The N Word And The Pulpit

In my sermon on August 14, I preached the first in a series on the Three Simple Rules by Bishop Reuben Job. The first rule is to do no harm, and so as one of my illustrations I talked about the integration of Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas, and in particular the story of Elizabeth Eckford who arrived to the school by herself because she did not know that the rest of he students were gathering to go to school together. Elizabeth was met by a hostile crowd, and vile things were shouted at her, although I suspect they were nothing that she had not heard before.

As I was preparing this sermon I began to wonder, can I really say what people shouted at Elizabeth that day? More importantly, can I use the N word? That, of course, is not an easy question to answer and I prayed about it for a couple of days, and then asked my wife what she thought.

She was a little hesitant and said that it would be entirely dependent on the context that I was using it and also my tone when I said it. So I told her what I was thinking and then let her read the sermon, and she said she thought it would be okay, but that rather than shouting it, as the original speakers did, that I should be quieter.

So I did some more thinking about it, I removed some of the quotes I was going to use to just get to the heart of the matter, and then used the quotes directly as they were reported to have been said. I more whispered them then shouted them, which was my original inclination.

In the end, I ended up deciding to use them because I wanted people to feel the impact of those words now, I wanted them to understand the hatred that backed them and the damage that they had to do to Elizabeth on that day, and not just Elizabeth but everyone they were and are used against. I wanted people to understand that doing no harm is more than just about our actions, but that our words also have terrible force to cause harm.

Surprisingly, I did not hear from a single person who objected to the word being said from the pulpit. In fact I didn't hear any comments about it at all. People did talk to me about the sermon, but this was never brought up. I hope that means that I handled the topic appropriately and sensitively, but it could also means that since I'm the new guy they don't yet feel comfortable expressing their thoughts.

I had originally been planning to be more expansive about other vile names that we throw at people, but decided that this was enough. The objective was to make a point, not to bang people over the head, and I hope I did that. I try to be sensitive and very aware of the words that I use when preaching, which is one of the reasons why I am a manuscript preacher. I also know that there are people who would never use the word, would think it's inappropriate to be used, and I respect that opinion.

Now being more than one week removed, and having followed up with more about what happened to Elizabeth in yesterday's sermon on doing good, I feel good about my decision and think I made the right one. I don't know that I would necessarily do it again, but given the right context and situation I think it might again be appropriate.