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QuietKarlos
Guest
I think about this a lot but should we watch things that contain bad language? Is it immoral? I would like to hear the best arguments for and against.
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Margaret_Ann
Guest
My late mother hated movies with swearing.
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QuietKarlos
Guest
Where do you think we draw the line then may I ask?
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Dolphin
Guest
Swearing I think is fine in movies but probably not for children. When movies have nudity is where I draw the line
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tommy37
Guest
I personally don’t do it because when I hear cursing I then keep getting the curse words in my head and they eventually start making their way into my speech as well. ( I am a recovering swearer!) I really hate the F word and GD. I know there are plenty of Catholics who do watch movies with lots of profanity. I would be curious if they find that curse words come into their mind and into their speech when they watch movies with profanity. I watch a lot of old movies to avoid the profanity.
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QuietKarlos
Guest
Yeah I would definitely not watch things with excessive cursing and especially not nudity. But what about if it is occasional and if you are not really ever tempted to swear
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I don’t believe swearing in and of itself, is immoral. Sure, very crude language and sexually graphic speech is a sin. But dropping an F-bomb because the car behind just rear-ended you is hardly going to land you in hell.
I think there’s a place for using “bad language”, in movies and in life. It’s certainly not every other word but it is appropriate in some situations.
My grandfather would always jokingly say “you don’t have a very good vocabulary” if I swore in front of him. He rarely used bad language, but I remember a few times when he did and it had an even greater effect than if he had been using it frequently.
I think there’s a place for using “bad language”, in movies and in life. It’s certainly not every other word but it is appropriate in some situations.
My grandfather would always jokingly say “you don’t have a very good vocabulary” if I swore in front of him. He rarely used bad language, but I remember a few times when he did and it had an even greater effect than if he had been using it frequently.
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tommy37
Guest
I think if it’s just occasional in the film and if you’re not tempted to curse then it’s probably not a big deal. I think a lot of it comes down to if we are going to be tempted. For instance, I can’t watch the home shows on HGTV because I then start wishing I had a better house and start to hate my house. So I avoid it like the plague (or like the Coronavirus!) I just have to laugh at so many of these modern films that I look up on the IMDB website and there’s like 147 F words and a host of other curse words. I think that’s ridiculous.
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Irishmom2
Guest
I think that sometimes, you have to look at the context of what you are watching. If I am watching a war movie or a police show I am going to hear cursing. No two way about it. Their situations would not be realistic if they said “oh, fudge! It looks like those bad guys have dangerous stuff!
Hearing it is not a sin.
Hearing it is not a sin.
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RolandThompsonGunner
Guest
Immoral for who? It might be immoral for a parent to let their impressionable child watch a movie with a lot of bad language. It might not be immoral for an adult who is going to better able to keep in mind it’s just a movie. I don’t think you can have a single rule across the board.
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RolandThompsonGunner
Guest
“Jeepers! Those gosh darn jerks are robbing the bank! Jiminy crickets!”
Somehow I don’t feel like that would resonate with most adults, because they’re going to immediately realize that no one in that situation would actually talk like that.
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Irishmom2
Guest
This totally works if you can hear it in Jimmy Stewart’s voice.
Not so much for todays actors.
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RolandThompsonGunner
Guest
I mean, certain topics really can’t be portrayed in a family friendly way. I remember someone once criticizing The Exorcist because it had “disturbing, blasphemous imagery.” It’s like, well, yeah. It’s a movie about it demonic possession. That kinda comes with the territory. It’s like complaining that a war movie is violent.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I don’t like to watch movies with blasphemy (i.e. what I consider blasphemy by my standards).
I don’t mind movies with non-blasphemous swear words, if they fit the characters who are speaking. I am aware of people who use certain swear words like normal parts of speech. Sometimes I swear myself in a non-blasphemous way. Some people hate swearing, and hopefully the people would not talk like that in a situation requiring more formal or polite speech (I’m quite capable of controlling my speech), but let’s face it, if you have a movie full of gangsters they are not going to sit around talking like they’re having tea with the Queen.
The whole “should WE” watch this or that implies there’s one universal set of standards for all. In reality, there isn’t. Many movies out there are fine for mature adults and film buffs but would be totally inappropriate for an impressionable teenager or for Family Movie Night.
I don’t mind movies with non-blasphemous swear words, if they fit the characters who are speaking. I am aware of people who use certain swear words like normal parts of speech. Sometimes I swear myself in a non-blasphemous way. Some people hate swearing, and hopefully the people would not talk like that in a situation requiring more formal or polite speech (I’m quite capable of controlling my speech), but let’s face it, if you have a movie full of gangsters they are not going to sit around talking like they’re having tea with the Queen.
The whole “should WE” watch this or that implies there’s one universal set of standards for all. In reality, there isn’t. Many movies out there are fine for mature adults and film buffs but would be totally inappropriate for an impressionable teenager or for Family Movie Night.
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MeganCecilia
Guest
No! That’s so hard to avoid. As long as children are not hearing the swearing and it is not excessive I do not see it as being immoral. Just think of how the movies/media are affecting your heart. Do they cause you to sin or have sinful thoughts? Then don’t watch it.
Don’t be too meticulous or you won’t be able to watch anything
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AlNg
Guest
Of course it is wrong. Who do you think takes a more serious view of their religion: Muslims or Roman Catholics?
At the slightest blasphemy against Mohammed (pbuh) we see Muslims demonstrating wildly in the streets demanding this to be rectified.
Now Catholics have the 10 Commandments. What does the second commandment say:
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord the God in vain. Yet many Catholics and even Christians don’t seem to mind (at least i don’t see them demonstrating outside the theater) when the Holy Name of Our Divine Lord is taken in vain even in PG 13 movies? The American authorities think that the rating of PG 13 makes it perfectly all right to use the Holy Name of J— as an expletive even in front of 13 year olds. Well if Roman Catholics don’t object to this but pay good hard earned money to hear this blasphemous use of the Holy Name of Our Lord, then what our we supposed to think?
the bible condemns cussing also:
Ephesians 4: 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Col 3: 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
In Russia, after May 2014, any new film containing profane language will not be given a distribution certificate, so it can’t be seen at a movie theater. Copies of films with cussing have to be distributed in a sealed package labeled as containing obscene language.
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Freddy
Guest
I guess a few people won’t be watching any films featuring Samuel L Jackson then. He mentions his mother quite a lot…
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Two words: Pulp Fiction. The Fs, GDs, MFs, and N-words fall down like hailstones in a storm. At that point it just becomes background noise. When Jules (Samuel L Jackson) called Vincent (John Travolta) the N-word when they were washing the blood off their hands, I had to do a double-take — “did I just hear what I think I heard?”. Again, background noise. Definitely not for kids, but great movie — nothing you could really even call nudity (you see Bruce Willis very briefly from the back) and only two fleeting sex scenes, one of which was a rape.Irishmom2:
“Jeepers! Those gosh darn jerks are robbing the bank! Jiminy crickets!”
Somehow I don’t feel like that would resonate with most adults, because they’re going to immediately realize that no one in that situation would actually talk like that.
If you sought to shield yourself from hearing or reading any cursing whatsoever, you could not even read the passage from the Bible, Matthew 5:22 (DRV), “But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” That, too, is cursing. We were discouraged from using the word “fool” when I was growing up, for that very reason.
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christismylord
Guest
I must politely disagree:
(James 1:26) “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”
(James 3:10) “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”
(Matthew 5:11) “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
(Matthew 12:36) “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,”
(Colossians 3:8) “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”
Blessings,
@christismylord
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