I took down the post from Jesus Manifesto… granted it was a pretty hilarious piece, but as it was 100% satire, I didin’t really feel that anyone deserved to be written as having said certain things. At least not in the context of issues they didn’t express. Here’s the deal with profanity and the emerging church:

For the most part, folks don’t really care… and seriously, should we? I have a lot of emerging Christian friends who swear more than any person I know (Christian or not)… yet they are more solid in their faith and more level headed than many Christians I know (Big Phil!!). I think it is a general understanding that we really have more important things to worry about.

Personally, I don’t swear that much… not because I have an issue with people who do, but because I can usually find more gracious ways of saying what I am trying to say. But there are days when certain words just don’t cut it. It is nice to not feel guilty about swearing. I probably wouldn’t swear around folks I don’t know… and I definitely wouldn’t go into a conservative community and let loose a string of profanity.

There are a lot of right-wing leaders who speak out against the emerging church and their use of profanity, but I don’t want to put words in their mouths… They have a lot of issues with most of the values that we adhere to… and frankly, I will let them say what they want. I don’t care. In fact, most of the people that I feel are important to be around and share life with, would probably feel more set apart than not by the issues that many right-wing folks accuse.

Enough said… it’s hard enough for me to write about these things. There are more important things to be concerned with.