Swearing

I’m not advocating the frivolous flinging of four letter words, but a well placed “€π¢&” sometimes communicates very well.

Also, swearing might just make us stronger. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170505085015.htm

Taking the name of the Lord in vain is not the same as swearing.

The former is literally in the ten commandments and is pretty well understood to refer to things like “Oh my god” or shouting “Jesus Christ” in frustration. This is the only thing that really bothers me, especially when members do it. I’d rather hear a hundred consecutive F-bombs come out of a member’s mouth than to hear them profane the name of God.

Swearing though… Not much on that. A common misinterpretation within the Sermon on the Mount (so common it’s codified by the footnotes) is that when Jesus says something like “swear not at all,” swearing is understood to mean profanity, when really the context suggests something completely unrelated to profanity…

Some are of the opinion that “taking the lord’s name in vain” isn’t the same thing as saying “Jesus Christ,” “OMG,” “GD,” etc., they might say that this interpretation would similarly be taking a verse out of context. I don’t know for certain but I think they’re of the opinion that taking the name of the lord in vain refers to situations where people claim divine authority (sanctioned by god) but are doing things that are contrary to the will of god and doing so in god’s name.

I’ve also heard taking the name of the lord in vain used in reference to willfully sinning. When we’re baptized we “take upon us” the name of Jesus Christ. If you do this with no intention of actually following Jesus I suppose it could be said that you took god’s name [upon you] in vain.

But it doesn’t have to be one interpretation or the other. It can be some combination or none of the above. It’s up to you.

I do wonder though. How could I take the name of god in vain via a swearing pronouncement when I don’t really know god’s name. God, Elohim, Lord, Christ. Those are titles, not names. Splitting hairs. Thou shalt not use god’s titles as swears.

This is the only thing that really bothers me, especially when members do it. I’d rather hear a hundred consecutive F-bombs come out of a member’s mouth than to hear them profane the name of God.

And for me that’s the real reason not to do it. Because it really bothers some people. Some people have a really low threshold for tolerating swears. Too €π¢&ing low if you ask me. But know your company, know your environment.

Several years ago I was flying to London from the US on business. This was before they had individual movie screens, so the movies were edited down to a PG level. The movie playing was “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, which takes place in the UK. I had already seen the edited movie on a domestic flight, but watched it anyway as there was nothing else to do on the long flight (flight was LAX to LHR). The version shown was edited different that the US version. The word “bugger” was edited out of the UK version, but not the US version. I’ll leave it for homework to google the UK definition of bugger.

So, I could be at a ward party in the US, and stub my toe and say bugger in front of the bishop with not so much as a raised eyebrow. Not so much in the UK.

I believe a swear word is fully a culture construct, and God really doesn’t care what we say. What he does care about is offending others, just like United Airlines cared about offending their British customers. This reminds me of a time I was bishop, and a deacon was passing the sacrament with a skull and cross bones belt buckle. I had a talk with him, and told him that God really doesn’t care what clothes he wears when he passes the sacrament, or what belt buckle he wears. But I told him we have several older widowed sisters in the ward that might take offense to the belt buckle, and that taking the sacrament was probably the spiritual highlight of their week, so it would help if he didn’t wear that belt buckle, not for God, but for the sisters in the ward. He stopped wearing the belt buckle, but then started to wear t-shirts with logos that could be seen through his white shirt, but that another story.

Wow, I can’t believe I forgot about “Oh my heck.” I didn’t realize that was a thing until my mission (when I got dumped in with a bunch of Utah natives) and I thought it sounded dumb from the very beginning.

If the goal of not swearing is to be civilized and sound educated, using fake swears doesn’t actually solve the problem. If it’s a matter of respect, I can get behind that.

It reminds me of a funny story: In my last BYU ward, at one point, one of the BR members called out the EQ for texting the phrase “sick AF” because the F stands in for a four-letter word. The irony in it was that he went on a few sentences later to say (I can’t remember the exact context) something was “pretty frickin’ awesome.” Once I realized the hypocrisy here, I was rather amused and almost decided to call him out on it in private.

I had always found it interesting that the servant of Laban used swearing to good effect when he “Swore”/promised loyalty to Nephi and company.

As far as “commandments” go, I think it’s disadvantagous to group things into “commandments” and “not commandments”. The best precepts to live by are good in and of themselves; it doesn’t matter whether or not God declared them, or the prophets, or even if there’s a life after this one. And I believe refraining from that sort of language is a very good precept to live by.

I had a friend in HS that would smoke basil, oregano, and assorted kitchen herbs because they were not prohibited in the WoW. To the positive, at least the kitchen herbs did not seem to be addictive and he soon grew out of it. He was only focused on avoiding sin or the punishment thereof. We should use reason and thoughtfulness in our words and actions.

We make too much out of it in church. Remember J.Golden Kimball and what he was famous for? That kind of reveals what is so taboo to our culture when you think he was “edgy.” Haha. Ya…that’s edgy…my a$$. I like mormons that relax a little and laugh with a few swear words for some down to earth talk.

But isn’t that why people loved him? I don’t think I would have ever heard of him if not for the legend surrounding him, due in some part to his edginess.

We like a guy that can shoot strait. Be real. Tear down their own façade of perfection.

I really like the alternative perspective on “Taking the name of the Lord in vain.” That never really occurred to me before. I’ve thought about it more and I think I actually prefer that interpretation over the traditional one.

I was thinking the other day that perhaps it’s trying to refer to priestcraft. I’m not talking paid ministry, as I’ve come to realize that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. No. True priestcraft is much more heinous than that. Actual priestcraft is more like what you see in the Catholic Church shortly before the 95 theses. It’s when a person claims God’s authority in order to take advantage of people for his/her own gain. It’s when someone claims to have saving power which is put behind a paywall. It’s when a financial clerk pockets some of the tithing money. It’s when a bishop holds a TR for ransom and makes its holder publicly apologize in SM to get it back (I have heard of something like this). There are a lot of ways to commit priestcraft and it’s something that can be done with or without legitimate authority.

I still think it’s disrespectful to God to say “Oh my God,” but that’s nowhere near the level of priestcraft in terms of how bad it is. Much like other forms of profanity, I see it as “bad” but not necessarily “sin.”