Words I recently saw on a T-shirt: “Quit bitching and start a revolution.” Crude and slightly irreverent, but it clearly gets one’s attention and makes the point. Before reacting too negatively to the slang, please read on.
Blogging has taken “bitching” (slang term for bellyaching) to a whole new level. Before, it was limited in space and time. Now, all of it, gobs and hoards of it ricochet through cyberspace with split-second timing. It doesn’t matter the subject, politics, religion, whatever. It’s a “bellyachers” paradise out there. With this in mind and for the fun of it, I Googled the word, “bitching,” and following is but a tiny sampling of the 3,750,000 results.
I learned that, “From this usage of bitch(ing) as ‘complain’, the colloquial noun 'bitch-fest' evolved, to describe people complaining about something together.” Allow me to expand upon this colloquialism and bring it up to date by coining the term, "cyber-bitch-fest."
I further found that “The use of the term "bitching" has been extended to the common sewing or crafting get together known as a 'stitch-n-bitch'. At these gathering women (and occasionally men) gather to work on projects and talk or complain.” There is a temptation to digress here, church-wise, but I will resist the tempter and move on.
In fact, I’m going to go one better than that because I know the term “bitching” is offensive to some (even though it no longer carries the same connotation it once did) and, from this point on, substitute the term “bellyaching” (“to complain in a whining manner”). Thus it is now "cyber-bellyache-fest" and "stitch-n-bellyache," even though it loses its charming rhyme sequence.
STOP BELLYACHING AND START A REVOLUTION! – Not quite as dramatic, but probably a little more palatable for the fainthearted among us. And I don’t want to lose this segment of the blogging congregation.
Speaking of congregations, having pastored a few, I found no dearth of bellyaching there. In fact, it seems to thrive in that environment, perhaps because the tempter finds his greatest challenge in such hallowed settings. I still have some of the notes slipped to me by parishioners as they shook my hand following the Sunday services. “The music was too loud. Can you do something about it in the future, please?” “The flags were not draped properly and this was very distracting. Surely there is someone who can see that they are straightened before the meeting.” “The message was good, but a little brevity would have gone a long way.” “Might I suggest you read, ‘Helps to Holiness’ by Samuel Logan Brengle before preaching another holiness sermon?” "Why is there never any tissue in the bathroom?" And so it went. (Can you add to my list here?) Seldom did I receive a note complimenting the service or care of the facility. Incidentally, as an aside for those Army trivia buffs among us, did you know that Brengle was the first American born officer to reach the rank of Commissioner? And a sanctified one at that.
I’m guessing that even the Disciples did their share of bellyaching, with most of it not recorded, I’m sure. Take the following for example.
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…’ (Matt 28:16-20 NIV)
…but some doubted. Imagine! Doubting, complaining and bellyaching usually go together, don’t they? Who knows what they were saying to one another before Jesus appeared. I suspect there might have been a little bellyaching going on. How did He respond? Not everything Jesus said or did is recorded, you understand. Who knows, perhaps my “irreverent interpretation” of this passage has some merit…”Stop doubting, second-guessing, complaining… GO… Start a revolution!
AND THEY DID!
I suspect there were a few bellyachers in those early Christian Mission days as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bramwell even did a little grumbling himself. Do you think he agreed with his father on everything? It’s not all recorded in the history books, you know (I’m sure William Booth had his share of doubters in those early days). Who knows all that Booth actually said as he stood with his son in the East End of London looking over a sea of lost humanity? Loosely interpreted, he might have said something like, “Stop bellyaching,… Bramwell, for God's sake do something!
AND THEY DID!
It is now the year of our Lord, 2007 and the blogging phenomenon has taken bellyaching into a whole new stratosphere. Need I say more?
AND THEY DID!
