iMonk on Prissy Protestants

This Internet Monk article on bad language and what he refers to as “prissy Protestantism” is probably the single best thing i’ve read on the internet in 2005. Seriously.

Evangelicals became an offended group when they adopted ideas of “holiness�” and “worldliness�” that were an effort to preserve a particular kind of culture. When Christianity is identified with culture – anywhere – then deviation from the “good�” values of that culture is considered “unChristian,�” and Christians were then told by their leaders (and their mothers) that it was OK to get mad, to be offended, and to do whatever offended people have the right to do, which could be anything from turn around with your nose in the air to vote out the mayor or burn down the saloon.

[Christ’s] followers were the overturners of an empire. They died with their eyes open. They conquered Ireland and gave us the strength of Celtic Christianity. Martin Luther would have beat up your prissy pastor and poured beer on him. The Reformers weren’t whiners. They were builders. A man wasn’t ashamed to be around the Puritans. These people didn’t need a men’s group at church to make them feel included in what was a women’s movement. It was their church. Their pastors and bishops weren’t chronically complaining about the shocking nudity down at the brothel. They were preaching the Gospel in the face and to the heart of that culture.