Cussin'

Messy Christian has decided that she isn't going to stifle her swearing.

Now I am just too apathetic to play the masking game, so I don't even bother hiding my swear words anymore. Sure, I don't swear as much as I used to because I'd rather control myself and not pepper my dialogue with as many "fucks" and "damn yous" just to look cool. I mean, that's sad and lame.

But when I'm angry - which happens far too often these days - I don't bother disguising my language for Christian consumption anymore. Let's call a tulip and tulip, shall we?

I'm with her. I'm of the opinion that if you are going to swear do it seldomly, but make it a good one. I've know people that walk around adding multiple four-letter embellishments to their sentences on a regular basis. Perhaps they think it makes them more mature. In any case, when they really need an invective, they have no way of finding that emotional release. "Fuck" is an amazingly flexible word, but I'd rather make due with only one rather than having to scream multiple forms of it for a full five minutes.

I think it might also be useful to point out the difference between obscenity and profanity. Profanity means you are profaning something, typically God. Most of the now quaint forms of swearing take this form like "Jesus!". Even Geez and Darn are really echoing this sentiment. Profanity is obviously a bad thing as it generally breaks the third commandment. Some forms may actually be calling down a curse, "God dammit!", which is also considered a no-no throughout the bible. Bless and do not curse my brothers and sisters.

On the other hand obscenity is based on the obscene. Most of today's four letter words, like fuck and shit, are actually obscenities. Once upon a time obscenities took a back seat to profanity because people took blasphemy seriously. Now people don't give a damn so we have progressed to obscenity. Obscenity shouldn't be used lightly either though, Paul does tell us not to use "unwholesome talk".

In the end though, while I think we should watch our colorful dialogue, I have a hard time going the Gosh route. It seems false to me and I try my best not to put on masks. In some ways using wussy profanity just bothers my integrity more than if I just stuck with the good stuff.

UPDATE: Kim du Toit, a man of many colorful aphorisms, is going to be cutting out the profanity on his site. This is because he is running a business selling educational software now. His thoughts are:

The swearing will cease. Once again, this is no big deal—I’m a writer, and as I’ve always said to my friends when they’ve critiqued my novels, “You don’t like those words? I’ve got others.” And it’s true. I can say the same thing six different ways, with the identical meaning and passion, so not using bad language means that now I have only five. Big fat hairy deal.

He has a point too.