Spokane Faith & Values

Blogs » Viewpoints

VIEWPOINTS: Is cursing included in your everyday language? Why or why not?

Cursing isn't all that unusual these days.
According to a 2006 survey conducted by Associated Press/Ipsos, 74 percent of Americans say they encountered profanity in public regularly and 66 percent agreed that people curse more today than 20 years ago.

Read the full Viewpoints question here or continue on to the response below.

Swearing is at times cathartic

I am a golfer; of course I swear. I know only one golfer who doesn’t. However, it is also useful to understand that cursing can be fairly neatly divided into three categories, scatological, eschatological, and sexual.

Depending upon the kind of person one happens to be, those categories will be invoked unevenly. Most people I know who swear are reasonably free with scatological type swearing; it is the least fraught with either theological or misogynistic pitfalls. I am of this type. Freud would doubtless suggest that I got stuck in the anal retentive phase of development, but that is the way it is.

It is also helpful to note that there is a significant difference between hurling imprecations at someone, which can become quite personal, and involve suggesting acts that are physically impossible, and swearing about some event, in my case that is usually a golf ball sailing blithely into the trees. Indeed, I never swear at people; regardless of how provoked I am I refrain from the use of old Anglo-Saxon terminology when arguing with someone, and remain firmly within the Latinate constructions and metaphors of the English language. 

Within these general parameters, I find that swearing is at times cathartic, and conduces to my overall mental and spiritual wellbeing.

Topics: Culture, Social Issues
Beliefs: Christian - Protestant/Other
Tags: categories of cussing, cursing, cursing and spiritual wellbeing, cussing and golf, scatological, eschatological, sexual and cussing

Other Responses to This Viewpoint

Practice and language

My parents raised my brother and me to be careful of our words. We weren't allowed to say demeaning things about (or to) other people.
More | Comments (0)

Cussing would ruin by personal testimony

No, because the Bible says that as a born-again Christian, I am a new creation. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!," 2 Corinthians 5:17.
More | Comments (0)

Emergency use only

I have reclassified this group of words, however.
More | Comments (0)

Comments

Add Your Comment

What number is 5th in the series six, 31, 10, thirty six and 13?

Sign In



Forgot Password?

You also can sign in with Facebook or Twitter if you've connected your account to them.

Sign In Using Facebook

Sign In Using Twitter