I’m going to argue from a weird angle on this, so be sure to read all the way through.
Here are two things that have been in the news recently:
1. A Cleveland Indians blogger wrote that fans crossed the line trashing their team’s closer for blowing a lead (the Indians later won the game). The profanity they used against him caused him to shut down his Twitter account.
2. You may have heard that in April a news anchor began a newscast with some cuss words and was subsequently fired. I’ll refrain from posting the video. It’s not the point, anyway.
My question: why is it wrong to do these two things?
Seriously, I’d like to ask some questions. See if these sound familiar…
- Couldn’t the news anchor accuse his employer of hating him?
- Aren’t the fans in Cleveland free to use whatever speech they want to address their closer on a publicly accessible social media platform?
- Who is the blogger to tell the fans they crossed the line? Is he intolerant for not recognizing their right to their behavior?
Do you have real answers to those questions? If so, what are they based on? What the questions I’m posing are designed to do is to make you think about your grid for right and wrong. Everyone has to have a grid for right and wrong.
The news station had a grid for right and wrong. The anchor cussed on air and that was wrong, according to the professional/moral standards of the station. He was terminated.
The blogger’s grid for right and wrong is that a player who blows a lead and fails at his job is not subject to anonymous, profane words of slander and name-calling.
I happen to agree with both lines of thinking. The problem is, who is to say what is right and wrong? We live in a culture that defines right and wrong according to what is convenient for them.
I don’t agree with our culture’s definition. I believe what the Bible says:
2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The authority of Scripture is God’s. God’s servants live by God’s (breathed) Word; and falling outside that word should bring correcting and rebuking. Standards? Yes. And they’re NOT subject to whatever I feel like is right and wrong today.