Swearing

[deb1]

Tonks40:

I knew about this many years ago. That’s why I’m trying awfully hard to say “oh boy!” and “oh my goodness!” (tho the later could be construed to refer to our Lord) instead of “gosh” etc…

Semantics!

If gosh and gee are substititues for God then saying Oh boy! or Oh my goodness! as substitutes for those words is still the same as saying God. Aren’t the substitutes of your substitutes everybit as wrong?

If you are taking what are private sins and applying them to others then you are stepping onto the road of fundamentalism.

Besides why are we taking seriously a website in which the writer raises the possibility that Pope John Paul was only a legal pope but not a moral one?

 

[NiceFundamental]

deb1:

If you are taking what are private sins and applying them to others then you are stepping onto the road of fundamentalism.

Good morning deb1. Just wondering if you could provide futher info on “private sins?”

 

[deb1]

NiceFundamental:

Good morning deb1. Just wondering if you could provide futher info on “private sins?”

PErhaps I worded that badly. I meant personal sins.

An example would be addiction to perscription drugs. Two people can be perscriped medication for the same type of pain. One might get addicted while the other doesn’t. Should the one who gets addicted be able to claim that any use of that medication is wrong? Of course not.

The same can be said with certain words. In my mind I am not secretly thinking H*ll when I say Heck or God when I say Gez. Therefore saying such words causes no problems to me.

 

[ShaunH]

I’m going to confession tomorrow and I need to know which phrases I should stop saying. A few questionable ones I say a lot are “Oh my gosh”, “God forbid”, and “Holy ****”. Is it a mortal sin to say these things?

 

[nahbios]

I’m going to confession tomorrow and I need to know which phrases I should stop saying. A few questionable ones I say a lot are “Oh my gosh”, “God forbid”, and “Holy ****”. Is it a mortal sin to say these things?

I personally don’t believe the first one is (but I say it myself, so maybe I’m biased).

I’d imagine “God forbid” is okay if you say it with due reverence.

The only one I can’t answer is on “Holy ****”. I’m only learning about the gravity of sinfulness of these swearwords and euphemisms myself so I’m afraid I couldn’t say.

 

[LanD]

I once read that you can’t say “holy cow” or “holy smoke” or anything of the like either, because of a verse in the Bible that said something like “Holy is God’s name” or something like that(I forget). This is hard for me because I say those out of habit when I’m impressed or something but I don’t think about it as using God’s name at all. I’m try to not say them anymore but I find myself doing it at times automatically out of habit…

This can’t be right can it be?

 

[nahbios]

Yeah, it’s very tricky to kick a habit like that. I thought that saying something like “Oh my gosh” or “Janey mac” was perfectly harmless, but reading some of the posts here puts even that in doubt for me…even that “for goodness’ sake” makes too close a reference to God to be used. I’ve read somewhere (on the web) that even “for crying out loud” is objectable but, to be frank, I just don’t see how!!

My instinct was that if it’s just some phrase that is intended as nothing but an exclamation of surprise/excitement/shock/annoyance/disgust and doesn’t use God’s name or the names of Our Lady or saints/angels etc., it’s perfectly fine to use.

If euphemisms like “oh my gosh” (which I use quite a lot), or possibly “darn” and “heck”, or “oh my goodness” and “for crying out loud” cannot be used…then what do we do when we experience surprise/excitement/shock/etc?? Stay silent?? The instinct to express ourselves verbally is there and I just think that forbidding phrases like (at least some) of the above is OTT.

 

[Haliit]

Mark Shea on Swearing and Vulgarity

 

[Renko]

Gee is not swearing or taking God’s name in vain, it actually means to got to the right. Look it up in the dictionary. Driving a team of horses, the driver would yell to the team gee haw!

 

[nahbios]

Mark Shea on Swearing and Vulgarity

A much more rational source than the sedevacantist site mentioned above. Thanks for that, Haliit.

 

[Thing]

…If euphemisms like “oh my gosh” (which I use quite a lot), or possibly “darn” and “heck”, or “oh my goodness” and “for crying out loud” cannot be used…then what do we do when we experience surprise/excitement/shock/etc?? Stay silent?? The instinct to express ourselves verbally is there …:

We become like Vulcans. Then we can ask - “Are You Out Of Your Vulcan Mind !??”

 

[JustaServant]

I’m with thistle on this one.

I remember as a boy the nuns used to utter what they called ejaculations when they were startled or surprised. They were usually fragments of a prayer. The ubiquitous “Oh my God!” seems to me to be the first line of the Act of Contrition.
I wonder if all those folks shouting out their surprise on “trading spaces” know that they are praying?

IIRC the proscription is on taking the Lords name in vain not on not using it at all. So an occasional “Geez Louise” or a “Cheese and Crackers” is not necessarily a problem.

What’s the old joke? “Those who don’t believe in Gosh will be darned to Heck.”

Obscenity or scatological remarks, while not necessarily a polite indicator of a robust intellect, are not profanity.

I wonder what the Pope says when he stubs his toe going to the bathroom in the middle of the night…and is it in German?

Curses Martin Luther?

Jesus does tell us about every idle word. The problem in our society are not words one would find on an old Andy Griffith show sitcom, its far worse than that. We have become so depraved as a society, we accept the most obsene language as normal.

 

[puzzleannie]

using gosh or golly can be a help to someone trying to break the bad habit of using the Lord’s name in vain, or cussing in general, because, yes it is a substitute for the other words, in the same way one might say “freaking” unstead the anglo-saxon term it replaces. They are both rather casual, slang, could be vulgar in some contexts, but are genuine attempts to speak more wisely. Obviously no one who uses those words–or any words–with intent to sin has in fact committed a sin, so no they would not need to confess. OP did not intend sin in they hypothetical case posed, so no sin happened. Nor would there be a sin in anything other than what the sacrament forbids. Swearing means using the name of God to promise something frivolous, rather than a solemn oath, and cursing means just that, calling on God to punish someone, taking a privilege reserved to God alone. That is why it is vain. any casual use of God’s name as an epithet is covered. Jesus further adds to this command using abusive language to a brother or anyone else.

 

[James_N]

Isn’t there a bible verse in which Paul curses? It seems that I read that the literal translation of one of the words that he uses means human excrement. I can’t remember what verse that is. He was doing this for emphasis, to get his point across. The word he used was translated in English to something less offensive. Does anyone know what verse I am referring to?

This is correct. In Phil 3:8 the word translated as “rubbish” or “refuse” would be more accurately translated “dung” + the power of a crudeness/expletive. It’s a word many other early church fathers avoided and which I’ve heard was used as graffiti.