Cussing and swearing

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“Do you believe bad words are intrinsically evil?”

Not evil, but reflective of poor Christian self-discipline. They’re compromising, and impede self-mastery.🙂
 
GraceDK said:
Its a struggle for sure but I know I respect you greatly for it 🙂 Way to go!.. and you know that the Lord takes pleasure in you both because of the purity of your speech and because of your sacrifice of human comfort in order to follow His way instead of the ways of the world that are numerous and that leads to destruction. You got my ReSpeCt! 😃

High five to you brother 👍
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Thanks a bunch. The Lord keeps me going, every second of every day. 👍
 
How can they be reflective of poor Christian self-discipline if there isn’t anything wrong with them (in some cases, not all)? We discipline ourselves to avoid bad things.
 
Caesar517 said:
How can they be reflective of poor Christian self-discipline if there isn’t anything wrong with them (in some cases, not all)? We discipline ourselves to avoid bad things.
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I’m not really sure what you meant by ‘bad words’. I assumed cuss words.
 
The Roman Catholic priest Father Andrew Greeley, uses all kinds of swearing and cussing in his best selling novels, and no one seems to object. And the Catholic Father uses by-words close to profaninty and I don’'t see any objections being raised. For example, in one novel, when someone is angry, they will exclaim: Jaysus!
Now I thought that before Vatican II, the use of God’s name in vain or the use of His Divine Son’s Name in vain would be a serious sin as it is directly against one of the Ten Commandments. And the use of by-words, such as the term Jaysus that Father Greeley uses, would also be wrong. I don;t know if the RCC has changed its teaching on that after Vatican II, but I don’t see anyone objecting to the cussing, swearing and profanity in Father Greeley’s novels.
 
bobzills said:
The Roman Catholic priest Father Andrew Greeley, uses all kinds of swearing and cussing in his best selling novels, and no one seems to object. And the Catholic Father uses by-words close to profaninty and I don’'t see any objections being raised. For example, in one novel, when someone is angry, they will exclaim: Jaysus!
Now I thought that before Vatican II, the use of God’s name in vain or the use of His Divine Son’s Name in vain would be a serious sin as it is directly against one of the Ten Commandments. And the use of by-words, such as the term Jaysus that Father Greeley uses, would also be wrong. I don;t know if the RCC has changed its teaching on that after Vatican II, but I don’t see anyone objecting to the cussing, swearing and profanity in Father Greeley’s novels.
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You should try a google search. I have seen plenty of people who are quite critical of Fr. Greely’s novels and find them very problematic.
 
Caesar517 said:
I mean words that would normally be censored.
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I just don’t believe in cussing. I do it when extremely angry, out of habit and weakness, but I don’t like it and consider it a breach of proper conduct.🙂
 
I find the intent behind the words to be the sin. If I drop a hammer on my foot and use a colorful expletive to express my shock and pain, that’s a whole different thing from reacting in anger towards another person and questioning the validity of their parent’s marriage.

It’s the inappropriate anger that is the sin, not the word.
 
KingAlfred said:
I just don’t believe in cussing. I do it when extremely angry, out of habit and weakness, but I don’t like it and consider it a breach of proper conduct.🙂
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I can certainly understand and respect that.
Fitswimmer said:
I find the intent behind the words to be the sin… It’s the inappropriate anger that is the sin, not the word.
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This is my view as well.
 
Joe_5859 said:
You should try a google search. I have seen plenty of people who are quite critical of Fr. Greely’s novels and find them very problematic.
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But does his bishop raise any objection? Consider the words that the Catholic priest uses? If there were a problem with them, why doesn’t his bishop make some comment?
 
bobzills said:
But does his bishop raise any objection? Consider the words that the Catholic priest uses? If there were a problem with them, why doesn’t his bishop make some comment?
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I couldn’t really answer that. You’d have to ask Cardinal George. It usually takes a lot for a bishop to publicly criticize one of his own priests. And if Cardinal George has said anything to Fr. Greely privately about it, you or I will never know.

I wasn’t trying to say that Fr. Greeley has been censured or anything like that. You made the point that “no one seems to object” to Fr. Greeley’s novels, and I know that I have seen and heard people objecting to Fr. Greely’s novels. Are any of these people his bishop? Not that I have seen. But there are objections are out there.

I just did a quick google search for “Greeley” and “racy novels” and got 25 hits. Not all of the hits are for Fr. Greely, but most of them are. Anyone who describes his novels as “racy” is probably someone who has issues with them.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I couldn’t really answer that. You’d have to ask Cardinal George. It usually takes a lot for a bishop to publicly criticize one of his own priests. And if Cardinal George has said anything to Fr. Greely privately about it, you or I will never know.

I wasn’t trying to say that Fr. Greeley has been censured or anything like that. You made the point that “no one seems to object” to Fr. Greeley’s novels, and I know that I have seen and heard people objecting to Fr. Greely’s novels. Are any of these people his bishop? Not that I have seen. But there are objections are out there.

I just did a quick google search for “Greeley” and “racy novels” and got 25 hits. Not all of the hits are for Fr. Greely, but most of them are. Anyone who describes his novels as “racy” is probably someone who has issues with them.
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OK. Thanks for the reference.
The novels started before the present Cardinal, and if there were a serious objection, it seems like things would have changed a bit from how they started many, many years ago under the previous Cardinal.
 
I don’t know about y’all and sins about cursing, but it just doesn’t sound nice, so I don’t do it.

Why I couldn’t watch the Sopranos, it gets old after a few minutes.
 
Fitswimmer said:
I find the intent behind the words to be the sin. If I drop a hammer on my foot and use a colorful expletive to express my shock and pain, that’s a whole different thing from reacting in anger towards another person and questioning the validity of their parent’s marriage.

It’s the inappropriate anger that is the sin, not the word.
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Interesting point. She and I had this conversation again yesterday and I brought up some of your posts. I asked her, as many of you have, what sin (specifically outlined in the catechism, big 10, or papal writings) did he commit. She said “he knows I don’t allow that language”, which I agree, in that case he’s not honoring his parents. I also can easily follow the logic of cussing at SOMEONE with anger.

Let’s change the scenario slightly. Let’s say, as this poster did, that he’s a grown man and he swore at the situation he was experiencing, or at an inanimate object. Or, the more common usage, using a cuss word in substitution for another word - such as using the F-word when you mean intercourse, or the S-word when you mean fecal matter. In this case, the language is foul based on society’s standards. It’s easy to argue however that society’s standards are relatively warped considering that most people divorce, cheat on spouses, have premarital sex, kids out of wedlock,etc and they show all of this on TV (without even remotely suggesting the sinfulness) but they bleep out the F-word.

So, in the scenario I’ve just given, he’s disobeying society’s rules, not God’s rules - unless someone has found in the books I mentioned earlier where it is a sin. Again, I am NOT talking about swearing an oath or using any one of God’s many names (which they also allow on TV I might add. I hear G-D regularly and as a child argued that it wasn’t wrong because it didn’t get bleeped).

More thoughts, please! Thanks! 🙂
 
Since I voted that everyone should make a confession about cussing and swearing I guess I have to comment.

The few times I have mention to my Confessor I tend to use swear words whether it is out of anger or not , but something inside me tells me it is wrong to swear as it is disrespectful to God. So whenever I go to confession add that because I think it is sinful to use swear words.
 
CatholiCommit said:
Since I voted that everyone should make a confession about cussing and swearing I guess I have to comment.

The few times I have mention to my Confessor I tend to use swear words whether it is out of anger or not , but something inside me tells me it is wrong to swear as it is disrespectful to God. So whenever I go to confession add that because I think it is sinful to use swear words.
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👍
Good post.
That how its always been to me too… less before I became a Christian and after I became a Christian it was totally clear for me that cussing and swearing is just not right, anywhere or at any time. If sometimes one of these words come out I apologize to God immediately and I also mention it in confession.
My knowlege of that it is sinful is so immenely clear that even if a mystic or a very gifted prophet would tell me otherwise I would still hold on to what I believe to be true.
I believe that even though its not taught in the Bible explicitly: “you must not use profanity”… the teaching is there nevertheless implicitly so strongly expressed.
Its also logical… We are called to holiness and purity and for God to take over and transform every area of our lives. If the tongue is not tamed and transformed then the whole world will not see Christ in that person whatever other Christian virtue he has, because the use of cussing and swearing shows so little maturity, discipline and feeling for the Heart of our Lord.
 
I voted yes, that it requires a confession. Though, I’d like to add that for kids, who may not have understood what they were saying, confession may not be necessary, but I would encourage it anyways, so they have a future understanding that what they did was uncalled for and to avoid it.

On a personal note, I have a problem with swearing. It’s called casual swearing, as you may know. This is when you curse or utter profanities around friends, family, and people you’re comfortable with and who are comfortable with you. It’s a chance to let loose and be stupid. When you’re talking this nonsense it’s funny, but fortunately confession is there to sober me up.

I’m a moral, decent, upright person, and I only curse around the people I’m closest with, but I know this is no excuse, and it’s why I require confession, if only for my own personal safety. Also, if they’re really so close to me, theres no need to talk to/with them like that. They deserve better.

It’s so easy to get carried away when you’re ‘on a roll’ with a lewd series of jokes or you’re impersonating a comedian or stage comic (like the late George Carlin). I’ve been guilty of this, and I intend to confess it in my next confession. Have I done something horribly wrong that will damn me to hell? I don’t think so. But it does hurt my soul, makes the angels flee, the demons come, and it delutes you as a person and makes you susceptible to further decline in this behavior as it goes on. It can and does become habitual.

It’s insidious as well as casual. Alot of cursing comes from the desire to be funny or amusing, or to make others feel better, and while your heart is in the right place, our words aren’t and there are better ways to handle a situation.

As for cursing done out of anger, rage, and even hatred, these types of profanities are even more dangerous and definitely in need of confession. That’s how I feel.
 
The_Otaku said:
I’m a moral, decent, upright person, and I only curse around the people I’m closest with, but I know this is no excuse, and it’s why I require confession, if only for my own personal safety. Also, if they’re really so close to me, theres no need to talk to/with them like that. They deserve better.

It’s so easy to get carried away when you’re ‘on a roll’ with a lewd series of jokes or you’re impersonating a comedian or stage comic (like the late George Carlin). I’ve been guilty of this, and I intend to confess it in my next confession. Have I done something horribly wrong that will damn me to hell? I don’t think so. But it does hurt my soul, makes the angels flee, the demons come, and it delutes you as a person and makes you susceptible to further decline in this behavior as it goes on. It can and does become habitual.

It’s insidious as well as casual. Alot of cursing comes from the desire to be funny or amusing, or to make others feel better, and while your heart is in the right place, our words aren’t and there are better ways to handle a situation.

As for cursing done out of anger, rage, and even hatred, these types of profanities are even more dangerous and definitely in need of confession. That’s how I feel.
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Excellent post ! 👍 Couldn’t have said it better my self. Must also admit though, that I have never had to justify that cussing and swearing was ungodly behaviour until I came to CAF… that supprised me and I got quite dissapointed thinh´king: Why is it that what is evident to all the Christians that I have met so far is not evident to some of the serious Catholic brothers here?
 
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