Blog posting, censorship, language and disagreement

There's been a discussion over at the Eagle and child that went a long way from the intent of the original post.

In a nutshell, Marc quoted from a particular source, a section of text that included the word "fuck" as part of an expression of admiration toward God. There was also a bunch of stuff taking pot-shots at a certain line of fundamentalist thinking, however as you might have expected, the comments rather deteriorated into a discussion of *that word*.

My contention in all this is that this kind of language is inappropriate for a Christian to use. Sure it's sufficiently commonly used that it has almost entered regular language..... but not quite. It remains therefore a profanity, and as such just doesn't sit right in that context. It was interesting to read that the original author considered that omitting it would make him feel 'untrue' to himself, but maybe inside this is how he speaks? I dunno, but there are many things that I think inside that are highly unsuitable for making public - if it were otherwise I'd not need forgiveness of sins.

I HATE the idea of censorship by other people, or even by the weight of public opinion. But at the same time we need to exercise discernment for ourselves, and acknowledge if we do overstep the mark. I will defend someone's right to post what they wish on their own blog, and I will defend my right to disagree with them in their comments. The hardest part is that with issues like this it's not possible to have clear resolution, and so thing go round and round. There is no clear specification about acceptability and that is a GOOD THING. It means we can think freely and express ourselves to expand into new areas. The bad side is that with this 'free thinking' can come arrogance, a belief that because "I thought it freely and could post it then it has to be OK, and that my own thoughts/feelings have an absolute validity".

I'd say this ties in with some thoughts from Smulospace about how we communicate online. The mother-in-law test might be a good way to determine whether our posting is acceptable or not.