Unrandom Topic: Swearing
Saturday, July 17, 2004
In an effort to neutralize hostility, and in response to Otto's applauded attempt at peace keeping, I bring you a bit on swearing.
There has been much swearing in my life. Even yesterday. It is a vice that I struggle with very deeply. I work at a warehouse, as some of you may know, and the vocabulary is not very extensive, nor is it constructive. Also, I have been dealing with insane amounts of stress lately; dealing with my parents breaking up, with issues revolving money, and even being fired from my job for a manager's ego trip. I swore up a storm yesterday. I snapped.
The truth is, I didn't really choose to swear, they came out all one their own. They got into me through music, movies, TV. I am glad to say that lately, I watch Star Trek on TV, listen to David Crowder, and got sick watching "Return of the King" because of the image of evil it depicts. My sensitivity to ungodly media has grown greatly, and maybe one day I will be rid of involountary swearing. But this is not an excuse for my actions. As James 1:26 says, I only fool myself.
I believe it quite possible that my commenting on Stop Five Records, and an almost carbon copy post on ranDOMinion, could have been tainted by the past weeks' stressing concerns. I did have my panties in a bunch about it, as Otto said. But I think it was alright to have them like that. Some words are just simply offensive regardless of how they're used. I'm sure I could list a dozen words with atleast one that would offend every reader. Even just in a list, not even in a sentence. Still, my demeanour and my choice of words came accross as "judgemental", which is also an ungodly act.
I could only hope that you would all know I did not mean to judge. I hope that I would never judge anyone. I am forgiving, as Jesus is. Jesus also taught harsh lessons, and was hated by a lot of people. I don't claim myself to be like Jesus, or more like Jesus that others may be. I'm saying that as I read Stop Five Records, knowing who was writing it, it bothered me to know that men training themselves for ministry thought it O.K. to use such offensive language. Because I am in their same position, I tried to reach out as a brother, or even as an individual with an outside point of view. Could you imagine the effect on a youth attending a Stop Five Record writer's youth group should one have read the swearing? Kids look up to us. A lot of people will look up to us. And we need to be squeaky clean. To the world, we are supposed to be a bunch of purists, and if we do anything slightly possibly wrong, they will point fingers at us and throw away all that is good. This is the attitude that I tried to bring with me to the comments, to the post. Although I do not appologize for quoting such a good book, I do appologize for the unwanted effects it had.
All in all, I have lost respect for no one. In fact, Otto, I have a lot of respect for you. I thought of doing a "Top Five Reasons To Respect Otto" but decided not to, just cause it would make this long post stupidly huge.
With all of this said, I am announcing that I will be moving within the next week. Reasons causing stress at home and an inability to cope with everything I am being delt are pushing me out the door. Maybe I just need to dissapear for a while, maybe a permanent move is good. I will cross that bridge when I get there.
I thank you all for taking time to read me out, and for understanding my never-thought-to-be-hostile attitude. Please pray for me, as these times are not easy.
There has been much swearing in my life. Even yesterday. It is a vice that I struggle with very deeply. I work at a warehouse, as some of you may know, and the vocabulary is not very extensive, nor is it constructive. Also, I have been dealing with insane amounts of stress lately; dealing with my parents breaking up, with issues revolving money, and even being fired from my job for a manager's ego trip. I swore up a storm yesterday. I snapped.
The truth is, I didn't really choose to swear, they came out all one their own. They got into me through music, movies, TV. I am glad to say that lately, I watch Star Trek on TV, listen to David Crowder, and got sick watching "Return of the King" because of the image of evil it depicts. My sensitivity to ungodly media has grown greatly, and maybe one day I will be rid of involountary swearing. But this is not an excuse for my actions. As James 1:26 says, I only fool myself.
I believe it quite possible that my commenting on Stop Five Records, and an almost carbon copy post on ranDOMinion, could have been tainted by the past weeks' stressing concerns. I did have my panties in a bunch about it, as Otto said. But I think it was alright to have them like that. Some words are just simply offensive regardless of how they're used. I'm sure I could list a dozen words with atleast one that would offend every reader. Even just in a list, not even in a sentence. Still, my demeanour and my choice of words came accross as "judgemental", which is also an ungodly act.
I could only hope that you would all know I did not mean to judge. I hope that I would never judge anyone. I am forgiving, as Jesus is. Jesus also taught harsh lessons, and was hated by a lot of people. I don't claim myself to be like Jesus, or more like Jesus that others may be. I'm saying that as I read Stop Five Records, knowing who was writing it, it bothered me to know that men training themselves for ministry thought it O.K. to use such offensive language. Because I am in their same position, I tried to reach out as a brother, or even as an individual with an outside point of view. Could you imagine the effect on a youth attending a Stop Five Record writer's youth group should one have read the swearing? Kids look up to us. A lot of people will look up to us. And we need to be squeaky clean. To the world, we are supposed to be a bunch of purists, and if we do anything slightly possibly wrong, they will point fingers at us and throw away all that is good. This is the attitude that I tried to bring with me to the comments, to the post. Although I do not appologize for quoting such a good book, I do appologize for the unwanted effects it had.
All in all, I have lost respect for no one. In fact, Otto, I have a lot of respect for you. I thought of doing a "Top Five Reasons To Respect Otto" but decided not to, just cause it would make this long post stupidly huge.
With all of this said, I am announcing that I will be moving within the next week. Reasons causing stress at home and an inability to cope with everything I am being delt are pushing me out the door. Maybe I just need to dissapear for a while, maybe a permanent move is good. I will cross that bridge when I get there.
I thank you all for taking time to read me out, and for understanding my never-thought-to-be-hostile attitude. Please pray for me, as these times are not easy.