals Himself.

Suffering is a significant roadblock for a lot of people, and it is no surprise. How is a human being supposed to reconcile a supposedly loving and all powerful being with the fact that a family member is suffering from a debilitating disease and is in huge amounts of pain? How can He just watch rape, genocide, starvation and terrorism and apparently sit on His hands? This problem is not to be analysed under the microscope of the ivory laboratories of theological debate, but in the messy, excruciating, desperate realities of real existence on this risk laden planet.

The problem of suffering is referred to in theological spheres as “theodicy”, meaning the ‘justice of God’. Discussion usually centres around this age-old conundrum: If God is good then he can’t be all powerful if He lets people suffer. But if He is all powerful then He can’t be good if He lets people suffer. Therefore God cannot be both good and all-powerful at the same time. Consequently, the God of the Bible that claims to be both of these things is nothing more than a revered fairy tale and a cause for tribalism.

But then there’s Jesus. Jesus who actually was good – goodness in the flesh. God Himself. But instead of preventing suffering and exercising some sort of divine control and separation from pain, Jesus enters into pain, social isolation and extreme physical suffering. He chooses to. If Jesus is truly God (and if you’re a Christian, then that’s you my friend) then Jesus is revealing who God really is, and God’s stance to the problem of pain. God enters into it; he doesn’t put an end to it. What on earth do we do with that? All our theology needs to begin with Jesus, and if our theology of suffering does too, we need to begin all our discussions from the cross.

Unfortunately, our tradition has offered some less than helpful answers to the issue, looking to defend God in what seems to be some sort of pious Stockholm Syndrome. Some of these thinkers sound a lot like Job’s friends offering suggestions that seem reasonable explanations to them, often blaming the sufferer or appealing to some sort of “the ends justifies the means” argument. I heard the story of a woman who suffered a miscarriage and while in hospital recovering, her well-meaning friend suggested that the reason her baby had been taken away from her was because “God looked around Heaven and decided that He needed something to brighten the place up.” The woman had to use every ounce of self-control to not say something nasty back to such a ridiculous response. We must do some good thinking around here since it is a place that so many people fall off.

John Newton suggested that we suffer so that we don’t become too attached to this world and keep our eyes on Heaven. John Piper thinks that our suffering is a means to greater glory and is evidence with your union with Christ (why non-Christians suffer too then, is a mystery). James Boyce wrote it is necessary because there is no other way to build character. While there is truth in these statements, they are flimsy and shallow once applied to real situations, like a road worker shot down senselessly in south Waikato this week. The question remains: What is God up to?!

Over the next little while I’ll be looking at this whole topic in more detail, but for now, perhaps we need to change our perspectives around this. Instead of framing suffering around ideas of injustice, how do we frame all suffering in light of the cross? God suffers. How does that even work? And what does that mean for the suffering of human beings?