Watch Your Language!

Do you get hot under the collar by the constant repetition of bad language?

Profanity, swearing, coarse or inappropriate language - you seem to hear it so much more nowadays. Or is it simply that our society has grown much more tolerant of it? There's such a gap developing between the different people that I know that it's quite alarming... and worth a word or two in this forum.

On one hand, I have members of my own family that can't bear listening to this sort of language - to the extent that they will turn off the TV if such words are used. Some feel they're missing out on some terrific TV programmes. They would say the price is just too high. However, you can't do that sort of thing in real life. Half the people that I try to help would go without my assistance if I just walked away from them, just because they use language that is a little more 'colourful' than my own.

On the other hand, I have colleagues in many aspects of my life who seem to revel in use of this form of communication - and that's to an extent that even I find disturbing. Because some of them are people who I would have thought shouldn't be using those sort of words! "You might as well use these words", they say, "if you are thinking them anyway..."

And there's the problem. Profane or crude language simply doesn't fit with the lifestyle. In fact, the word 'profanity' stems from the Latin word prophanus which describes something ‘outside the temple’ and therefore ‘not part of the church’. 

To round off this blog entry, I'll add one personal opinion of my own. I feel that a good deal of the swear words that I hear bandied about nowadays are now so common that they are tired and over-used. It's so tedious to hear them used again and again. There are so many other great words in the English dictionary that are far better for the task at hand (and under-used!). Or have people just got lazy with their use of language?

What do you think?

Matthew 15:10-11 (NIV)
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”