Saying Swears

Although some people (indeed some of my very best friends, for whom I have utmost respect and admiration) have concluded that as English speakers there are no words or phrases that should be off limits to us, I find I still cannot be comfortable with swearing.

It is true that for Christians everything is permitted. But not everything is beneficial. (1 Cor. 6:12)

As a Christian, I believe in a God who created the world through words. I believe in Jesus Christ who is described as "the word". As a Christian, I cannot dismiss words as irrelevent. Rather, I find I must acknowledge that words carry power. In James' epistle he says that the tongue is to the body, as a rudder to a ship. It is small and seemingly powerless, yet it controlls the direction of the whole. James says further that the tongue is like a spark which can start a raging fire. With the tongue we praise God, but with it we curse each other. Jesus himself said that it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out.

So what comes out of my mouth that may defile me? Heresies and insults, curses and profanities?

With most swear words, it is not that the word is magic—not that that combination of sounds happens to be offensive to God—but that for social reasons they are offensive, insulting, derisive or profane. It is true that there is freedom of expression. Yet it is uncharitable to make the people around you uncomfortable and unhappy simply to exercise your own freedom of expression.

The most usual swear words have social connotations which make them "bad words". The "f" word for example places the act of sex, which for Christians is sacramental and for any people should be intimate, and uses it as profane. It exemplifies a de-valuing of sex.

The various words which refer to various bodily functions typify an almost gnostic de-valuing of the body.

Using language that refers to women as animals is demeaning and offensive.

All of these words of which I am carefully avoiding the use are full of social implications, and you never know who they will offend. While it is true that it is sometimes necessary to offend people in order to do good, or to expand their thinking, or to shock them out of complacency, using foul language is almost always about either vocabulary laziness or about venting personal frustration at the expense of the people around you.

Any of these words or phrases, however, is preferable to me than the casual taking of the name of God as a profanity. Many people (even the nuns at the school I worked at) think of religious swear words as milder than other forms—but for me the profaning of the name of God is much more offensive than any of the other socially offensive swear words. God commands us in the third of the ten commandments not to take his name in vain. To use the name (or even the idea) of God simply as emphasis is to disrespect the creator of the universe in a way that we are specifically commanded not to do. This is no longer simply a social consideration, but also a theological one.

The main point is this. We cannot pretend that it doesn't matter what we say, as long as our thoughts are pure. What we say reflects, and even forms what we think. Words matter.