You can read the post here to which I am responding. This is a great blog by a close friend of mine, I just happen to disagree with him on this issue. I have included here my original comments made on his blog:
While I agree that no word is bad in and of itself, there is a lot of weight put on the words we say in the Bible. We can't say that Jesus said a certain word is bad, because Jesus was speaking a different language while he was on earth and the words would have to be translated to English. I know what you are saying here, and I do think that lots of Christians are hyper sensitive to "bad words" for no more reason than they have been told they are bad, but just like stereotypes, they exist for a reason. Paul says everything is open to us, but not all things are prudent. We can use foul language if we want to, but we need to ask ourselves if that is the way Jesus would have us represent him to the world? I think we should all ask ourselves that a lot more. (please don't run out and buy a bracelet)I wanted to dig into this a little deeper because I feel strongly that the language we use greatly affects how seriously we are taken as Christians. The main point I want to get across on this issue is that as a Christian we can not, (must not!), think only of ourselves as we live out our lives day to day. We must consider how every choice we make about how we present ourselves will affect the opinion of those around us in respect to our savior Jesus Christ. That was something Jesus was so good at while he was here. He could walk into any dive in any town and speak to the people on their level without belittling them and without participating in anything that would harm his testimony. Obviously, Jesus set the bar very high, but if we are comparing ourselves to anyone else, we are only fooling ourselves. All that to say if there were words in Jesus' day that were considered 'bad' words, I don't believe Jesus would have been using them. If he was hanging out with 'sinners' (as the religious love to call those who don't live up to their standards) I don't believe he would berate them for using those words, but I can't imagine him participating.
As for Christians, however, I believe Jesus would have some very strong words if he heard one using foul language. There are words that our culture considers to be 'bad' words, and as Christians we should want to avoid using those words so as to not offend, or cause to stumble someone who is less mature in the faith. We also don't want to give the impression that we are no different than 'those who have no hope'. Here's where the balancing act comes in. We want to be different, but we should never take pride in being different. We strive to be holy, but should never say 'I'm more holy than you'. We must be clear in our own heads that the reason we don't speak like that is because we feel there is more expected of us, not that we are too good for it. When a non-Christian is surprised at the foul language he hears from his friends mouth, there is something wrong with that picture.
It all boils down to this: We are on this earth with everyone else. Everyone has sinned and the only difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that God has called the Christian, and the Christian has responded to that call. Both are still flawed, and both struggle with what is right every day, but God expects the Christian to behave differently than the non-Christian.
