Friday; October 11

Last week, the Washington Post published an article entitled, “If the president is doing it ...’:  How Trump took swearing mainstream”.  The article sets out to make a couple of points.  The first one is to explain the rationale media outlets are using to justify publishing words that just a few years ago would have been considered unpublishable.  Modern media seems to have made the decision to publish “naughty words” if they are attributable to the president and national or international leaders.  To back up their claims they point out that our nation’s leaders have brought swearing out of the dark and are allowing it to be heard and seen in the light of day.  Another issue broached was which came first:  leaders bringing these words out in to the public or the changing mores that allowed these phrases to become publicly acceptable?  Today’s modern politicians are not the first ones to have potty-mouths, but they seem to be less restrained and more quoted.
Over the last few months there has been a push to promote the concept that words have meanings.  While the original emphasis was that racially-charged words can hurt, there is another lesson in this comment.  When our society allows vulgarity to be plastered all over our news outlets and social media we are bound to lower our moral thresholds.  When we allow our language to deteriorate will our values be too far behind it?  If we accept these words as being mainstream, who is to say that the thoughts behind them won’t become tolerated?  These words create a base environment where anger, hate, immorality and a lack of moral decency are more easily accepted.
Let’s live by the warning, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29).  Maybe we do need a language police.  Let’s not say these things ourselves nor accept them without challenging them in public – at least not by people we expect to be leaders. 
          Think About It!

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