http:// jon-walsh.com / journal / 2008 / 10 / profanity /

There are two issues I’d like to address here. One being the practice of censorship and the other being the seemingly recent popularity of female dogs. Both issues involve people seeing how close they can get to the line without crossing it, though I’d argue they’ve already crossed it by far.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

(Ephesians 4:29, NIV)

Censoring Words

Can I say right now that this practice is foolish and useless, but let’s get some explanations out of the way first. When I say “censoring”, I’m talking about:

• ****
• %^#*
• F***
• Fu*k

As well as countless other representations.

This practice of censorship can sometimes aid in concealing a word, but what it doesn’t do is conceal its meaning!

A common problem that has always plagued Christianity is where a literal understanding comes above a meaningful one. Such is the case with Old Testament practices and a number of New Testament ones as well. There isn’t a list of words you can’t use, it is purely dependant on the context.

Here’s some examples of why this practice is so useless:

• What the ****?: You did read that as “What the blank” right? No, I’m sure you read it as most people do. This method does not conceal the meaning!
• WTF: No one is going to read this as “What The Fudge” regardless of what you mean.
• F***, Fu*k: These methods do not even conceal the word, let alone the meaning!

Censoring words can be extremely helpful when you want to be politically correct, but can I urge Christians to realise that this is a completely useless practice for purity’s sake. If you are going to censor a word, either censor the whole sentence completely or do not censor it at all.

Female Dogs

I’m quite surprised at how this word is being thrown around these days, I even recently heard it during a sermon! I obviously don’t even need to state the word given what was discussed above.

Now admittedly, during the sermon, it was used as a verb describing something you shouldn’t do. My gripe is that it was used when there are perfectly good, more accurate, and more appropriate synonyms such as “complaining” or “gossiping”.

By using this word you are not only labelling the targets as gossipers, you’re also labelling them female dogs as well. The first label can be justified as an attribute, the second is purely an insult and has no meaning what-so-ever!

Conclusion

In my own personal circumstance I can see various profanities becoming more and more acceptable in society these days and even amongst Christians; I even find myself using them occasionally.

Something that should constantly be on our minds about the issue is this:

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

(Luke 6:45, NIV)