How do you feel about profanity?

Vulgarity is a social issue; profanity is a religious issue. Of course, any particular society can make profanity a social sin. And, any religion can make vulgarity a religious sin.

Edit: Vulgarity is completely different than profanity. It

(vulgarity) means common language. It is called

"dirty" by snobs. The word "Vulgar" was coined by

the pseudo-sophisticated upper class of the French

aristocracy. The Latin derivative "vulgus" means the

common people.

Funk and Wagnall (more descriptive than Webster):

Vulgar is the "characteristic of the people at large,

as distinguished from the privileged." Vulgar

means common.

Imagine King Louis and Marie Antoinette smelling

their foul odor, wiping themselves, or sniffing their

un-bathed arm pits. At times like that, they realized

that they were not any better than the

multitude of common people in their "kingdom".

To distinguish themselves (set themselves higher

and apart) from the common people, they used

perfume, wore fancy clothes, and used fancy words.

They studied Latin and concluded they were

educated. They mangled the Latin language (No one

could complain, the "Latins" were dead.)

They called their verbiage "proper" aristocratic

language. "Proper" words are usually identifiable

by their multi-syllabic nature. "Vulgar" was the word

they (the privileged) called the language

spoken by common people.

The idea of profanity is rather silly most of the time. We replace one word with another, more "acceptable" version of the word... then when that reaches widespread use, we call that profane as well, and a new word has to be created.

Words can hurt, but words that are not profane can hurt just as much... or more... than those that are. People should be held accountable for what they say, but not how they say it. Would we rather see students who don't swear for fear of detention, but who act disrespectfully in and out of the classroom?

Despite many great students -- I work with high school students, and do not mean to disparage the many students who are respectful -- there are plenty who fit that mold. Crass language seems like it ought to be among the lowest on the list of social taboos.

Actually, recent studies have shown that swearing can have a positive effect--specifically, they found that using a strong expletive actually reduces one's perception of pain (such as when you don't get your thumb out of the hammer's way in time). That doesn't mean it's acceptable to throw around obscenities right and left just 'cause you feel like it.

Certainly some people have impossibly high standards for themselves, and some of them try to hold others to their standards as well, which is where real problems set in.

I certainly don't feel it's *wrong* to be profane, but there's a time and a place for everything (keep it clean at work, for instance), and you need to be conscious of what you're saying and how it's likely to be perceived by others.

My circumstances might prove helpful to you. Since I had kids, I've gone to some lengths to clean up my language. What I do most often is mince my oaths. (I felt a great sense of relief because of that one day: my daughter asked what I was doing, and I growled "I'm trying to tighten the darned screw.", and she piped up "The darned screw!!") Also, when I want to use a stronger word but it's not appropriate, I just censor it: make it obvious I'm cutting the word out of my sentence. That works well in the office most of the time.

I agree with plus size angel! (Atheist)

“Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up.”—EPHESIANS 4:29.

Obscene language. Cursing, profanity, and other forms of obscene language are part of everyday speech in today’s world. Many resort to expletives to emphasize their speech or to compensate for an otherwise limited vocabulary.

Avoiding obscene speech begins with learning to control the emotions and actions that lead up to it. What are these? The Bible answers: “Let all malicious bitterness and anger and wrath and screaming and abusive speech be taken away from you.” (Ephesians 4:31)

Obscene speech is offensive to God. It is also offensive to those who love him. Indeed, our love for The Almighty moves us to reject obscene language. When listing “the works of the flesh,” Paul cites “uncleanness,” which can include impurity in speech. (Galatians 5:19-21) This is a serious matter especially for Christians. If our tongue is unbridled—spewing out hurtful, poisonous speech—all of our Christian works could be rendered worthless in God’s eyes. Is that not a sobering thought?—SEE James 3:8-10.

Clearly, then, there is no way for us to remain in God’s love if we make a practice of uttering speech that is unwholesome, untrue, or unkind. Such speech tears down.

Speech is a precious gift from God. Our love for him should move us to use, not misuse, this gift.

People who use profanity seem uneducated to me. If your vocabulary is not lacking, you can think of lot better ways to express yourself than just using 4 letter words.

Yesterday I was in the waiting room at a doctor's office. It's Friday afternoon, you just know there's going to be a wait. A lady came in and wanted to be seen immediately, and when she wasn't, she started swearing at the receptionist, offending me and everyone else in that waiting room, including small children. We all had been waiting a while too. Nobody likes to wait. Her outburst of profanity made her look stupid.

I am offended by profanity, and do not appreciate it when people are loud in public with words that I don't want to hear.

Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

>>>>>>

That has nothing to do with saying words like God and Dam, both words is in the Bible...... ( " He that believe not shall be DAMNED " )

Corrupt communication is : Back biting, stabbing, lying and strife of words.

The thing of it is.. God is not a Name, just saying God, which God ? The true God ? a false God ?

Paul said : " there are Lords many and Gods Many that are CALLED Gods " 1Co.8:5 ) But to US who KNOW the true GOD, we know his name and that Identifies which God.

If you want to watch the show, watch it and enjoy it and let them alone about how they choose to run it.

Everything has a PURPOSE whether it be what you would call good or bad and God ( Yahweh ) is the one who PURPOSED all things from the beginning. ( Isa.45:7 / Isa.46:9-10 )

If he is not trying to change EVERYTHING, things like that, niether should we.

Messiah was invited to a wedding feast, they had no WINE, so he made some for them, lots of it, you have no record of him trying convert anyone there ?

He said : " My sheep KNOW my voice and they follow me " And those NOT his sheep heareth NOT his voice ," no man can come to him unless the father DRAWS him " and he still got along with everyone just fine............ it was some of them that couldn't stay out of his business.

"it does no harm to us"

True; in fact quite the opposite.

1. When you hit your thumb with a hammer and curse you are letting go of anger.

2. When you use it as part of a description you're making up for lack of vocabulary.

3. When you use it to curse non-existent 'gods' you show you have courage.

4. I'm sure I could think of more...

5. I can NOT see a downside.

Meh...

~

I admit that I use profanity, but try to gauge it based on present company (and never user derogatory slurs).

In terms of simple swear words, that's all they are to me, words. That said, I know that some people feel differently so out of curtosy I will aviod them when in "polite" company.

I'm a white, able-bodies heterosexual male, but when it comes to derogatory slurs, I presonally find them offensive, so I don't use them ever. I never cared for South Park myself simply because it always felt like they were only going for shock value.

I swear occasionally in several languages. I do it when I'm frustrated, annoyed or someone angers me or says/does something idiotic.

Finns tend to curse more than most and it's not a big thing UNLESS you overdo it and swear in front of children and the elderly.

There's a time and a place for all things.

Vittujen kevät ja kyrpien takatalvi!

Words are nothing but symbols to communicate verbally with one another. Certain words get tagged as offensive, and you are taught this quite young. If you were raised in a place where any words were accepted then you wouldn't be asking this question at all.