I read an interesting post by
Stephanie on
profanity recently. It got me thinking as I had not appreciated that the term "profane" specifically means treating that which is holy with irreverence. (Having said that, I've just found that the OED does include "obscene language" in it's definition of
profane language but that is probably a change caused by usage rather than the original meaning.)
If profane language specifically means language which treats that which is holy with irreverence then what about other swear words?
We live in a culture which views certain words as being "wrong". Most people use at least some of these words and there is a variation in how "bad" a given word is perceived to be. However, we are not supposed to just blindly follow the rules of our culture but to seek what is right in God's eyes.
Personally I do not swear. This is mainly because I was raised not to. I have only known each of my parents swear once - my mum one time when she missed a turn off on a dual carriageway and my dad stuck his fingers up at a speeding cement mixer which had just nearly run me and my brother over. Because I did not hear them swearing, swear words did not enter my spoken vocabulary and therefore I did not swear.
However, even though it is not a pressing practical issue (I wouldn't start swearing if I found it wasn't wrong), I wanted to know whether what had been ingrained into me all my life ("swearing is wrong") was really correct. It is important that we have our thinking right and I did not want to be thinking that something was wrong if it wasn't.
The verses I found were:
"But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
"Filthy communication" is also rendered as obscene speech, abusive speech, obscene language, shameful speaking, unclean talk, filthy speech, vile language and foul mouthed abuse. The Greek word used is
αισχρολογιαν which according to this online translator means "obscenity" in modern Greek.
"Corrupt communication" is also rendered as filthy talk, unwholesome word, corrupt speech, evil talk, evil speech and corrupt word. The Greek word used is σαπρος which my online translator could not find however, this page defines "σαπρός" as "rotten" and
this translator gives the meaning as "putrid" or "putrescent".
My own personal conclusion from these verses is therefore that swearing (or "coarse"/"bad" language) is wrong. The difficulty which follows is defining what actually
is bad language as this is man made and culture specific. There is also the issue of using "alternatives" to swear words where a distorted version of a swear word is used in place of the swear word. If we don't use swear words but we use the "alternatives" in exactly the same way as those who are swearing then surely we are doing the same thing and therefore being hypocritical?
An area which I have had to make an effort not to use certain words is with words which have become acceptable as non swear words or alternatives to swearwords but they have undesirable origins. These include words such as "cor" which comes from "cor
blimey" which is a corruption of "God blind me" and "
gosh" which is a corruption of "God".
In conclusion, I would have to say that "swearing" is wrong but it is hard to define what exactly is a swear word so it is up to each individual to judge for themselves whether the words they are using is good and right. (Although of course just because the actual words we are using aren't bad doesn't necessarily mean we are saying things which are good and right but that's a whole
separate issue.)
(I am happy for this to be a discussion so please feel free to comment regardless of whether you agree or not.)
