My last cigarette...

I think I like when Christians are Christian instead of church-people. "Church is for people who like church, just like a moose or elk lodge is for people who like lodges"
I also like when people aren't extreme with their use of profanity, but don't talk in the completely sheltered vocabulary range of goody-Christians.

So if you aren't going to be at New Harvest (or weren't at New Harvest) on Sunday June 7th, then I'll just tell you that the guy who we videoed is cool because he says cuss words. Not that he was any good at it, but it was way funny and very down-to-earth. He told a story about this man (if you know the name of the man, please remind me: we stopped recording when this story was told) who went to a foreign country and was approached by two very young (12-13 years old) girls who offered to do anything he wanted all night long for $10. He almost walked away, but instead clarified, "Anything?" to which they affirmed. He invited them to his room, and gave them $10, and sat them down on the sofa to watch Disney movies all night. The man (while personally telling the story) said something like, "What the fuck am I doing?" and then stopped, having made this exclamation in a crowd of.. ahem.. 'holy people'.. and made this second statement, "You are more concerned with the fact that I used profanity in my story telling than you are for the two girls who will, for many years if not the rest of their lives, live on money received from prostitution."

Another instance where that kind of point was made was at a youth conference (probably Acquire the Fire) in which a very fun black lady told us all about different sexual things. When she inevitably told a statistic about how many men get and STD on their penis, she stopped and made the same statement about how we care more about what word she used than the outrageous amount of STD trafficking.

There are some things that are more important in the world than being a perfect saint. Its one thing to abstain from immoral actions, but when it makes relating to people who don't share the same qualities an awkward thing, it's time to adapt. I may not cuss, drink, smoke, dope up, sleep around, etc.. but I won't make my interactions with those who DO be negative. It's just not worth a bad example of Jesus to obnoxiously follow rules.
What I'm saying is this: Don't wince when someone blasts vulgarity; Don't scowl when people confess to 'naughty' things; Don't judge others. It's not your place