It has always been the practice of the uncouth, the peripheral, the uneducated,
and the impoverished to swear and use profanity. Their rough language arose
from their limited vocabulary and inability to express themselves except in simple
ways.
I grew up on Indian reservations in North Dakota, South Dakota,
Florida, and Oregon, with many of my friends speaking English as their 2nd
language and being unfamiliar with ways to describe bodily functions except by using
the crudest terms. I remember my first day in first grade on the Fort Totten Indian
Reservation in North Dakota.
My teacher, Miss Daggs, spent the day rehearsing with my classmates the
importance of expressing their needs by saying, “I need to go number one,” or “I
need to go number two.” How they had been raised to express themselves was
incredible. However, English was their second language.
My own use of profanity was so extensive that I remember walking home
from school one day when I was in 2nd grade and erupting to a group
of classmates with a stream of profanity that likely would have surprised a
drill instructor. Moments later, the thought ran through my mind, “I am 7 years
old, and I cuss like that. I am surely going to Hell.” How I came to understand
how wrong I was to swear as I did, I did not know because my mother and father
spoke like that all the time.
My vile profanity continued through grade school, into junior high
school, and into high school, and was far more natural for me at University
than I remember. I was even ordered to leave saloons because of objections to
my profanity. That was not a time in my life that I look back on with fondness.
This is the first time since my conversion in 1974 that I have mentioned it.
My shame for the way I so casually spoke was profound. It was wrong. It
was vile. It was disgusting. It was offputting to so many people, which was
likely my reason for talking that way. Then came the night when God the Father drew
me to His beloved Son so graciously.
The first indication of my new life in Christ was my different manner
of speaking. Gone was the profanity. Absent were the crudities and vulgarisms. The
long list of nasty words never again passed over my tongue or between my lips. I
am so grateful that God washed out my mouth for all the other difficulties and
challenges I have faced in my Christian life (which have been many).
That said, in the years since my conversion, I have increasingly
wondered how common the vilest of speech patterns has become. Yes, I was
profane. Yet, since my conversion almost a half-century ago, I have observed
far worse patterns of speech coming from women and children. I find it
astonishing, but I never sought an explanation for the phenomenon.
Then I watched a YouTube video interview of a famous Grove City College professor, known to many Christians, conservatives, and libertarians as 2nd only to Hillsdale College. This remarkable higher education center has never received government subsidies. His name is Carl R. Trueman, and he is English.
He teaches biblical and religious studies and is a historian. While reading his book, The Rise And Triumph of the Modern Self, I noted his explanation of the rise in profanity and why so many people sprinkle F-bombs throughout their conversations. I think he is onto something.
Although I am not yet halfway through the book, more than 400 pages
long, I am convinced it will be one of the best books I have ever read. This
man is a student, and he is more than a student of the Bible. He is also a
student of history and is familiar with the writings of notable historical
figures, from Thomas Aquinas to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from C. S. Lewis to
Marlon Brando. His breadth of learning has given him a great perspective, and I
think he is onto something concerning swearing, profanity, and vulgar talk.
Referring to the nasty culture that is overwhelming the Western
culture, he writes, “crudity becomes the norm because the general interdict
against such is seen as a tyrannical hangover from an outdated way of viewing
the world. The casual use of expletives (profanity) by public figures such as
politicians as a means of demonstrating their authenticity provides a good
example.”[1]
The author does not suggest that profane talkers and F-bomb droppers
are sophisticated thinkers. I am sure he would agree that those who talk that
way are, in the main, people with a limited vocabulary who are incapable of
expressing themselves better than they do. But people who speak that way are
caught up in a tidal wave of cultural change that arrogantly seeks to overthrow
what already exists, what was established centuries ago in the Protestant
Reformation, and significant spiritual events that have occurred since then.
The profane may not be conscious of their opposition to the plan and
purpose of God, however clear it may be to us. Sadly, people who talk that way
(as I used to speak) are men, women, and children overwhelmed by the current
that carries them along. The living fish in the stream always swim against the
current. Only the dead fish are swept along by the current, tide, or swell.
They will arrive at their final destination without consciously going
there. That is sad. That is why we must reach them with the Gospel.
[1] Carl
E. Trueman, The Rise And Triumph
of the Modern Self, (Wheaton,
Illinois: Crossway, 2020), page 89.
