Frank Viola has a point but it shoud be kept in its proper place
I've decided this article (pirated below) is just too good, too important to not-pirate it for the few readers of Christian and Other Heretics blog regarding religous contention, and other forms of misdemeanor. I think the writer, Frank Viola, has done a very good thing here. Yet, I am not devoted to the exaltation of 'civility' that he and others bandy about today. The cult of civility will be the death of much humour (jokes bad and good) to say nothing of biting satire, wit with an edge, mockery for a purpose accompanied by a rhetorical strategy determined to win on this matter and on this occasion (that's not always bad).
In academic precincts, for sure, a different morality of discourse shoud almost always prevail over what may be more appropriate in another sphere like a political debate. That's why politics shoud not be conducted in churches. I don't believe in over-pietizing speech in the various other societal spheres either. The basic guidelines of moral discourse are different from sphere to sphere.
At the moment, there's a lot of pillorying of a missionary well-known to the ruff-and-tumble of our culture; how does Rev Mark Driscoll (he'd probably never call himself "Reverend") survive, the pastor who's being castigated for the sin of "potty-mouth" and talking too much about sex, and widening the parameters of permissible Christian behaviours in both sexual intercourse and verbal discourse. He hasn't developed his own sex humour, as that does perhaps open doors for less-skilled wannabe imitators. But the man and his wife are trying to get more honest so that the people group to whom he adddresses his mission can know he's honest about sexuality, his own, and theirs. He hasn't thrown Christian morality to the wind, but the Wind makes his ministry compelling and refreshing for the tatooed class of folks he tries to convert and disciple in the Lord's way, people male and female who are flocking to the church he pastors, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Some of the untatooed class tried to get him barred from speaking at Liberty University becawz some read him as advocating anal sex in hetero marriage (the only kind he acknowledges, apparently). I l+k what the old reformational scholar and immigrant pastor Remkes Kooistra tawt: nothing that a married couple does in bed consensually is morally defective. Dr Kooistra was both a theologian and a sociologist.
Ooops!, I shoud have written "a - - - - s - -" as one of Driscoll's critics wrote on the web. It took me a long t+m to figure out how to complete the puzzle of omitted letters.
Mardon me, Padam, but your pip is slowing. Ah, the fr+tful spoonerism, where almost turette-l+k the fear of stumbling creates in some Christian souls who live and speak in constant fear of switching and mixing initial sounds of two words, afraid he or she will mistakenly come out with some verbal obscenity, thus embarrassing one's interlocutors and humiliating herself or himself.
So, there's that, and so many other places where civility codes displace a more commodious honesty in speech acts and writing. And spontaneity. But aside from honesty and spontaneity, in a more deliberate circumstance, I'd ask Where woud we be without Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). Wikipedize here. Burton went down to the river Thames in London and in the early morning fog where from the shore he listened to the boatmen as they cursed their way in their barges on the waters, discoursing their cursing and perhaps competing with one another toward excellence, to burnish a language art that has enriched our English tongue and literature down thru the centuries via Burton's almost-unclassifiable masterpiece (see Northrop Frye's The Anatomy of Criticism). The word "melancholy" is thawt today to make reference to what we now term "clinical depression." These days, such latterday melancholiacs are known to use the word "shit" a lot. Oh shit!, I'm one of them.
What of H. L. Mencken, the salty denuder of clergy and teachers who were revered for never telling the truth so that people coud feel it directly, they always hiding themselves behind the Bible while entertaining illusions of moral grandeur. What of the great comedians like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Eddie Murphy? — to name but a few. Pietists like Viola shoud not impose their pomposity on our verbosity.
But, hey, I'm not advocating such language arts in the pulpit or the classroom. Civility has its place too.
So I thank Frank for the pirated discourse copied below. It's a gem of Christian thawt, desp+t shortcomings.
— Owlb
Beyond Evangelical, the blog of Frank Viola© (Ap418,2k12)
In academic precincts, for sure, a different morality of discourse shoud almost always prevail over what may be more appropriate in another sphere like a political debate. That's why politics shoud not be conducted in churches. I don't believe in over-pietizing speech in the various other societal spheres either. The basic guidelines of moral discourse are different from sphere to sphere.
At the moment, there's a lot of pillorying of a missionary well-known to the ruff-and-tumble of our culture; how does Rev Mark Driscoll (he'd probably never call himself "Reverend") survive, the pastor who's being castigated for the sin of "potty-mouth" and talking too much about sex, and widening the parameters of permissible Christian behaviours in both sexual intercourse and verbal discourse. He hasn't developed his own sex humour, as that does perhaps open doors for less-skilled wannabe imitators. But the man and his wife are trying to get more honest so that the people group to whom he adddresses his mission can know he's honest about sexuality, his own, and theirs. He hasn't thrown Christian morality to the wind, but the Wind makes his ministry compelling and refreshing for the tatooed class of folks he tries to convert and disciple in the Lord's way, people male and female who are flocking to the church he pastors, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Some of the untatooed class tried to get him barred from speaking at Liberty University becawz some read him as advocating anal sex in hetero marriage (the only kind he acknowledges, apparently). I l+k what the old reformational scholar and immigrant pastor Remkes Kooistra tawt: nothing that a married couple does in bed consensually is morally defective. Dr Kooistra was both a theologian and a sociologist.
Ooops!, I shoud have written "a - - - - s - -" as one of Driscoll's critics wrote on the web. It took me a long t+m to figure out how to complete the puzzle of omitted letters.
Mardon me, Padam, but your pip is slowing. Ah, the fr+tful spoonerism, where almost turette-l+k the fear of stumbling creates in some Christian souls who live and speak in constant fear of switching and mixing initial sounds of two words, afraid he or she will mistakenly come out with some verbal obscenity, thus embarrassing one's interlocutors and humiliating herself or himself.
So, there's that, and so many other places where civility codes displace a more commodious honesty in speech acts and writing. And spontaneity. But aside from honesty and spontaneity, in a more deliberate circumstance, I'd ask Where woud we be without Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). Wikipedize here. Burton went down to the river Thames in London and in the early morning fog where from the shore he listened to the boatmen as they cursed their way in their barges on the waters, discoursing their cursing and perhaps competing with one another toward excellence, to burnish a language art that has enriched our English tongue and literature down thru the centuries via Burton's almost-unclassifiable masterpiece (see Northrop Frye's The Anatomy of Criticism). The word "melancholy" is thawt today to make reference to what we now term "clinical depression." These days, such latterday melancholiacs are known to use the word "shit" a lot. Oh shit!, I'm one of them.
What of H. L. Mencken, the salty denuder of clergy and teachers who were revered for never telling the truth so that people coud feel it directly, they always hiding themselves behind the Bible while entertaining illusions of moral grandeur. What of the great comedians like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Eddie Murphy? — to name but a few. Pietists like Viola shoud not impose their pomposity on our verbosity.
But, hey, I'm not advocating such language arts in the pulpit or the classroom. Civility has its place too.
So I thank Frank for the pirated discourse copied below. It's a gem of Christian thawt, desp+t shortcomings.
— Owlb
Beyond Evangelical, the blog of Frank Viola© (Ap418,2k12)
Why the Christian Right Won’t Adopt Me
[Here Mr Viola engages us with 10 reasons we don't expect. But which merit respect.]
Why the Christian Left Won’t Adopt Me
[Here another 10, to the effect that both sets suggest a coherent Christian morality in faith matters, an ethos expressed in attitude and coherent thawt.]
The Family to Which I Belong
Note that I could easily lengthen the list and expand each point. But this is a blog post, not a book.
Of course, not everyone who aligns themselves with the Christian Right affirms each point I’ve listed above. Yet many do. The same is true for those who align themselves with the Christian Left. Yet many do.
And just for good measure, I don’t believe in making a fetish out of political or theological centrism.
That said, it’s okay if the Christian Left and the Christian Right movements won’t adopt me. You see, I belong to the Family of God, which is made up of all who have the Lord’s life within them. And that includes my sisters and brothers in Christ who are on the left and the right.
It may surprise some that I have close friends and family members who are on the far right on the political and theological spectrum, and they are intensely and passionately involved in the political process.
I also have close friends and family members who are on the far left on the political and theological spectrum, and they are intensely and passionately involved in the political process.
I’m glad that they are following their vision, conscience, and passion as I believe all believers should.
So even if the Right and Left movements won’t adopt me, I happily declare that I am kin to all genuine followers of Jesus, regardless of their political or theological bent. 
Rick Warren and N.T. Wright
[Check out Viola where he presents his take on these two guys, leading ecclesiastics of the evangelical world — Viola himself seems less organizationally tied. He's a wr+ter by trade, not a cleric as such.]
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