Mass. town OKs $20 fines for swearing in public

If I had a nickle for everytime I heard the F word over the past year I could retire. It is the word of choice for many including many who call themselves Christian. It is a sad time we live in.

 

Nah, sometimes it's just easier to take a longer, more eloquent sentence and say it in just one word.

I'm not proud of it, but it happens. It doesn't happen in public. However, I've noticed that surroundings have a lot to do with it. If I've been around a lot of moronic people, I'm more likely to use a curse word or five in private because having to deal with all of it leaves me stressed out.

Then again it depends on the word. A lot of what I consider cussing it simply slang/common speech that most people wouldn't think twice about.

 

There you go being derogatory towards the military again. You could have said real estate or stock broker; because you're correct that what's in the heart will eventually work its way out. But most people "learn" to cuss well before they join the military, or become stock brokers. I started learning when I was 5, from my family. My mother would wash my mouth out with soap, but since the family kept on cussing--including her--that just meant I learned not to do it in front of certain people.

 

True. It's driven (usually) by anger, although sometimes it just happens to fit perfectly into a pun.

However, what's the difference because using non-cuss words when the intent and feeling is the same as the cuss words? It's still a sin of the heart.

The offensive words are best not used, but sometimes they are. Have enough control to limit them to private if one must, but accept the fine should it be in public.

But...there's no glory or higher intelligence between telling someone off using gutter language verses using words learned while obtaining a Harvard degree. We're answering to G-d here, not a language snob.

As far as the military...I don't know anything about freeatlast being against them. If so, I'm sorry. However, he's correct in this. There's a lot of cussing, a lot more than I've ever heard in average situations, and a lot of times it is used as a motivator. Did you notice the big deal made in the news over the one female higher up who did NOT degrade or cuss at her men? When having one who doesn't cuss makes the news, you can bet your boots that it isn't the norm. LOL

 

Gina, I would venture to say that you and I don't hang out with people for whom that type of language is "natural"; I did when I was younger, and was more exposed to it before I joined the military (yet another reason for homeschooling my kids). Before the military, we just didn't do it in front of the adults; but once we were off by ourselves, anything went. We even invented "code words" so we could cuss or say crude things without the adults knowing. They'd eventually figure out we were speaking code, and we'd change the codes; making a game out of it. Point being, military gets some publicity for simply being the military. If the trash we get out of Hollywood and rap music is any indication, the problem is prevalent everywhere--maybe more so than in the military.

As for Free--well, I base my comment on a history of posting such statements targeting the mitary.

 

I am with Don on this one. True, there is a lot of cussing in the military. But it's not just the military. As a teenager and young adult, I hung out at rec centers all the time. There was just as much cussing there amongst pre-teens, teens, and young adults alike as there is in the military. People don't learn to cuss in the military. They come into the military cussing.

Oh, and Drill Sergeants aren't allowed to cuss at recruits anymore. Cussing around them is still tolerated to a degree. It's been that way for several years.

I cussed once on accident in front of my guys. I got so used to hearing this word used in this phrase, and accidentally said it like they did. Since they knew that I didn't cuss, I swear (no pun intended) time stood still and the whole company stopped in shock and awe!

Back to the OP: As someone already stated, many people don't know that to cuss in front of women and children is against the law in many states. (Can't say "most", as I have no source to cite.) "Decriminalization" is essentially saying, "It's not that important. We don't want people who do this to be thought of as criminals." Basically, this law is saying that it's ok to cuss, etc, and that we shouldn't think of these people as criminals.

I have stated before that I am for the legalization of some things that don't affect my family. But cussing on the street affects my family, and should be fined. I am not saying that the police should fine everyone who does it. If no one is around who is offended by it (and everyone within earshot is an adult), then leave it alone. But, when people get offended or there are children present, it needs to be dealt with. I don't want people allowed to say vulgar things around my kids, so why should I tolerate them saying it around other people's kids?

 

People who use "Christian" expletives are more annoying than those who use scatological words.

 

Genesis 24:2
And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

Genesis 24:9
And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.

"Under the thigh?" Exactly what does anyone think the Hebrew is referring.

People who read Hebrew and Greek tell me that the Bible is full of references to scatological and "intimate" body parts and jokes about them.


from Strongs, see http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html



4325 mayim mah'-yim dual of a primitive noun (but used in a singular sense); water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen:--+ piss, wasting, water(-ing, (-course, -flood, -spring)).

7272 regel reh'-gel from 7270; a foot (as used in walking); by implication, a step; by euphem. the pudenda:--X be able to endure, X according as, X after, X coming, X follow, ((broken-))foot((-ed, -stool)), X great toe, X haunt, X journey, leg, + piss, + possession, time.
7890 shayin shah'-yin from an unused root meaning to urinate; urine:--piss.
8366 shathan shaw-than' a primitive root; (causatively) to make water, i.e. urinate:--piss.

 

Sapper Woody, please don't misunderstand. I think it's a great thing to fine people who cuss in public. It should be done whether anyone complains or not.

Many years ago, I had a sweetheart of a boyfriend who refused to allow anyone to cuss in my presence. I was amazed that every single one of them apologized when asked and after a while, if someone let something slip, they'd immediately apologize without him saying anything.

Still, I don't agree that my heart is evil. Maybe at the moment when I do slip something out in a moment of frustration...well, no, not even that. I don't think a believer CAN have an evil heart. Like other human beings, I mess up sometimes. It doesn't mean someone is evil at heart if they're not perfect, or there are no Christians on this earth. They'd all get translated. Which would be kinda cool if it happened to me. :saint:

 

Interesting. I was about to quote Free's last post and agree with him; but then read this, and realized: by agreeing with Free, I would be implying that anyone professing to be saved but guilty of cussing, must necessarily have their salvation questioned.

Unless we agree that Christians are still trapped in these pitiful physical bodies and have moments; which is what I believe Free actually means, rather than those that continually willfully sin.