Profanity and its Social Implications

Profane; to treat (something sacred) with irreverence or disrespect.

I remember listening to the book on tape, " The Road Less Traveled," and hearing Scott Peck say that people are sacred. He was not advocating a belief in Christianity, I'm not even sure he was a Christian, but he seemed to have an intuitive understanding that there is something divine about human beings. 
I'm of the opinion that since evolution has been adopted by Western culture as the absolute truth concerning the value of a human being, that we have become less civil towards one another. That's just my opinion and I can't prove it, but evolution, especially as espoused by atheistic humanism, has done more to cause society to become more profane than anything else since its adoption into our culture. 

If we have not been created by a loving God of goodness, kindness, beauty, and wisdom, then how can we be considered sacred? Evolution's' foundation rests on the fact that there is no Creator therefore nothing is sacred, because everything came into being by chance. By evolutionary standards, nothing was created in Love and with the purpose of creating loving relationships that reflect the Divine mind and emotions of our Creator. The Humanist Manifesto of 1933 flat out states that mankind must save itself since there is no savior or Creator or Divine being. If there is no God then we are not created in his image and therefore there is nothing sacred about us, according to evolution. We are just a mass of biological proteins and chemicals that have no other purpose than to produce offspring that will continue the species. Evolution's ultimate consequence will be to make the strongest, most intelligent human being (or society) to become God. We are already at that point because we determine who should live or die in the womb, and some are seriously considering euthanasia as a viable option to dealing with the elder population in order to save on medical costs. That is profanity at its zenith! 

It is true that words change meaning over the years. For instance the word ass used to refer to a donkey. I heard of a pastor once who was preaching about Paul meeting Christ on the Damscus road. In the course of his sermon he made a reference to Paul being knocked to the ground by the Lords appearance and said, "And when Paul fell off his ass." The congregation started giggling and soon everyone was laughing hysterically. He stopped his preaching and asked what was so funny. He was referring to Paul's donkey, but everyone else interpreted it as his backside. However, there was a time that if someone was called a jack-ass that it was considered a derogatory remark about that persons character and therefore considered profanity. 

Take the word jerk for instance. In some situations we can kid around and call someone a jerk and it is completely harmless. However, we can say the same thing to someone with angry tones and it now becomes profanity. Why? Because we have treated the sacred with disrespect and dishonored them. 

I'm sure we're all guilty of doing that at one time or another, I know I have been. I once heard another pastor say that if someone had a habit of cussing that the real issue to deal with is not the cussing. He wisely, and correctly, observed that the real issue was the anger, bitterness, or perhaps hatred, that caused a person to use profanity. We often attempt to get someone to quit using profanity without dealing with the thing that is causing the profanity. 

If profanity is showing disrespect towards the sacred then that would mean we are also disrespecting ourselves when we use profanity, especially if done through a negative emotion like abusive anger or bitterness.

Having said all that, I'll share a true story that I would not recommend for everyone. 

I have to preface this also with the fact that I've known this man for about 20 years and I really do care about him. One time, I was talking to this man, who was asking me to help him deal with his own bitterness towards his ex-wife. He knew he had an issue with his anger, but didn't know how to stop thinking about the wrongs she had done to him, which were very real by the way. At the same time he kept blaming God for everything wrong with the world. It was Gods fault that there was suffering, it was Gods fault that there was murder, it was Gods fault for corrupt politicians, and it was Gods fault for corrupt preachers. At the same time, he also kept saying that we, (or he) was God. 

I told him I'd be glad to counsel him, and try to help, but I couldn't promise anything. During the conversation he would ask me to help him and then I would try to answer, but he kept interrupting and going on about blaming God. I tried open ended questions, active listening, biting my tongue, and whatever other counseling technique I could think of that I learned in school or through life's experiences. 

Finally I had a dangerous thought... LoL. Yep here we go :) 
I thought, I'm going to try something that will shock this person to stop and think about what they are really saying and how illogical they sound. I remember seeing a counseling video in school about a technique in Gestalt therapy (I think) that showed the counselor getting right in the face of the counselee and almost mocking them, in order to mirror the counselee's behavior so they could see themselves (specifically their neurotic behavior) in the counselor. 

With this man that I care about, I decided to abandon the formal counseling techniques and resort to more experimental methods (emphasis on mental). I asked him if he really believed he was God. He replied, yes. I asked again, and he said yes again. 
I asked, "You're God and therefore you created everything, right?" Again, he said Yes that's right. 

What I did next was not done in anger but was a calculated risk that it would shock him and make him think about his speech and beliefs. 

Then I laid the bomb down and said as sarcastically as I knew how, "You really F***** things up then didn't you?" It totally shocked him because he stopped talking and became real quite for a few moments. He asked me what I meant. I explained to him that if he believed he was God and that God was to blame for all the suffering in the world, for all the evil in the world, and all the murders in the world, as he said, then he failed. I said again, "Since you're God, you really have F***** things up and you are a lousy God. 

Yep, even though we were on the phone, I could tell he was shocked and thinking. What could he say? He had just said that he was God and that God was the cause of all suffering. 

I'm not advocating that method and I don't think I'll recommend it as part of a college curriculum, but it did work. He didn't like what I was saying but it did accomplish what I wanted it to. It made him stop and listen to his own illogical speech and beliefs. 
I think he was shocked that I said that word to begin with and I was shocked that it actually worked......... LoL! 

Now here's a deep thought about that whole experience. 

Who was really being profane? My friend for claiming he was God and blaming the real God for all the ills of the world, or me for caring enough about him to use an off-the-wall technique to begin the process of someones return to normalcy? It's the only time I've done that and I'm sure it will be the last, or at least I hope it's the last time! 

One last thought about profanity. I've worked with some children in Arizona, whose parents called them stupid. When these kids simply said, "my parent thinks, I'm stupid," I could see the pain in their eyes and hear it in their voice. If profanity is treating the sacred (human beings) with disrespect then calling children stupid seems to be the most profane speech I've come across. 

Again, Jesus said whatever is of an abundance in the heart, eventually comes out of the mouth. Some of the things Jesus mentioned coming from the heart and through the mouth (language) were hatred, murder, and blasphemy. I think this is recorded in Mark 15. That word blasphemy means to speak impiously about something. In other words, to speak to something as though it's not sacred. Jesus said that these are the things that make a person unclean or to act in a way that does not represent Christ. 

I'm not advocating sinlessness nor did Jesus, he's just describing human nature and how the things we treasure in our heart will eventually make it's way out through our mouth. 

Thank God that when we do act or speak profanely, there is forgiveness, mercy, and divine help that empowers us to change our thinking and therefore the treasure in our hearts. 

Profane; to treat (something sacred) with irreverence or disrespect.

Eliminating Racial Labels

This will be the shortest post I've ever written. Short and to the point, intended to provoke discussion and reflection.

We need to dispense with labeling a man, or woman, African American.
As long as we label anyone as African we perpetuate the wall of separation between culture and sub-cultures.

They are Americans period! WE are Americans!

Sure, there exists a separate ethnicity just as those of Asian, European, or Middle Eastern origins have their own ethnicity consisting of tradition, food, learned behavior and so forth. Yet we never, or rarely, label someone a European American, Middle Eastern American, or Asian American. It's more accurate and harmonious to state that we are Americans with family origins from such and such a country.

What we do by labeling a man as African American, is to remind everyone of the tragedy of slavery in American history, and further psychological segregation instead of promoting psychological and practical reconciliation and integration. At some point we all have to acknowledge past failures but move forward toward future successes and integration.

I challenge you to begin thinking in these terms. If a black, brown, or white person is born in America, then we can't be European American, Hispanic American. or African American. 

We are natural born citizens of America and are legally American.