Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 February 2006 13:17:31
I have a problem, I'm meant to be writitng a prayer station on the words
Guard your tongue from profanity,
and no more lying through your teeth
and I can't do what i'm sure i'm expected to do. My brain is telling me to be a good little evangelical, and sensitive to the thoughts of the people i'm writing the stations for, but if i defined profanity as swearing i would be lying to myself. Answers.com defines profanity as "abusive, vulgar or irreverant language" - which for me isn't swearing.
I offend people, I piss people off, sometimes I go out of my way to do so, but I always piss people off by being true to myself. I am an activist, I swear, I rage at God, I grieve. That's who I am. I compromise my ideals so often by worrying what people think of me, that i'm really trying to be me. Which includes swearing in front of *gasp* a vicar. And to compromise my beliefs in this situation would make me deeply uncomfortable.
Profanity is hurting other people, it's staying silent when I should speak, it's being offensive for no good purpose, it's lying about who I am, what I am. Profanity for me is standing outside a court room shouting abuse at fasicsts 50 meters away who are returning the favour, or shouting "jump, jump, jump" when nick griffin pokes his head out of a window. Profanity for me is keeping my mouth shut when I see someone getting hurt, or a world situation that I disagree with. Being true to myself is spending a week on an anarchist campsite, praying surrounded by cops, swearing at vicars, shouting and protesting - comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable.
Lying would be writing these stations ignoring such a large part of my faith for the sake of a quite life.
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NOTE - the station concerned is gonna be a meditation on the campolo quote about people starving and noone giving a shit. And then a selection of images questioning which is profanity. These thoughts may be part of it, but are more me justifying doing something I know will piss people off to myself.