Words You Wouldn't Read in the Bible

Whenever I have to say the phrase, “Well, that’s just the way it is,” to my kids, I always ask myself, Why am I defending something I don’t understand? Swearing is one of these things. I honestly can’t give my kids a good reason why there are some words that are forbidden. And when I fumble over my explanation to them, they look at me as if to say, “What’s the big deal?” And can’t help but agree with them. I mean, they’re just words after all.

I would even argue that swearing is actually a healthy thing. Bottling up aggression is never a good thing and spouting out a few choice words may just be the thing to lighten the frustration – at least until the real issue is resolved. Because I work with computers every day, I often get pegged as the on-hand tech guy for various people. Typically, when people come up to me frazzled and rattling off the numerous things that they’ve been trying to get their computer to do something, my first response is, “Well, did you try swearing?” That question alone typically allows the person to smile and lighten the tension enough to start thinking straight, which often leads to their solution.

Swearing would also undoubtedly cause much fewer deaths if road rage amounted to only yelling profanity, opposed to yanking out a firearm. Granted, driving is never a good place to take out your frustrations and it bothers me when opposing drivers direct their comments at me thereby setting me into a foul mood. But I certainly find it easier to brush of someone’s, “You stupid little #%*@%$(%#*)#@^#@!!!!” than a bullet in the skull.

Prior to writing this post, I tried to do a little research on the history of swearing, but there seems to be no definitive source of where it originated. Most people tend to agree that some profanity came from saying degrading comments toward God or the local major religion or deity. And then others simply came from taking a negative or disgusting thing and relating it to a disliked person, like calling someone a “feces” head or an equivalent. In both of these cases, I certainly agree the hesitance toward using such language. However, both of these cases use the words with intent. But if there’s no intent behind the words, then they’re just words.

This brings me back to my kids. When one of them rattles off a “blankity-blank” that they heard from a friend without meaning any ill intent and then asks me why they can’t say these, what do I tell them? Because frankly, I don’t know.