Vulgarity, Profanity, and Cussing

I recently had a very interesting, educational, and in some ways very refreshing, conversation with a young man on Facebook.

A former student of mine from a previous church made a comment which involved "foul language". Several friends of his had responses which also involved "foul language". This is not uncommon with their generation, and I decided to take the opportunity to simply ask "why?"

The original post writer didn't respond, but one of his friends did, and while I do not agree with the young man's conclusions, his points were very well reasoned. Also, he did a very good job explaining his position which was in itself a very refreshing change. While I do believe our young folk are intelligent and capable, I tend to find a crude superficiality behind the vulgarity that seems so common in their generation, with little or no thought about the issue.

However, before we get into the nuts and bolts of THAT conversation, let's get general:

What is "Profanity", "Vulgarity" and "Cussing"?

We tend to use the 3 words interchangeably, but are they? Maybe they have become so now, but at their root, this is not the case.

OK, I did the annoying dictionary search for you and will not bother you with the grueling details here. Looking up "profanity" lead me to "vulgarity" and from there I checked "cussing." In effect it all got down to the point we all know, and that is the use of "foul" or "coarse" or "inappropriate" language or words.

The core attitude of "Profanity" is an irreverence toward something otherwise deserving of being revered, such as sacred, holy or religious things. The core attitude of "Vulgarity" is simply bring coarse, lewd, harsh or otherwise being immature or inappropriate.

"Cussing" is a derivative of "curse" and sometime in the 1800's took on the general meaning of using "foul language," which would pretty much cover profanity and vulgarity.

I think where much of the issue and problem will arise is how you define what language is "profane" or "vulgar".

We will spend the next few posts looking at the common claims made by both sides and, of course, evaluating them in light of The Gospel and The Word of God.