Proliferation of Public Profanity

A Cultural -- and Spiritual -- Problem

By Tim Wildmon
April 6, 2006

(AgapePress) - Perhaps you saw the same survey I saw the other day about Americans and public profanity. It said that we the people are cursing more frequently and using words that were once considered taboo in public. I was probably 12 years old when I first heard the "f" word used by a neighborhood kid. I even asked my parents what it meant because I had no idea. Talk about an awkward moment for a parent. Today, however, you frequently hear words such as this out in the open.

A few weeks back I was on an airplane and the 25-year-old male a few seats over was yaking on his cell phone, letting everyone in on his business that none of us cared about. About every 60 seconds he felt the need to use the "f" word. I don't know if that made him feel more adult or what. Later in the airport waiting on a connecting flight, there was a lady, about 50, talking loudly on her cell phone. I heard her twice use the "f" word in what sounded like a casual conversation. Then while I walked at a local park earlier this week some teenage boys were playing basketball. One of them called another one a "mf" just as casual as you please. They were not in a fight, they were just talking to one another.

Raw profanity has become an acceptable part of popular culture today.

Rap music -- the most popular music among young people today -- is filled with gutter language. They play it loudly in their cars. Movies and television programs use hard profanity on a regular basis. In a way, we have become desensitized to it. This has been the goal of Hollywood for many years. There was a time before the mid-60s when foul language was not used on television, in movies or popular music.

But today many people mock you if you complain about public profanity. They say it's just the way people talk today and the language one uses doesn't matter. My question then is, why use words like "f" and "mf" and "gd" in public if language doesn't matter? Why didn't the teenage boy on the basketball court just say, "Give me the ball, John," instead of "Give me the ball 'mf'?" Why did certain words come out of the young man's mouth and not others? I contend most people who use foul language intentionally do so because they understand the words themselves represent rebellion against societal norms -- or what used to be societal norms. Otherwise, why use that kind of language? It's an attention grabber. Then, after using profanity for a long period of time, it does become second nature -- just the way people talk.

This article was excerpted from Agape Press. Click on the title for the rest of the article.