Swearing

[Lilllabettt]

I think its best to reserve swear words for when the **** really hits the fan. That way they are effective. if you say ***** every time you stub your toe, what can you say when your hand gets blown off, or you see a semi jack-knifing in your direction on the highway?

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Lilllabettt' timestamp='1338229310' post='2436453']
I think its best to reserve swear words for when the **** really hits the fan. That way they are effective. if you say ***** every time you stub your toe, what can you say when your hand gets blown off, or you see a semi jack-knifing in your direction on the highway?
[/quote]There was actually a study showing that swearing only when you hurt yourself provided some pain relief, but it didn't have the same effect if you swore regularly.

[IcePrincessKRS]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1338060781' post='2435187']
What source(s) did he derive these views from? Before PM I had always been told that foul language was always a sin.
[/quote]

I honestly couldn't tell you. I took Theology 101 over ten years ago. But I do know that he wasn't one to just throw ideas out there. Everything he taught was thoroughly researched, and re-researched year after year. He had been teaching for a good 20+ years at that point. My college was one of the ones that takes oaths of fidelity to the Magisterium every year. Not just the Theology profs, but every professor on staff. I have no doubt that what I learned from those men and women is 100% in line with Church teaching.

[Papist]

I prefer not to swear or hear it. I fail miserably. It is something I constantly confess and work on. Fortunately, I have freed my self from swearing in front off my wife and children. I really struggle around my brothers and driving home from work.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Papist' timestamp='1338311455' post='2437157']
I prefer not to swear or hear it. I fail miserably. It is something I constantly confess and work on. Fortunately, I have freed my self from swearing in front off my wife and children. I really struggle around my brothers and driving home from work.
[/quote]

you should try a road-rage preventer. (mine's a crucifix on my dash, right in front of my steering wheel.)

[Papist]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1338311613' post='2437158']
you should try a road-rage preventer. (mine's a crucifix on my dash, right in front of my steering wheel.)
[/quote]

Sadly I do have one in the same spot as yours. I guess I need a bigger one. Or one that will respond to me expletives.

[sixpence]

If I swear you will know its something mega-serious; on the other hand, I heard SO much cursing in high school and undergrad that it doesn't phase me if other people do it, unless it one of the ones like tinytherese mention that are generally disrespectful to women.

[Ice_nine]

Just sayin, I don't like when people throw out the "only less intelligent/less educated people swear and have a poor vocabulary and/or are stupid"

So? It's ok to look down on folks who are less smarter and less schooled than the rest of us? Isn't this argument a veiled case of classist thinking? Lots of words that referred to the "common" people have now been denigrated to have a negative connotation (the word vulgar being the prime example).

I just really don't like that attitude.

hollaz

$^*#!@

[Papist]

I forgot to add. What has helped me around the kids and wife is to make up words that do not exist. Such as, KEYKRUM, pronounced key-crumb. This is a 'word' from my first son when he first started to say words. He would always say, "What's this keykrum?". Now I say WTK. If I see something weird, I'll go "what the keykrum".

[qfnol31]

I have thought a lot about this topic over the past several years. It's never come up in any of my moral theology classes or any of my ethics courses either. I suspect that a large reason none of my professors mentioned anything is because they themselves used a bit of profanity.

I have only heard two things ever said against the practice of cussing/swearing/profanity in my life. One was an internet site I encountered almost a decade ago when I was looking. The other was my youth director in high school. Furthermore, I have known good priests with really foul mouths (some of which came out in their homilies) and am certain that people higher up in the Church use profanity from time to time.

If we want to talk about profanity being immoral, we should begin by distinguishing between nasty speech towards a person and general foul language (as IcePrincess and her prof both did). I don't think that such language directed toward an individual an ever be legitimately justified, and I think it is a sin against charity. Calling someone this or that, or wishing/calling for their damnation really isn't kind (even if it is legitimately deserved), and I doubt too many people would try to argue in favor of it.

Then we're left with general foul language. I suppose that if one were to argue against the use of foul language not directed toward anyone s/he would have to talk about it as a misuse of speech in general. As with any good, speech can also be misused. I gave an example above of when speech is misused. Therefore, a person would have to go into the proper use of speech, how it is meant to convey something (a feeling, thought, etc.) and should convey it in the best manner possible. Does foul language do this? If not, then its probably an immoral action.

But what about language's arbitrary nature? Well, (and I posted this elsewhere), there are a few things that are arbitrary or culturally determined--like modesty--but that doesn't mean that a person can simply escape immorality in this context. For example, though modesty is culturally determined, there is still such a thing as modesty and we are to live as such. In Iraq, modesty is very strongly established and not to follow it is probably an immoral act (granted, they go to the extreme compared to the US, but I think that the point still stands). The idea of modesty is whether or not we are respecting our sexuality, treating ourselves appropriately, and leading others to good action as well. The same holds true for speech. Does foul language constitute poor use of speech, or does it have an appropriate context?

Just a last couple of thoughts: even among people who readily use profanity, there seems to be a limit beyond which decency has been violated. A few years ago some friends took me and my wife out to dinner. The restaurant's owner came up to us and constantly used words that I shan't repeat. Even though my friends have said some of the nastier words, they were very apologetic that my wife had to live through the owner's language. This seems to say that there is something shameful about speech.

Also, I know many people who are embarrassed to cuss in Church (and I hear it all the time). I asked my wife yesterday if she'd be comfortable using foul language around Jesus and she said no. Many other people have expressed a similar point of view. (Side note: I've been asked in response if I'd be confortable having coitus in front of Jesus or drinking in front of Him - to the former, no because that's a private act; to the latter yes because I treat drinking responsibly). If we're not comfortable cussing in these situations, why not? Do we feel that cussing has become a misuse of language? Or is it just unbecoming of people in a particular instance, like picking your nose/ears in public?


Anyways, these are just some (longer-winded than I intended) thoughts on profanity and people's reaction to it.

[Annie12]

I was taught in my confirmation class that swearing is a mortal sin because it is used to curse God or his creations; all of which are good.

[Ice_nine]

^^that seems like an extremely simplistic assessment. Not all "swearing" is a literal curse to actual living beings.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='Ice_nine' timestamp='1338319607' post='2437273']
Just sayin, I don't like when people throw out the "only less intelligent/less educated people swear and have a poor vocabulary and/or are stupid"

So? It's ok to look down on folks who are less smarter and less schooled than the rest of us? Isn't this argument a veiled case of classist thinking? Lots of words that referred to the "common" people have now been denigrated to have a negative connotation (the word vulgar being the prime example).

I just really don't like that attitude.

hollaz

$^*#!@
[/quote]
Not to mention it's simply false. The way we speak depends on a lot of things, primarily who we wish to identify with. If one wishes to identify with his southie background or be socially accepted as such, he will revert (subconsciously) to his southie speech patterns and vocabulary, even if he is an MIT professor. There is no direct link between the way someone speaks and his intelligence.

Edited May 30, 2012 by USAirwaysIHS

[PhuturePriest]

Life is great for me because cursing helps stutterers for some reason so I have a free pass without worry of even committing a venial sin. However, I do not like cursing, so I never use it. I find it to be un-becoming of people and, quite frankly, classless. That being said everyone in my area speaks curse words first and English second, so if people say them around me I don't mind at all. I know of a few Priests who curse at times and then it's just so funny you can't breath. They're like loose cannons, really. I remember one time Father was saying his homily and he spoke of an older Priest who got an invitation for making sandwiches at this charity thing, and Father said on the holy altar in the midst of God and everybody "And the Priest said 'Make your own dam.n sandwich!'". I've never seen Catholics so awake during Mass in my life.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' timestamp='1338111318' post='2435710']
'Tis always fun seeing old threads.
[/quote]

yeah, it is.