One thing you notice from time to time as our most dedicated harassers, nitpickers, and revilers defend their "communication strategies" is an appeal to the harsh language of the Scriptures. "The Bible can be rude. So we can be rude" the thinking goes...

You will see them cite Paul's harsh rebukes of the Galatians, his sharpness about the Cretans, and so forth. Jesus turning over tables and running people out with a whip. There are no doubt numerous examples of harsh language from the holy -- from prophets to apostles...

There can be no doubt that strong words and godly rebukes are at times -- perhaps *many* times -- called for. The problem is that we also have numerous (to put it lightly) clear imperatives about how to speak to brothers and sisters. Not to mention warnings about the tongue...

There are lots of general proverbs and obvious, clear commands about gentleness, kindness, love, edification, etc. when it comes to our speech. Consider also that none of the "one anothers" includes revile, suspect, be rude to one another, etc . . .

So what we have is a whole genre of social media using *descriptive* harshness as their apologetic while ignoring tons of *prescriptive* gentleness as if it doesn't apply to them . . .

And when you prioritize descriptive rudeness over prescriptive gentleness, you're really only justifying your disobedience. /end

Ok, sorry, one more thing: I wrote a blog post on similar concerns a couple of years ago. If this thread resonated with you, maybe that piece will too: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/jerks-for-jesus/