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Has God’s definition of “bad words” evolved?
When Ashley and I met for coffee, she told me her story, peppered with potty language and a few "swear" words. Should I have confronted her with Colossians 3:8: But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips? What would you have done? Over the last couple of decades I've observed the slow erosion of wholesome language, especially among younger Christians. Not surprising in light of cultural disintegration, the crude soup in which we now swim. Ashley's way of expressing herself has been thoroughly influenced by that soup. But how should Christians respond? And should…
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Are You Beautiful?
In my last post I mentioned the well researched monograph, Dress and the Roman Woman: Self-Presentation and Society by Kelly Olson (University of Western Ontario). Until I read it, I didn’t know yellow was the Roman woman’s “pink.” And when I pictured togas, I’d always imagined them as white, probably because of TV frat parties with guys wrapped in sheets. But Romans loved color. And Roman women also liked cosmetics. Archaeologists have found remnants of eye makeup and skin enhancers. But even if Roman women used gloss, lips still weren’t the big deal. Skin was the thing. A beautiful complexion free of pockmarks or wrinkles would have been difficult to maintain in…
