Jesus and the "R-word"
A Christian View on Offensive Language
One of the major false dichotomies of our day is the debate surrounding language and the attempt to control certain words and speech.
On one side is the ever-growing list of words and phrases that are considered politically incorrect and are labeled as either ignorant or, in the extreme, hate speech. The intention is often to protect people from hearing words, phrases, or ideas that may make them uncomfortable. Yet this impulse has frequently been weaponized to shut down legitimate debate, argument, and discussion. Rather than fostering understanding, it has often widened the divide on many important issues.
The reaction has been just as unhealthy. Rather than asking how God would have us speak, many have decided that if one side wants to regulate language, they will intentionally say whatever is most offensive. One error has produced another.
Scripture offers a better way. It neither gives us an ever-growing list of forbidden words nor grants us a license to use language carelessly. It goes deeper. It confronts the heart from which our words flow.
Ironically, these two competing approaches fit neatly into biblical categories. On one side we find a kind of secular legalism that seeks to forbid what God has not forbidden. On the other is a secular licentiousness that ignores the law of God as it relates to our speech. Neither reflects the heart of Christ.
Disability Language
This discussion becomes very personal in the world of disability ministry.
The word retard, or the “R-word,” has been a punchline and an insult for decades. It has been used to cut down and hurt children like mine. Yet at one time it was simply the shortened form of a medical diagnosis.
Language evolves. Words often move from clinical or medical usage into common insults before eventually becoming so offensive that they are replaced with new terminology. Over the last two centuries, the language used to describe intellectual disabilities has changed repeatedly.
Fool
Idiot
Mental Retardation
Intellectual Disability
Person with an Intellectual Disability
Disabled Person
Likewise, terminology surrounding specific disabilities has continued to develop.
A Subsection of Schizophrenia
Asperger’s Syndrome
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Person on the Autism Spectrum
Autistic Person
Or consider Williams Syndrome, once commonly referred to as “Elfin Face Syndrome.”
History demonstrates a pattern. Every generation introduces a new medical term hoping to eliminate the stigma. Given enough time, that new term often becomes the next insult. The problem has never been the vocabulary itself. The problem is the sinful human heart that delights in belittling those made in the image of God.
Jesus and the “R Word”
“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” — Matthew 5:22
This passage, found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, is part of Jesus’ pattern of taking God’s law to its fullest conclusion. God has not merely forbidden murder; He condemns the hatred from which murder springs. God has not merely forbidden adultery; He condemns the lust that gives birth to it.
We often spend most of our time discussing hatred in this passage but miss the connection Jesus makes between hatred and our words. The flippant use of language to express anger, frustration, mockery, or prideful judgment reveals something far deeper than poor manners. It reveals a heart that is out of step with God.
Jesus Himself used the word fool. Yet He did so not as playground mockery or casual insult, but as the righteous Judge exposing hardened unbelief and calling people to repentance. His words were never careless, cruel, or meant to demean the weak.
The command, then, is not simply about maintaining a list of prohibited words. It is about addressing the heart of the speaker.
Young people illustrate this well. They are incredibly creative with language. Many know they cannot publicly use the “R-word” or other taboo slurs without social consequences. Instead, I increasingly hear terms like autistic or on the spectrum used as insults. The vocabulary has changed, but the sinful heart behind the words has not.
That should not surprise us. If tomorrow we replaced every offensive term with a brand-new medical diagnosis, eventually that diagnosis would become an insult too. We do not solve sinful speech by constantly inventing new words. We solve it only as Christ transforms sinful hearts.
So how should Christians think about the “R word”?
Jesus consistently demonstrated compassion, dignity, and welcome toward those whom society marginalized. He also taught that our words reveal our hearts. While the word fool in His day was not exclusively connected to intellectual disability, He clearly condemned the careless, hateful use of language intended to wound, belittle, or dehumanize another person.
For that reason, the Christian’s question should not simply be, “Am I allowed to say this word?” It should be, “Why do I want to say it?”
Is it to mock someone? To provoke a reaction? To elevate myself by putting another image-bearer down?
Or is it to speak truth in love? To use words intended in our current context purely to cut and belittle image bearers cannot be spoken in love.
Christians should resist both the legalism that invents laws God has not given and the licentiousness that delights in offending others simply because it can. Instead, we should pursue speech that is governed by wisdom, love, and holiness.
The problem is not ultimately a particular word. The problem is the sinful heart that turns words into weapons. Only the gospel can change the heart, and only a changed heart can consistently produce gracious words.
So when a Christian uses the "R-word," or any other word designed to cut down those made in the image of God, it reveals a heart that is not in line with the heart of Jesus. Jesus himself reveals this in his statement,
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36–37: (ESV)