On Star Trek and Swearing

When I was a teenager I enjoyed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was shown on BBC2 in the early 90s but as the UK run was a few years behind the US broadcasts, the main way I watched the series was at my best friend Rob’s house. He would buy the VHS tapes of the most up-to-date episodes and we’d watch them together in between playing on his SNES. Ah, nostalgia.

Jean-Luc Picard

ST:TNG was an intelligent and interesting programme, which followed the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D. Watching it in 2020 is quite an experience. Each character is well drawn with clear traits and motivations. The plots often concern moral dilemmas which force the viewer to think over the issues from various points of view. Many of the scenes involve sitting around discussing how to face a problem. Although leaning in a more “liberal” direction it was not done in such a way as to beat you around the head with it.

The latest project in the Star Trek universe is called Picard and is a return to the world and characters of ST:TNG. Airing on Amazon in the UK this series follows the now-former captain of the Enterprise as he tries to uncover the meaning behind a conspiracy involving Romulans and the Federation.

In episode 2 of Picard an admiral dismisses the lead character’s concerns by describing his request to be reinstated as captain as “sheer hubris”. Except, she doesn’t just say that. She adds an expletive into the sentence. This use of profanity is against the tradition and established conventions of the Star Trek universe. Humanity in ST:TNG was portrayed as a society that had risen above the worst aspects of its nature and had moved into a new way of relating to one another. The rare times that mild swear words were used in the Star Trek movies was to show when these ideals were under stress. For an admiral to speak in this way shows that the show has moved into a different world than that of the previous series. Humanity is no longer the rational and enlightened society depicted in the original series. And this may have been a valid story-telling device.

Michael Chabon by Gage Skidmore, WikiCommons. 

But that is not why swear words are included in Picard according to comments made by the writer and show runner of Picard, Michael Chabon. It was these comments that piqued my interest.

Chabon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. His work on Star Trek is not his first foray into the world of film and television but it is his first experience of consistent work in the medium. In response to criticism of the swear words used in the series Chabon took to Instagram with his justification. He wrote: “No human society will ever be perfect, because no human will ever be perfect. The most we can do—and as Star Trek ever reminds us, must do—is aspire to perfection, and work to make it so. Until that impossible day, *stuff* is going to continue to happen. And when it does, humans are going to want to swear.”

He continued, “The absence of swear words in Star Trek was never a matter of Federation principle, it was a matter of FCC (Federal Communications Commission) rules. Writers of previous eras had no choice. They were censored. Swearing is one of humanity’s most ancient, sensible, and reliable consolations. Personally I would consider any society that discouraged, banned, or abandoned the use of curse words to be a *______*dystopia.”

This quote is highly revealing. It gives us a glimpse into Chabon’s understanding of the world and what he is doing in Picard. And the simple fact is that he is just another run-of-the-mill iconoclast who thinks it is the height of sophistication to throw off the shackles of a supposedly restrictive past. By giving us his opinion that a society with less swearing in it is a dystopia he is consciously trampling upon the legacy of the Victorian era and, more relevantly to him, mid-20^thcentury America. To Chabon, these periods were times of repression where human urges were controlled and repressed.

In contrast, Chabon was born in 1963 and grew up through the times of the sexual revolution. According to an online biography his parents divorced and his mother raised him in a commune where drug use was open and encouraged. Rather than rebel against his upbringing like that generation was told to do, he is proof that it is very difficult to shake off the impact of our parents.

Chabon is wrong in his view on swearing. A society that encourages, allows and keeps hold of curse words is a world that has no desire whatsoever to improve itself. If humanity is to progress, as Chabon indicates he would like to happen in the first part of his quote, then we will only do so when we make a conscious effort to come out of the gutter. It means dedicating ourselves to self-improvement through self-control of our basest urges. It involves restraining ourselves in the company of others so that we do not pollute our common spaces with degrading filth. By having an admiral curse in Picard Chabon is dragging Star Trek down from its previous position as an intelligent, mature and universal tv show into just another piece of detritus flowing through the sewers of popular culture.

Star Trek was once about looking to the stars and seeing our better natures. Now it has crash-landed in the filth of the world. If ever there was a dystopia, it is found in the thinking of Michael Chabon and others like him.

In part two I will explore more fully Chabon’s reasoning that swearing is a moral good and outline my objections.

The Year-round Christ

“Merely to know that the Son of God was born on earth does not get us very far. We must also know why he was sent into the world and the benefits he has brought us.” – John Calvin in a sermon on Luke 2:9-14.

Over the past year or so we have been hearing from the Gospel of John in our worship services. In spending time in this book we are meeting with Jesus from week to week as John lays out for us the important things for us to know about the life of Jesus. All of scripture speaks of our Lord, as we see in the book of Judges, but with the Gospel accounts the shadows have passed and we stand in the full light of the presence of the Son of God.

How glorious is that light!

When we hear his teaching we are like those in the synagogue in Capernaum who were astounded at his authority. When we hear of his miracles we see his compassion and we are amazed that such things took place. When we are confronted with the events of his last week – the last supper, the garden, betrayal, arrest and death – we are struck to the core by the realisation of what Jesus went through for our salvation. When we hear of the resurrection any gloom is taken away and we rejoice in our risen Lord.

How glorious is our Saviour!

But the terrible fact is that many people hearing and reading the same words have no response whatsoever. It passes over them as if these eternal truths are simply inconsequential ephemera. This fact is especially true at this time of year. Most people will hear the name of Jesus in December in some way or other. We can even hear it in the supermarket as the background music plays: “Long time ago in Bethlehem, so the Holy Bible say, Mary’s boy-child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day.”

The name of Jesus, which thrills our souls so much, is turned into another part of festivities to be taken up and then packed away when the New Year rolls round.

Friends, Jesus cannot and must not be treated in this way. He is not an accessory to modern commercialism. He is not to be used as a prop to a cheerier winter. No, he came into the world for the salvation of fallen sinners. His whole life is of eternal importance and we must not let him be co-opted by the world, nor allow our neighbours to be content with a neutered Jesus.

Calvin’s sermon quoted above is on the following words: “Today in the city of Davida Saviour is born to you, who is Christ the Lord.” The angels words told the shepherds the import of the birth of Jesus. Let the church proclaim those glorious truths today, tomorrow and always. To the glory of the Son of God – Jesus Christ our Lord.

Augustine and the Human Condition

At the recent conference on the Holy Trinity in Newcastle one of the papers explained to us Augustine’s teaching on the Trinity. This paper led me to pick up my copy of Augustine’s Confessions. As I began to read through this spiritual autobiography I was struck by how relevant this early fifth Century work is. The reason for this is that in relating his spiritual struggles, Augustine is holding up a mirror to the universal human condition.

One of the best known sections of the Confessions is Augustine’s telling of how he and his friends stole pears from a local garden. They did not steal these pears to eat – most were thrown to pigs. Why, then, did they steal the pears? Here is Augustine’s analysis:

Perhaps we ate some, but it was really for the pleasure of doing what was not allowed…It was foul evil and I loved it. I loved to destroy myself. I loved my rebellion.(Confessions, Book 2:5)

Augustine is not concerned to justify his behaviour. He does not give a sociological answer to the question. He is honest enough to look at himself as the source of his sin. He recognises that the reason he stole the pears was because he loved sin.

Nowadays, we may laugh at this story. It was just hijinks from some young boys. Isn’t that what boys do when they’re together in groups? Augustine had plenty of other things to choose to highlight his rebellion against God, why did he make such a big fuss over this?

It was the supposed triviality of this sin that makes the depravity of man as clear as day. In this sin, Augustine saw the state of his own heart and how far he was from God by nature. His will was chained to sin and that expressed itself in random acts of law-breaking.

The rest of the first half of his life was spent searching for truth in the philosophy of groups such as the Manichees and Platonists but these philosophies could make no sense of the reality of evil in the world. Only the Christian faith was could not only explain the sinfulness of humanity but also provide the answer for it.

By reading the Word of God Augustine was able to see that sin was a consequence of our rebellion against God and that God had provided the answer for our sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it was that God brought Augustine to faith in Christ and used him in the church for the rest of his life.

The impact Augustine had on the church in the west is immense. His recognition of the bondage of the human will to sin is a thread that runs through to Luther and the Reformation. In reading him we do not meet a perfect man but a sinner saved by grace. We need to be honest with ourselves, recognise that without Christ we love our sin and turn to the Lord in repentance and faith.

The Holy Lord

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah the prophet describes to us the awesome vision he saw of the Lord. It was a sight unlike anything on earth yet Isaiah had to use human language to express his vision. And so he explains the vision in terms of a heavenly throne room. He says that the Lord was “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple”. The first thing that we are told, then, is that God is a great king. He rules and reigns with more power and glory than even the greatest monarch this earth can produce. We also see how the Lord’s throne room is intimately connected with the temple. It was the temple where God came and made his “home” with his people. From the days of the tabernacle to the days of the temple God dwelt with his people in the place where he was to be worshipped.

And what glorious worship takes place! Isaiah describes the seraphim who “called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” The attribute that these heavenly beings draw our attention to is that of God’s holiness. Although scripture tells us that God is light, love and other things it is his holiness that is triply praised by those that surround his home. And his holiness is connected to his glory. Earthly kings may seek to spread their glory across the globe but the closest they have come is having a statue in major cities like the Roman emperors or a dusty picture of Queen Victoria in an Indian bureaucrat’s office. God’s glory fills the whole earth. There is not one patch of this glorious universe that does not speak of the majesty, power and glory of God.

The natural response to this glorious God comes next. Isaiah realises he cannot stand before the Lord because: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; … my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Isaiah knows the truth that sinful human beings cannot approach a God this holy. Do you? Even if you are respectable and law-abiding you still are unclean and living among unclean people. But God provides the answer. One of the seraphim brings a coal from the altar, touches Isaiah’s lips with it and says: “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah could not do it. Even his best efforts would not have been enough. No, it is God who provides the atonement. And in this vision we are pointed forward to the great atonement that God has accomplished for us. It was not through the sacrifice of beasts but through the sacrifice of the one who was there in the throne room (John 12:41). The one who took on flesh and died for the salvation of a people of unclean lips. The Lord. Jesus Christ. The holy one has come and atoned for his people. Let us join in with the chorus of the seraphim: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’

The Inheritance of the Resurrection

Someone said to me recently on hearing that I was preaching through Numbers and 1 Peter that those books don’t have much in common. On the surface that is true. Numbers is a mix of historical narrative and laws given by God. 1 Peter is a letter written by a New Testament apostle encouraging a group of Christians in the midst of trials.

But as I’ve continued through these books I’ve seen that under the surface there are great similarities.

The book of Numbers teaches us how God was faithful to his people, despite their complaints and rebellions. He was leading them out of slavery in Egypt and bringing them to a land of promise. He was leading them through the wilderness so that they could enter into their inheritance. God was keeping his promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob generations before and nothing would stop their fulfilment.

1 Peter teaches us how God is faithful to his people, despite the various trials they must endure. It tells us of how God is leading his people out of the slavery of sin and idolatry and bringing them into an eternity of promise. He is leading his people through the wilderness of this life so that they can enter into their inheritance. God is keeping his promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and nothing can stop their fulfilment.

For the New Testament people, though, the inheritance is not a piece of land in a far away country but new life for all eternity with God. And this was purchased for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We rightly focus upon the cross where ‘he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:24). This is glorious good news. The people in the wilderness had the shadow of this with the sacrifices in the tabernacle. Christians have the full light of knowing that Christ’s sacrifice has accomplished all things.

But, as J. Gresham Machen reminds us in Christianity and Liberalism:

‘The New Testament does not end with the death of Christ; it does not end with the triumphant words of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished”. The death was followed by the resurrection, and the resurrection like the death was for our sakes. Jesus rose from the dead into a new life of glory and power, and into that life He brings those for whom he died. The Christian, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work, not only has died unto sin, but also lives unto God.’

The power that was at work in Jesus when God ‘raised him from the dead and gave him glory’ (1 Peter 1:21) is the power at work in each and every one of you who believe. We will, like him, be raised from the dead. And we will be raised to glory. This is our inheritance. This is our hope. To God be the glory.

On the Heidelblog

I recently had an interview with Dr R. Scott Clark for his Heidelblog.

Article for In Gear

This article was published in In Gear, the magazine of the Group for Evangelism and Renewal of the United Reformed Church. It concerns the question: How should churches who believe that marriage is only between a man and a woman respond to a church-wide consultation currently ongoing?

Be sure of your ground
The United Reformed Church confesses that “the Word of God in the Old and New Testaments, discerned under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the supreme authority for the faith and conduct of God’s people.” As evangelical ministers, elders and churches we must be sure of the Biblical foundation for marriage.

Psalm Singing in the Black Country

Before I became a minister I worked for a time at an Internet company writing football quiz questions. But in all my time there I didn’t know that fans of West Bromwich Albion were psalm singers. Here’s a video of them singing Psalm 23 to Crimond after beating Wolves a few years back.

And here’s a piece on singing unaccompanied I wrote elsewhere.

The Reformation and why it matters

With the recent kerfuffle over Mr Ratzinger’s decision to step down as bishop of Rome, coupled with a new attender asking me why I keep talking about the Reformation I thought it would be good to put down why I think it’s still important. But even more than that, why it is absolutely necessary today.

The Medieval Roman Church had descended into great corruption. Bishops received multiple dioceses and never visited them, let alone preached in their churches. The common people were barred from true partaking of the Lord’s Supper by the use of Latin and the denial of the cup. Many innovations had been added to the faith of the church. One such innovation – that of purgatory – led to a system whereby people could buy the prayers of monks to knock a few years off for themselves and their loved ones. It just so happened that this innovation also raised a fair few coins for the building of a fancy new basilica in Rome.

But thanks to the providence of God there were many faithful believers who were unhappy with the state of things. Many of these proto-reformers efforts were crushed but the time was coming when the tide of reform could not be held back. By the providential coming together of a dissatisfied German monk, local rulers wanting to flex their muscles and the technological advance of the printing press, God brought about a movement that swept across Europe and the world. This movement was the Reformation.

Everything was up for grabs from 1517. And the fundamental principle, seems to me to have been: What is the supreme authority for what we believe as Christians? The Roman Church said that it was scripture coupled with Tradition as embodied in the Magisterium that was the authority. Of course, in practice, it was clear that tradition trumped scripture. Praying to Mary and the saints, resacrificing Christ in the Mass, indulgences and purgatory were all inventions of men, with no scriptural warrant whatsoever.

The Reformation, on the other hand, declared that only God could say what we were to believe and practice, which would be a problem had God not definitively spoken. Thankfully he had. In Scripture.

And so the Reformation was about putting God in his rightful place. We were not saved by our works but by God’s abundant grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And scripture alone was our highest, supreme authority.

All this has an impact on us today and in part 2 I will explore some of the ways in which the Reformation is more important than ever.

It is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in publick, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them, upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit. He is to admonish them, in time of health, to prepare for death; and, for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls; and, in times of sickness, to desire his advice and help, timely and seasonably, before their strength and understanding fail them. (Directory for Public Worship)