Complaints I Could Not Care Less About

A humor-impaired reader writes

What is this “Prophet Chesterton” stuff? I’ve no doubt that he’s very insightful, etc. but I find it offensive to see him referred to as the “Prophet Chesterton” just like it’s said at Mass.

Tough. Grow a sense of whimsy. This isn’t Mass. It’s a blog written by somebody with a rather free-spirited sense of what you can and cannot do with the English language to get a point across. Learn to cope or I might even say “niggardly”.

That reminds me. Periodically, I will use a… coarse word when it seems to me to be apt. My profound moral guidance in this is St. Paul who, in the course of majoring in majors in the his battle with the Circumcision Party, opted not to major in minors by fretting that he wrote the Greek equivalent of “shit” when he said “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 4:8) The word politely translated “refuse” has an earthier and more organic meaning. He also recommended that the Circumcision guys go all the way and castrate themselves (Gal 5:12). Strong language that. But nobody wrings their hands about how Paul is “a bad witness”. RHIP, I guess.

Anyway, I have this thing about majoring in majors and minoring in minors. When people write to offer me fantasy scenarios about taking a blowtorch to somebody and try to sell me that this is all perfectly compatible with Catholic teaching, I use words like “bullshit”. Almost invariably, I will get mail from somebody who is *far* more upset that I said “bullshit” than that somebody is trying to pull down the blessing of Almighty God on taking a blowtorch to somebody. This too, is something, I could not possibly care less about. Coarse language is a mere pecadillo (and, I think, not a sin at all when used to describe coarse things like the attempted defense of grave and intrinsic evil). It is not at all the same as “swearing” in the biblical sense (something I scrupulously avoid). Nor is it something I do routinely. I think you should try to use language accurately (though I make allowances for poetry and the natural hyperbole that makes things fun).

For my basic ideas about the swearing and profanity, go here.