Swearing and the Gospel

I posted yesterday Derek Webb's new song "What Matters More." It is surely provocative and has me and countless others thinking. That will make any artist smile. However, I did say that there were two questions about the song that should be asked:

1. Should you ever, as a blood-bought believer, use a word that society has deemed impolite and vulgar to make a point?

2. Is the song itself a helpful rebuke to the legalism that is so rampant in the church today?

On Swearing: It's in the Bible Too

With respect to the first question, the immediate inclination of my heart says that there really is no need to swear when regular old words, if used with deftness and creativity, will do just fine. But then I think about the scriptures, and especially the prophets. To get their message across they wielded the strongest language imaginable. Take Ezekiel 23:20-21 for example:

There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

Ezekiel's point, if you missed it, is that Israel is sinful. She dismissed God and worshiped idols like a whore worships her lover. Ezekiel believed that the only thing that would waken Israel from her licentious slumber was stirring, offensive language. Of course he could have said it another way. But he decided that the regular rhetoric wouldn't to the trick. And God, if you didn't notice, was cool with that.

So is Webb a prophet? And is he warranted in his use of that four letter word? I'll let you decide.

On Contrasting: Make Sure the Contrast is Actually There

The second question, it seems, is more important.

Denny Burk, whom I really respect, reflects on Webb's tune:

The song lampoons Christians who are more concerned about the moral status of homosexuality than they are about the tragedy of world hunger. Webb argues that “what matters most” is the “50,000 people who are dyin’ today” (presumably of hunger, if the 50k number indeed comes from Tony Campolo). Thus the lyrics seem to suggest that the remedy to Pharisaical moralizing about homosexuality is greater attention to relieving human suffering....I would suggest, however, that the best remedy to Pharisaical moralizing is the gospel.

Burk gets the answer right, but the problem wrong.

It seems to me that the song is not about those who do sacrificial service but about exposing legalism. Webb's point in bringing up those who do sacrificial service is not to say that legalists would be better off if they served sacrificially (though they might). Rather, he makes the comparison between the two types of people because it makes the legalist look so obviously immoral. No one would deny this. His song resonates with us because we are a relatively compassionate people. Of course it is much worse to say “Gay people are going to hell!” than to try and save those 50k people who die every day. The latter, in our culture, is morally superior to the other. So I would disagree with Burk insofar as he thinks that Webb is saying that the legalist’s legalism will be ameliorated by serving sacrificially. Webb would probably say a lot of things are morally superior to bashing gays. But, as least as this song is concerned, Webb thinks that what will make legalists stand out as morally inferior will be to pit them up against those who serve sacrificially.

On the other hand, what he seems to have done, unwittingly, is made a comparison that proves, ultimately, to be untrue. Though he doesn’t realize it, he has contrasted being self-righteous in one way with being self-righteous in another way. Though on the surface it seems as though serving sacrificially is morally superior to bashing gays, outside of the gospel, serving sacrificially is itself based in self-righteousness. And self-righteousness is a heinous act in God’s eyes whether it is done through legalism or relativism because it is based not on the work of Christ, but on your own concerted effort. So Webb, I would argue, tries to make a contrast that is not actually there.

The only true and helpful comparison could have been legalism as compared to the gospel. That is the only thing that exposes self-righteousness at its root and begins to change hearts. It changes hearts by showing legalists that we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are all sinners saved by grace, not by our works. And the same goes for those who serve the 50,000. When their self-righteousness is confronted with the gospel, they serve not because it makes them right with God or makes them good people, but because serving is the outcropping of what Jesus did for them at the cross.