The Place to Begin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Place to Begin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-27T17:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-27T15:35:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/\",\"name\":\"The Place to Begin\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-27T17:32:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-27T15:35:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Place to Begin\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Place to Begin","description":"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Place to Begin","og_description":"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2012-04-27T17:32:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-27T15:35:07+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/","name":"The Place to Begin","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-04-27T17:32:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-27T15:35:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Jim Daly, Russ Moore, and Sam Rodriguez have a jointly authored piece, and I've clipped a bit of it below, about how we speak of and to one another. I say","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Place to Begin"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":27764,"date":"2012-04-27T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=27764"},"modified":"2012-04-27T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T15:35:07","slug":"the-place-to-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/04\/27\/the-place-to-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Place to Begin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What\u2019s your wisdom on this piece? A place to begin or a place to stay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Jim Daly<\/strong>,\u00a0Russell D. Moore<\/strong> and\u00a0Samuel Rodriguez<\/strong>, Special to CNN<\/a><\/p>\n

(CNN) <\/strong>\u2013 We\u2019ve all heard it, since we were schoolkids knocking about on the playground: \u201cSticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.\u201d A saying with good intent, to be sure, designed to steel young minds, and hearts, against the inevitable bruises that come with sharing childhood and adolescence with other children and adolescents.<\/p>\n

But did any of us ever believe it was true? Even today \u2013 now that we\u2019re older, hopefully wiser, having experienced the heartaches of everyday life more fully than we may have as kids \u2013 is it a statement we can stand behind?<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Just about every day, a quick scan of the news headlines or a couple of keystrokes for a Google search serve up stories proving this old adage false. The evidence can come from picket signs, talk-show sound bites or something as short and simple as a 140-character tweet.<\/p>\n

Clashes in Arizona over immigration policy. Public arguments over homosexuality in California. Christians and atheists lobbing verbal firebombs at each other in Washington, D.C. Sometimes, those at the center of the name-calling are famous. Most of the time, they aren\u2019t. Well-known or not, their actions prove a singular truth: Names do hurt \u2013 and not just those on the receiving end of them.<\/p>\n

To borrow the point of another, more accurate old aphorism: What we say about others reveals more about ourselves than the people we\u2019re talking about. This is especially true for Christians, who encounter any number of verses in the Bible that point to how \u201csweetness of speech increases persuasiveness,\u201d as the English Standard Version translation of Proverbs 16:21 puts it.<\/p>\n

Jesus, as tended to be his way, was a bit more direct: \u201cBut I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken,\u201d he said in Matthew 12:36, adding: \u201cFor by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, no, it is not news to any of us that we live in an electrocharged public square.<\/p>\n

But it should be convicting to all Christians when we find ourselves contributing to this maelstrom. Derogatory terms for other human beings \u2013 regardless of how widely their views differ from ours or, more importantly, from the truths of Scripture \u2013 should never pass our lips. To call it rhetorical pornography, for the debasement it engenders, is not an overstatement.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"