Pray Network Forum

Do you use profanity in your writing? Frankly, I have been alarmed lately at the amount of profanity I have found in books and motion pictures. I won't argue with you, at least at this point, if you tell me that I should not be reading those books or watching those movies. For now I just want to deal with the phenomenon. First, while all of these words represent bitterness and rebellion, there are actually at least four separate categories of profanity.

First, there is language that is just nasty. This includes bathroom talk and other course words. These begin with course humor, but tend to normalize the coarsest thinking.

The intent behind these words often leads to sexual language. Such words are usually titillating. But they include the most violent of curse words that degrade sexual relations and abuse women.

I would also include racial slurs as profane. Profanity abuses that which is sacred. A person's race is God-given. Also, racial slurs usually lie outrageously. I don't believe Hitler invented racial jokes, but demeaning whole people groups was certainly pushed forward by the Nazis. This is one area of profanity that is usually avoided by writers.

Finally, there is blasphemous language. This includes language that treats hell or other truths lightly. And it extends to taking the name of God in vain.

Note that I did not include a fifth category of words of hate, violence, and abuse. I am aware that you may be able to think of hateful words that don't fit into these four categories. But words from all four of these categories can be used to abuse.

If you ask fiction writers why their characters use filthy language, they will tell you that they are trying to accurately reflect life. I do not know if I am extremely sheltered or not. But to be honest, I never hear people talk as bad as I read in books or have seen on television or in movies. Nevertheless, I think there is some truth to this. We have descended to the place in our society where even our highest political officials regularly use foul language and attack other people mercilessly. The corruption of our society is a great part of my concern. Jesus said that the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart. Ungodly speech reflects wicked hearts. And when we use bad language in our writing, we also make our society more blasphemous and violent.

This is a more complex problem then I have shown it to be so far. While I would like to influence writers to guard our language, I would like this to be more than a rant against society. I would like to make this a matter of prayer. After all, I am primarily writing to Christian writers in this blog.

In the 6th chapter of Isaiah the prophet says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah was convicted of their unclean hearts and lips because he had experienced the presence of God. And I believe the solution to the problem is to expose people by our writing to the reality and presence of the living God.

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                “There is power in the name of Jesus. He will break every chain.” (Gospel music played in the background at the viewing of the body of Michael Brown)

                At noon yesterday, family members and friends gathered for a private viewing of Brown’s body in St. Louis. His mother said “they say tomorrow is going to be the hardest day, but I think today was.”

                The black 18-year-old was shot by a white police officer on August 9. Brown’s father said he didn’t want protesters at the funeral, since what their son needs is a moment of silence.

                Just before the viewing was finished, the Rev. Charles Ewing, the late teen’s great-uncle led the family and friends in prayer. “Help us, Lord, to get through this. Help us bind together in the spirit of unity and let peace prevail. Let joy prevail. Let harmony prevail. In the mighty name of Jesus. Help us to keep our minds stayed on You, for You said You would keep in perfect peace those whose mind is stayed on You. There shall be glory after this.”

                Racial discrimination has a long and sad history, but the Bible consistently condemns it. If we go back far enough, we’re all related (Genesis 1:26-28; 3:20). God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). Evidence from genetic science points to the unity of the human race. The Human Genome Project shows that the human genome sequence is almost exactly the same (99.9%) in all people.  

                The parable of the good Samaritan exposes the wrong of the ethnic prejudice between Jews and the Samaritans (a mixed race). Jesus told His followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19)—all ethnic groups. Paul taught that unity among different ethnic and racial groups in the church witnesses to the world of the wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). God’s plan is the unification of diverse kinds of human beings in one body, the church of Jesus Christ.

                It is terrible when Christians of any racial background exclude others from their churches. This is antithetical to the glorious future God promises (Revelation 7:9-10). 

                Some of us grew up singing “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” He still loves them, and they are still precious.

                So what color is God’s skin?  The Up with People song gets it right—“It is red, it is yellow, it is black, it is white; everyone’s the same in the good Lord’s sight.”

                In yesterday’s Washington Post, Columbia University’s Fredrick Harris asked the question, “When does a moment become a movement?” He wrote, “Events such as the killing of unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown can provide the moral shock that political movements need to build their ranks and bring attention to a community’s afflictions.” Whether or not what happened in Ferguson, Missouri sparks a movement remains to be seen. But in the shadows of grief, the vision of peace still inspires hope in believing hearts.

                I can almost hear echoes of Martin Luther King, Jr. quoting Amos 5:24—”Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  

Johnny R. Almond

Christian preacher and writer

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

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