Words Will Never Harm Us?

A recent AP-Ipsos poll reported that nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) said they encounter profanity in public either frequently or occasionally. Two-thirds said they think people swear more than they did twenty years ago. And almost 2-3 (64 %) said that they use the F-word (what one article called “the gold standard of foul words”) ranging from several times a day (8 percent) to a few times a year (15 percent).

Some would suggest that this use of foul language is inevitable. Judith Martin, who writes the syndicated Miss Manners column says, “Well, if it were inevitable I wouldn’t be doing my job.” She suggests that the problem is that people who are offended don’t speak up and say that they are offended. “Everybody is pretending they aren’t shocked and gradually people WON’T be shocked.” And what will happen when foul language starts being accepted and stops being offensive? Martin says, “Then those who want to be offensive will find another way.”

Is Martin right? Is swearing becoming more common because those who object to it remain silent? I think so. There are some setting in which no one swears simply because it is not-acceptable to do so. How many people curse when in court? It is interesting how a $100 fine for contempt of court can clean up someone’s language. It’s also interesting how many people instantly clean-up their language when they find out I’m a preacher. Why? Because something tells them that it is not appropriate to talk like that to a “man of the cloth!” I got downright tickled one day when a few holes into a round of golf the man pared up with us by the starter found out I was a minister. All of a sudden he couldn’t curse anymore… and it was killing him! People can speak without cursing; they curse because people around them allow them to do so.

Words matter. A radio talk show host was recently fired for directing a racial slur at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He said later that the word he used was an accidental slip of the tongue, and his station manager more or less accepted that… and fired him anyway. Why? Words matter. There are certain things that are not acceptable to say. Period. (The writer of the article that reported on the AP-Ipsos poll refered to earlier had to get special permission from their editor to even refer to the F-word). The reason for the proliferation of profanity is that we have allowed the settings in which profanity is acceptable to grow.

Paul says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up” (Eph 4:29). He later adds, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving” (Eph 5:4). Along the same lines in Colossians Paul says, “Now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Col 3:8). But perhaps the strongest statement comes from Jesus Himself in Matthew 12:36-37--

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for
every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be
acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

So we need to choose our words carefully. The words we use matter… and they may come back to haunt us.