Can
Christians say "Fuck you?"
Serious
question.
Sometimes
people say things and the most appropriate response is, "I reject every
morsel of everything you have just stated on every level, spiritual,
grammatical, biological, political, logical, fantastical, present, past and
future, sexual, platonic, in black and white and in color, reincarnated and
quantum. I reject the polite version and the prison slang version. I reject the
nuance, the interpretation, the meaty substance and the shadow of what you have
just said. I reject the diet version and the full-fat version, the WASP and the
multiculti versions. If you are even thinking about attempting to argue with
me, stop, because I will flatten you."
And the short
version of that is, "Fuck you."
Can
Christians say "Fuck you," and if we can't, what ought we say?
Confession: I do say "Fuck you."
Another confession: I struggle not to, and most times I win. And I struggle because I'm a Christian and I don't feel I should say it.
Your thoughts?
Great pic. Thanks for the laughs.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't let the question keep you up at night. My best friend, a Chinese-American who has abandoned her parents' Calvinism in favor of the Episcopaleans, uses the f-bomb when necessary. Says it's good for you.
Occasionally the only avenue for really expressing frustration in a way that people can understand is a verbal exclamation point. I think I use it in that sense more often than I'd like, and I've been trying to school myself to stop. After I got ordained, my daughters started logging my lapses. <---[unintentional alliteration]. On the other hand, I guess I take the missive to not say "Raca" to someone seriously. I dunno. Either way, it really doesn't seem to be something terrible enough to warrant circumspection as to whether or not a person is behaving appropriately Christian, right? I'd leap at the chance to tell Pat Robertson to fuck off. Did I say that? Fuckin' A, I did. Incidentally, I won't at all be offended if this comment is unapproved. :) I can't help throwing my two cents into the fountain.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written Jeff. You gave me a smile.
DeleteThank you! And I'm glad you got a smile out of it. :) Always fun to read your blog.
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