Dealing with vulgarisms and obscenities

Writers who take their religious faith seriously face a dilemma when dealing with vulgarisms and obscenities.

Vulgarisms and obscenities are not polite language, but they aren't "swearing" or "taking the Lord's name in vain," as the Bible warns us not to do. They generally refer to bathroom or sexual functions that are a normal part of life.

Vulgarisms and obscenities once were considered improper for use in "polite" or "mixed" company. Today they are the staple of the routines of many so-called comedians, and they can be heard on prime-time network television.

Language is a growing, evolving, organic part of our lives. One generation's vulgarism becomes the next generation's ordinary figure of speech.

But we still long for propriety. Perhaps it's a part of getting older, but there still are words we find personally offensive, words we don't want our children to use even if occasionally we do use them ourselves.

Writers face an even more important issue. Words are our tools.

Carpenters have hammers and painters have brushes. We have words.

I believe it is important that we cherish them and care for them as lovingly as other workers treat their tools. Throwing words around carelessly and without thought cheapens them and ultimately diminishes the quality of the entire writing. Using words for shock value is a legitimate technique, but one that should be done very, very carefully.

I admire the old-time comedians who got their laughs from the humorous situation of the story, not from the number of obscenities they could include in a complete sentence. Vulgar and obscene humor very often is poor and lazy humor.

But there are times when vulgarisms and obscenities are reality. To deny the existence of sexuality in our lives by pretending obscenities don't exist, or to deny the reality of excretory functions by avoiding vulgarisms, is to live in an imaginary world.

People speak in this language. I may not like it, but the fact is that they do speak this way. Some people use this kind of language more than do others. And good writing demands faithfulness at this point.

I prefer not seeing this kind of language in the news media, whether printed or broadcast. I, frankly, would prefer it not be present in television "fiction" because children have free access to it. Kids may already know the words, but they don't need the example of adults using vulgarisms because of a limited vocabulary, which is usually the reason.

But as persons of faith, do we write only in "faith" language or do we acknowledge the reality of the world around us? The Bible itself is not as prudish as we usually believe. The English translators of the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages have learned to be polite, and preachers and religious teachers have learned to avoid texts that aren't as discreet as we would like, but the situations are still there.

My own convictions are gradually changing here - it sounds strange to combine "convictions" and "changing" in the same sentence - but I'm coming to believe that we can truly represent what the world around us is like only if we are willing to use, with discretion, its language.