Is It A Sin To Read Books That Use Curse Words?

[Feriku]

This question could apply to watching movies or playing games that use them, too. I don't curse, but I never thought too much about characters using bad language--unless I had to read it out loud, of course--until an argument came up over whether it would be a sin to buy a game in which I knew a character used the f-word (he used it in the demo). The other person said that she'd heard that if you encounter bad language in any sort of media, and you don't put it down, it's a sin. I was wondering if this was true or not, and if so, if it applies to all swearing or only some?

[TeresaBenedicta]

As with most of these sorts of scenarios, prudence and context is key. One might ask oneself, what kind of book is this? Or, what kind of video game is this? The language content is not so much the problem, but the underlying question... [i]why[/i] is the book or video game using this sort of language? Certain books/movies/video games are unwholesome and use crude language. Certain books/movies/video games are quite wholesome and also feature crude language.

So, ask yourself... is this a good book/movie/game? Or does it lead me to sin? Usually that will be your key to knowing whether or not to indulge in media with crude language.

An example might help... Schindler's List contains within it nudity, crude language, and severe violence. Yet the movie is not glorifying any of that- rather, condemning it. It is telling a story about the horrors encountered during WWII. The nudity/crude language/violence is used to depict these horrors, as they were.

Other movies might use those some things, but use them so as to glorify them.

I think that difference is pretty significant.