Huckleberry Finn - Too offensive?

Words matter. If you don't believe me look at the controversy going around the news about the new printing of Huckleberry Finn.  The words 'nigger' and 'injun' were removed from the book and it is creating a heated controversy.  Why such a fervor over two words?  Because word matter.  The words that you use are important.  For example I could have written 'these words were censored from the book' and it would have portrayed the same idea, but given you a different emotional response to that idea.  Changing the word 'removed' to 'censored' changes the meaning in a very small way, but with a pretty big impact.  So we see that words matter.  

In this particular case, there is probably enough arguing about it already so I won't go into to much detail on it, but I do think we should still read the original.  Mark Twain himself said about the book "[it is]...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat." He is showing us that we do not have to be victims of our culture.

Even though Huck could not put into words what he felt and even though he often thought that he should do certain things that were part of his culture (like turn Jim in) he instead did what was in his heart and treated him like a human.  The whole point of the book revolves around that word nigger.  Even though Huck repeatedly called him a nigger he did not treat him as a slave.  Even though Huck was a product of his culture, he broke out of his cultural bounds.  If you take away the word nigger, he ceases to be truly a product of his culture and he has no cultural bounds to break out of.  You take away much of the point of the book by 'sanitizing' Huck.  All that to say; read the original!

There is however, a deeper lesson here for us.  Just as we see that this word matters in the book (and also for those on both sides of the issue), we are reminded that words matter in all areas of our lives.  The words we use matter.  The words we believe matter.  The words we think about matter.  Words are not merely passive tools that transport concepts from my mind to yours. They carry emotions and ideas that go far beyond what the mere definition of the word expresses.  This leads to two areas we need to be careful of.  We need to carefully choose the words that come out of our mouths, but this is not the only area that words matter.  The words that go out of us matter, bu the words that come into us also matter!

I'm sure most of us have been warned about the dangers of using wrong language and the effect it can have on those around us, but how many of us have stopped to think about the effect of the words that we take in?  If we passively ingest everything that gets fed to us on the radio, tv, news, and even your friends on facebook, are we being careful about our words? Uncritical evaluation of the words we hear can have an influence on us that we are not even aware of.  Ignoring wise words will hurt us.

The wise of heart will receive commandments,
but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

But taking in foolishness will hurt us as well.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Be wise!  Think about the words you say and hear.  Fill yourself with good words and you will have good words flow out of you.