Cursing

[nobspeople]

Recently, a Netflix documentary speaks about the history of a handful of curse/swear words.
Growing up, I always noticed a distinct difference in what one group considers 'swear words' (as they called it) and what another group didn't.
Before the age of 10 I had figured out it's more about what the words means or what the word is attempting to convey than it is about the word itself (saying "Ah crap!" means the same as saying "Ah s**t!", just with different words).

I worked with a preacher who used the F word with his wife (when he was fired they cleaned out his desk and found a letter he wrote to her with included the F would multiple times is how we knew) and he didn't seem to have any issues with it (though it must be said I never heard him say it while angry at work).

Another church member I grew up with had a certain word she didn't think was 'bad' that she would say, but everyone else in her family and in the church thought it a 'bad word'.


For discussion:
How do (or should) Christians approach swear or curse words in daily life?
Are they OK? Does it depend on how they're used?
And should Christians take in to account how others around them perceive the words they use?

And please please please don't allow this thread to devolve in to the specific words and name calling.


œ Mods: I tried to make sure no rules were broken in the beginning of this thread.

[nobspeople]

...
Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don't curse.
Romans 12:14
...

What does 'curse' mean to you? How would you define it for yourself? How do you define it for all Christians? What words would be included?

In this case, it is basically the opposite of blessing, wishing something bad to other, as told for example in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse

Nowadays cursing may mean that person uses certain words that are considered bad, but it is not necessarily intentional wish for bad. In that case I think it is an “idle word”, which also is not good, as Matt. 12:36 shows.

What are example of idle words?
And why are they bad?

[The Barbarian]

Profanity of any sort is not allowed on the forum, even links to definitions.

Please review the Rules.

My apologies. I'll avoid it from now on.

[1213]

...
What are example of idle words?
And why are they bad?

I have understood it means useless, empty, or meaningless.

For example, if I say that previous thing with idle word, it would be for example like this: “I have running understood it means useless, empty, or meaningless”.

Why it is bad, I think one reason is that it makes words meaningless and also that it can make it more difficult to understand what is said correctly.

[nobspeople]

[Replying to 1213 in post #34]

You say "In that case I think it is an “idle word”, which also is not good", then you say "I have understood it means useless, empty, or meaningless." Saying you have 'understood' denotes not being sure if you're understanding it right or not. How then, can you make a claim on something as it's factual or right, if you don't fully understand?

Then you try to explain it (thank you for that by the way) by saying an idle word used in this sentence: "“I have running understood it means useless, empty, or meaningless”.
That sentence makes no sense. You could exchange the word 'running' with 'meatloaf' or 'volleyball' or 'yak' and it wouldn't make any less sense. So, in your example, the idle word is so senseless as to not even need to be defined.
You show the sentence (“I have running understood it means useless, empty, or meaningless”.) to a grammarian and they'd likely not say it's an example of an idle word, but a horribly worded sentence I'd suspect.

Maybe it's a language barrier, but it seems an idle word is about as pointless as a sharp edge on a balloon - so much so it probably shouldn't even be defined.
But I'm not a grammarian so....