Christians and Vulgarity, Part I

Though I’m sure it’d be an interesting study, I’m not going to pretend to give a history of the whole matter at hand. I don’t know it. Instead, I’ll just give you my own experience with the issue.

1) I discovered at some point in my youth that there were ‘vulgarities’ in the Bible; words translated ‘rubbish,’ ‘may it never be,’ and ‘eliminated.’

2) People in the emergent movement apparently also discovered this and started using vulgarities – a lot. (They should've also discovered two other things - 1) The Bible, 2) history.)

3) Mark Driscoll became popular as ‘Mark the cussing pastor,’ a label, from what I understand, he’s not proud of. I also understand that much of that cussing was in anger at the emergent movement.

4) Piper invited Driscoll to be a speaker at the Desiring God conference in 2006. A whole lot of people that usually love Piper were irate. Emails were written and many that would’ve normally come to the annual conference didn’t. (Kind of reminds me of my mom banning cereal companies that supported liberal causes...)

5) This year, the Desiring God Conference is entitled “The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.” Paul Tripp, of the CCEF and Westminster Seminary, is one of the speakers. He’s a big deal in the Christian counseling world and, I believe, an ordained PCA minister. In a promotional video for the conference, he repeatedly uses a common vulgarity for POOP to demonstrate that the way we use words isn’t so much about our vocabulary as our intentions.

Now – if people were irate that Piper invited Driscoll – how does he think people will respond to this?

I don’t know about widespread reaction – but I do know some now think Piper has ‘forgotten his Bible.’ They certainly think he’s in grave sin.

It begs the question – what’s the Bible say about vulgarity? Why don’t we look at the three Scriptures cited that are commonly cited to show that… well, to show that Paul Tripp and John Piper are in sin – Ephesians 4:29; Ephesians 5:4; and Colossians 3:8.

That examination will follow soon, God willing.