The Blind Side contains 10 sexual references, 3 scatological terms, 8 anatomical terms, and 7 mild obscenities.
No, I’m not the one who counted them. Leave that to some Christian watchdog group. I mean, who else counts cuss words?
For instance, in 2005, Family Media Guide rated Oscar-nominated films and awarded Crash with the most profanity in the category of a Best Motion Picture. The movie contained a whopping 182 incidents of foul language, twice as much as its nearest competitor, which happened to be Brokeback Mountain with 92 expletives. However, Brokeback did trump Crash in two categories: 28 episodes of cigarette smoking compared to 6, and 22 incidents of sex opposed to 16.
I suppose these kinds of moral grading systems on films or books is helpful to some, but to me they create more questions than answers.
For example, when I was growing up, my parents banned the word “crap” from my vocabulary. Being the only kid on the block having such a muzzle seemed unfair. I mean, “poop” just didn’t cut it. Nowadays, however, “crap” doesn’t carry the same weight. (Neither does “poop” come to think of it.)
It’s true of many terms. For instance, it used to be that if someone “sucked” they were performing a sexual act. However, the use of that term has changed. Now…
In fact, actor Dennis Leary even challenges us to Suck On.
Which leaves me wondering, Is “suck” a bad word anymore?
Okay, so the acceptance (or rejection) of swearwords is often dependent upon one’s era, geography, culture or lack thereof. One of my all-time favorite reads is G.K. Chesterton’s, The Man Who Was Thursday, a brilliant apologetic fable which is routinely considered his greatest work of fiction. Chesterton was an avowed Christian. Nevertheless, the novel is sprinkled with mild expletives like “go to hell” (ch. 9), “damn it all” (ch. 2), and my favorite, “You great fat, blasted, blear-eyed, blundering, thundering, brainless, Godforsaken, doddering, damned fool!” (ch. 10). I’m unsure what has happened in the century since that book was first published, yet I can’t help but wonder if Chesterton’s masterpiece would survive the scalpels of contemporary Christian editors.
The same is true for the Bible. For instance, Jesus called Herod a “fox” in Luke 13:32—a term which, culturally, could have meant anything from clown, to jerk, to jackass. In fact, some religious folks are shocked to discover that old King James’s version of Scripture can get a bit dicey. Forget about “pee”—the good king goes straight to “pisseth” (I Sam. 25:22, I Kings 14:10, II Kings 9:8 KJV). Furthermore, “ass” and “bastard” are employed frequently in the earlier editions of God’s Word (which also includes examples of asses and bastards in living color).
This presents an interesting dichotomy: Even if I read the Old KJV and believe it, I cannot write like it and still be published in some Christian circles.
So while most of us would agree about the inappropriateness of certain 
expletives, as well as biblical exhortations to mind our manners, inevitably, each of us must draw lines concerning what is and is not offensive. But who’s drawing them and where they’re drawn is another story.
For instance, what amount of cussing (or sex or smoking) is unacceptable? If you live in a monastery, probably all of it. On the other hand, I work with a group of guys who speak only in four-letter words. Were I to demand they filter their filth, I’d become a laughingstock. Or unemployed. So perhaps it depends on what world you live in. For most of us, all variations of the “F-word” are unacceptable. (Although nowadays, people use “flippin’”, “freakin’” and “friggin’” to the same end. Should these words be outlawed too?)
Note: I have heard from some publishers that flippin’ is allowable, but friggin’ is not. Why? Friggin is phonetically closer to the F-word in its various constructions.
Anyway, it makes me wonder whether or not we’ve sorely missed the mark, whether or not we are straining at gnats and swallowing camels (Matt. 23:24). Instead of celebrating quality craftsmanship and engaging the world with our stories, we’ve become moral policemen, cruising the movie theater or book store, passing out citations for the most “asses,” “F-words” and cigarettes smoked.
I once heard a preacher open his sermon by saying, “The world is going to hell and most of you don’t give a damn.” After a pregnant, rather uncomfortable pause, he said, “And the problem is, most of you are more concerned I just said ‘damn,’ than that the world is going to hell.”
I wonder that the same applies to Christians in the arts.
Like my idol, Chesterton, I yearn for the glorious day when I can raise my literary voice and say without fear of censure: “You great fat, blasted, blear-eyed, blundering, thundering, brainless, Godforsaken, doddering, damned fool!”
But sadly, I fear that day is a long way off.
Interesting post. You have some good insight. I want to know why your book is not available on the kindle? I want to read it!
What about context and proportion?
No one is saying people should spout of profanity in church or everyday conversation. No one’s saying certain words don’t have weight and/or contempt behind them. Writing-wise, no one’s advocating gratuitously inserting profanity for shock value where inappropriate for the story and audience.
A writer has to create credible settings populated by authentic characters. Show- not Tell is the first rule of fiction. Christian writers have to pursue their calling with strict conviction, but that conviction, that responsibility, cuts both ways.
To be credible, some of those characters do and say bad things. (Just like in real life) It’s disingenuous, even insulting, to have evil characters act half-christian for fear of offending somebody’s religious sensibilities. It’s also a violation of the writer’s responsibility. Sensitivity is fine, but at some point, deliberate inconsistencies in setting and characterization are sloppy and stupid.
(The same rule applies to representing Christian characters. Don’t make them vile hypocrites and insist they’re authentic representations of the faith. )
Critics not only trot out the same couple Scriptures – often missing the principles – but also threaten to be “deeply offended”, as if it’s a trump card that ends the debate. Now it’s a question of proportion.
If you really want to be deeply offended, go to Amnesty International or Voice of the Martyrs. Watch the “Smartest Guys in the Room” about the Enron fiasco. Read up on child soldiers or sex trafficking. Stop getting your knickers in a twist about fictional characters uttering cuss words.
You’re straining out f—ing gnats and swallowing the whole d–n camel. Life is too short and too important to waste indignation on trivial indelicacies.
I wonder how many of those that are afraid of a general curse word is able to remember how Jesus cursed in scriptures?
What?
You mean you don’t remember any of those instances?
Okay, I’ll name a couple for you and you can look up the rest on your own.
One instance is when J.C. and the boyz were heading into Jerusalem and a fig tree was displaying its leaves which was an indication that it should have had fruit on it. Jesus thought he was going to have himself a holy snack when he found no fruit even thought the leaves were there. He got pissed off and cursed the tree. The boyz were surprised, but they went on into the city. On the way back out (after Jesus had overturned some tables and had some other choice words to say), they found the tree withered up from the root.
Then there was another time when he was yelling at the Pharisees and Sadducees and called them “unwashed tombs” and a “brood of vipers”. How different is any of that than calling a person a “bastard” or a “son of a bitch” today? What he had to say was equally piercing words that were quite insulting to those he was talking to.
And as far as the word “fuck” that most have shortened and one other used quite blatantly, I’ve heard a story that was told personally to me by more than one person and have seen variations online when I look it up.
The story goes that there was this village in Europe that had a unique way of dealing with adultery and when they found someone caught in adultery that person had to carry around a board on their shoulders with the capital letters of “F” “U” “C” “K” on it. Those letters stood for “Found Using Carnal Knowledge” and was apparently the basis for the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, but by then the word was a very “offensive” word, so the author had to come up with an alternate way of saying things.
So, it’s really just a matter of perspective and as Mike mentioned in his original post, there are words that over time lose their “offensiveness”, and with the way so many people use the “F-word” nowadays, who’s to say that it won’t be a very accepted word just a few decades from now?
In the meantime, if a character is saying the word in your head when the story is playing out, then write the word down. If not, then don’t “force” any words into what that character is saying or it will seem forced to those that know the difference. As far as the life of an individual, then you have to do as your conscious and relationship with God dictates. Thank God for the grace He gives and His unending love! 😀
When the Bible said that Jesus ‘cursed’ it didn’t mean that he used a swearword. There are more than one usage of the word ‘curse’ for example: ‘a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one : imprecation People believe that there is a curse on the house.’–Webster’s Dictionary.
David, you said it better than I could. Thanks. And I would agree on all points.
~Chila
P.S. Of course, as wise parents, we must consider all this when raising children, and while we want to make sure they get a real view of life, we also want to give them guidelines while not overprotecting them from reality. Adults are an entirely different matter, however. Let’s not treat them as naive children, folks.
I very much enjoyed your thoughtful post. In thinking about it, I can’t seem to recall Jesus saying “Come unto to Me… But clean up your act first.” He welcomed all comers, who were then transformed by His love.
By the way the genesis of the quote you close the post with is likely this:
“I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
–Tony Campolo
Contributed by: somnium
I find it interesting that you have almost four times as many comments on naughty words than you do about our lack of taking advantage of moments in which we might witness to the lost.
Well, I’m sure the morality police would find problems with some of my stories. And I’ve not totally avoided cuss words, fairly minor ones at least, though even those are used far and few between. I think in the Reality Chronicles, I had one character say “damn” one time. I tried to think of something different he could say, but for whatever reason nothing else “fit” him and his situation, so I left it.
Though what I would have said in his situation is doggoneit. I used that the other day, actually. Carryover because that’s what my dad always used. But I know I can’t have any of my fictional characters say that as most people would simply think I was trying to get around saying a “bad” word, despite the fact that for me the word is very natural.
So yeah, I get the necessity of using such words at times for characters in our fiction. I get that it can seem like focusing on gnats while ignoring camels. But let me offer two or three other points to consider in this.
One, it is a logical fallacy to say that because there are more important things to deal with, that we shouldn’t be concerned about something like how many cuss words are in a book or movie. The reality is if we *only* focused on the most important thing we have to deal with, nothing else would ever get done in our lives or the world. Just because something isn’t the most important doesn’t by default mean that it should not be dealt with. If that were true, you could nullify anybody’s agenda because we can always come up with a more important cause than the one being promoted at a given time. I mean, based on that, none of us should be writing fiction, because, you know, there are just so many more real life important things, like feeding starving children, that we should be spending our time on.
Just because it isn’t important to *you* doesn’t mean it isn’t important to others.
While I’ve never checked out how many cuss words a movie has with this group before going to see it, personally I wouldn’t mind knowing that information. It doesn’t mean I won’t go see it if it has X number, but having that information can be helpful in deciding. Because personally I can’t stand watching or reading stuff with a bunch of cuss words in it. I don’t care how natural it is to the characters, I won’t watch or read it. I’m not saying no one should, but for me, I can’t stand it. It distracts from the movie or book because for me, it almost always sound unnatural and forced to have cuss words on every page or even every chapter, or ever few seconds in a movie. I can’t enjoy such a movie anymore than someone can enjoy a movie or book that has unbelievable plots, characters, and dialog.
But that’s just me. But the fact is, there are a lot of people just like me.
So, two, the fact is that cuss words do offend a lot of people. There are a lot of people who don’t go through every day hearing cussing. Very few of my friends cuss on a regular basis. I currently have no one I know who cusses every other word, though I have met folk like that. But there is also a large contingent of people out there who don’t cuss generally, and don’t care to read it or hear it, either from their entertainment or the people they hang around with.
The fact is, you will offend a segment of the population, even some non-Christians so I don’t consider it purely a Christian vs. non-Christian thing, but if you leave them out, no one will tend to be offended who is used to them. They might feel a bit like it is not true to life as they know it, but so is practically most everything on TV and in all the popular movies.
Which is why the big hits are almost always a rated PG or PG 13 movie. The R rated has its audience, but a producer knows once they move from PG-13 to R, they’ve cut off a potential audience and it will be much harder for it to be a “hit,” and even more so if the reason for the R rating is due to sex or language.
This is even more true for the Christian audience than it is for the secular. I think most people save for the zero-tolerance crowd will let a word or two here or there slide by, but if there is a lot, and your target audience is Christian, you’re only shooting yourself in the foot as far as who you will reach. It will make it that much harder for the book to be success.
So, for me, it comes down to two things. One, I simply don’t write using cuss words because they do often sound unnatural to me. There are other ways, more effective ways, to make your bad guy bad than throwing cuss words in their mouths. There is rarely a reason to use them, but I understand there can be times when they are called for. Like a book aimed at gangster society. There would likely need to be some cussing to make it “real” to them, though I would suggest that can be accomplished without having it on every page.
And the bottom line is to include much of it alienates part of your audience. I have to have a good reason to purposefully alienate people from picking up my books. I want to write in a way that attracts the greatest number to read my books.
Note, there may at times be a good reason to put something into a book that you know certain groups don’t like. There are things like that in my books. I have under-aged characters drinking ale, because it would be natural for that to happen in a Medieval style culture. But I have no doubt that the fact would alienate certain people from buying my book, and if it ever became popular, there would no doubt be Christian groups warning about that and my use of magic.
I’m not against writing what is on one’s heart, but one needs to be aware when you are writing something how what you are writing will affect one’s target audience, how it will limit it. But in most all cases, I see no reason important enough to include cussing in my stories that would justify making it unreadable for a segment of the population. Quite apart from the moral question around it, is the marketing question: who are you writing to? Are you willing to lose potential readers for your literary freedom and realism? If so, cool. As long as you know that going into it and don’t complain about it when the dodo hits the fan. 😉
And yes, oddly enough, that last phrase does sound natural to me. 😉
I think one of the points that is being missed here is that many Christians do not simply police this thing for themselves — they go so far as to try to force everyone within their sphere of influence ( and many outside it) to adhere to their personal mores and ethics. They cannot accept that not everyone is so easily offended, so sensitive that the mere presence of sex, violence, or foul language will wilt their very heart and soul. These kinds of people are incapable of doing any good in the world, due to being a wilting flower. A conversation becomes difficult to follow because everything has to be couched so delicately in order to avoid giving offense that sometimes, a person simply can say /nothing whatsoever/.
For instance, some find it offensive that I prefer black clothing to any other color. There are reasons for this: my job is very dirty, and black shows the least amount of grunge. Also, I simply like black because I do not want to spend more than five minutes putting my clothes on. I don’t want to spend time trying to figure out what goes with what. Black goes with everything. Or, for whatever reason, I might want to simply say what I need to say and get it over with. I don’t want to beat around the bush. I am admittedly rather impatient; if I have to spend 20 minutes explaining to you that you’re annoying, then, well, there’s something wrong with you.
It leaves a bad taste in the mouth to deal with many Christians who are ‘so heavenly bound that they’re no earthly good.’
THIS is why I’m self-publishing, among other reasons. This this this.
That quote from the pastor . . . Damn. Makes my heart and my brain hurt!!!
Blogging– promote your business.
Numerous companies currently make use of blogging pages
as a casual method of getting in touch with their customers.
For the smaller sized, or brand-new company owner, it’s
an outstanding means to advertise their items
without pricey advertising and marketing costs. Just by publishing a routine blog writing column, small firms could
often reel in even more business compared to by the much more standard
approaches.
Among these, the cosmetic or the aesthetic surgery is the most famous.
What do celebrities such as Kathy Griffin, David Gest, Kenny Rogers, Jill Saward and others regret.
Tissue expansion involves the use of a tissue expander (a balloon-like device) that is inserted beneath the scalp.
I think when Paul says ‘beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling blockto those who are weak’ (1 Corinthians 8:9) it includes the issue of profanity. You may know that it’s bad and may even have the spiritual strength to not descend into it yourself when reading books with it–but I think it does become a moral problem when it comes to putting profanity in your own fiction.
Think of it this way: a weak Christian comes across your novel (in which you have profanity). He reads it and thinks. “Maybe bad language isn’t that bad. After all so-and-so uses it in his book and he’s a devout Christian!”–It doesn’t even have to be a conscience thought.
In other words is it worth it, putting profanity in your fiction, in the name of keeping dialog natural and avoiding a phrase like ‘John swore’ if it means that it could lead a Christian brother or sister to sin?
What about audio books, in which some actually says the words? Is it okay because ‘they don’t mean it’? The Bible warns us to keep all vulgar language from our mouths (Matthew 12:36-37, Colossians 3:8 among others)
I would also note that when the Bible’s usage of ‘the a-word’ is totally different from the modern curse-word usage–And the meaning is completely different at that.
For more on profane characters in books without profanity, read Jeff Gerke’s The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction.
I’m sorry, I meant this as a reply to the post not you, Shelly…