Recently on theooze message boards, someone posted the unoriginal I’m going to cuss a lot and see who I can offend in trying to make a clever post post. It happens at least once or twice a year, if not more.
True, Christians have a glaring hypocrisy when it comes to language. Hate speech that appears righteous goes unnoticed to many, while an F-bomb after dropping something on your foot will have people questioning your salvation.
The fact is, I resonate with the intentions of these trolls coming in to stir up trouble. I’ve found myself using foul language simply because I can. The knowledge that saying profane words is not inherently wrong paired with a desire to piss off legalists (I’m not claiming it’s a good attitude) is a recipe for disaster.
Of course, one argues that people shouldn’t be offended by terms that don’t offend anyone but conservative, stuffy people. Maybe they shouldn’t, but splitting hairs to determine what’s right and wrong… isn’t that what most of these profane posters are railing against in the first place? Now they want to say, “Hey, it’s right, or at least it’s not wrong for me to cuss, so I’m going to do it. Regardless of who is listening.”
Now sure, the look out for others and not offend thing gets taken to ridiculous ends, but we shouldn’t swing to the extreme of having no care for the thoughts and feelings of others.
Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.
Foul language is a funny thing. I’ve never been a “cusser,” but have found myself wishing to be one often. I crack jokes nowadays about “taking up cussing” just to get people riled up a little. Sure, it’s unseemly. I suppose it makes us seem “more human,” though really I think we want to because we see it in our popular media. Like Rolheiser says, though, there just might be a difference between being sterile and being virtuous. We like to be “human” any way we can. Even if God calls us to be new kind of “human.”
awtraughber
December 28th, 2004
One of the themes separating Judiaism from Christiainity is that the thought of doing something sinful is just as bad as the act to God. Judiaism was about the law….if I didn’t commit adultery..but thought about it all the time…I was still blameless (apparently). But Jesus set the score clear saying the thought/desire of adultery was just as bad.
So when I stub my toe on a chair leg walking through my house and say any number of curse words (not including using the Lords name in vain).
What exactly is going on? What emotion is being expressed? Because in essence if I said “Oh Fiddlesticks” with the same core emotion as one of the more “unacceptable” words….then the sin (if it is a sin) must be the same.
Is anger a sin? pain? annoyance at an inanimate object?
I think not.
PropheticZero
August 28th, 2005