“Cussing Christians” and “Swearing Saints”

A certain well-known minister once shocked his audience by stating that “…millions of people are starving to death, and most of you don’t give a —-!” He went on to rebuke them by saying that “The sad thing is, most of you are more upset at my using that word than you are about people starving!” Was this the best way to make his point? That is open to debate, but it does challenge us in how we are going to define “bad words.”

As much as we might want it to, the Bible does not give us a list of “forbidden words” (and, as we shall see, uses some rather “earthy” language itself in places). So there are admittedly some “grey areas” when it comes to where the line needs to be drawn.“
“Cussing” has existed since ancient times, evolving from religious curses and oaths into expressions of anger, humor, and rebellion. In the Middle Ages, it was rightfully seen as blasphemy to use God’s name in a vain or irreverent manner. By the Renaissance, it expanded to crude or sexual terms. The Victorian era discouraged profanity, favoring polite substitutes like “darn.” Modern culture, through war and media, made cussing more common and socially accepted. So in summary, these words can be categorized in the following ways:

• Religious oaths (profanity or blasphemy): From Latin profanus (“outside the temple”); medieval blasphemies like “God’s blood” evolved into expressions such as “God d***.”
• Sexual slang (obscenity): Once neutral terms (e.g., “f-word” from Germanic “to strike”); became taboo under Christian/Victorian morality.
• Crude bodily functions (vulgarity) : Old English words for excretion/anatomy; deemed “low” as upper classes favored Latin/French.
• Social/ethnic/racial slurs: Derived from prejudice and hierarchy, not religion.

Of course,blasphemous or sacriligious terms should not be part of any Christians vocabulary (Exodus 20:7). Nor should immoral sexual talk (Ephesians 5:4) or racist or otherwise degrading language (Matthew 5:22). These principles are summed up in the following Biblical guidelines:

• “No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear.”- Ephesians 5:4

But again, outside of these common sense perimeters, we are given few concrete examples of exactly what constitutes “corrupt communication.” More often than not, the definition of “bad words” is culturally determined rather than biblically mandated, and is therefore subject to change over time.

For example, the word “gay” is now almost universally recognized as referring to homosexuality. Yet originally, it meant to be happy or light hearted. Similarly, to “have an affair” once meant to throw a dinner party or other social gathering. Now it means to commit adultery. “Grass” used to be something people mowed, now it is something people smoke!

This is noteworthy because the Bible itself even uses rather crude language on occasion. Although it is sometimes obscured by our flowery King James English, there is an in3herant “earthiness” to the Scriptures that is often overlooked. Here are some examples: