1. Marion says:

    Stephen,

    This was an excellent post.

    The issue to me has always been does the curse words fit the character and have relevance to the story. If it doesn’t, then it becomes gratuitous. But if it does have relevance then it should belong in the story.

    I do agree that we must be sensitive to other Christians about such an issue. But, I must admit I believe in both Christian and Secular societies we have become hypersensitive instead.

    I appreciate the fact that you show Paul’s response and how he did play it down the middle. Unfortunately, in our world today, people want black and white to answers to everything. Well, there are some issues that have gray areas and we have to be a little more sophisticated and nuanced on how to handle it.

  2. I think you wrote an EXCELLENT post, Stephen. I can see what you mean. Paul didn’t say, well, let the other brothers/sisters get more mature. He said to act better and be discreet ourselves.

    My only comment is that since this IS a debate about cussing in literature, and NOT about people cussing in real-life, might there not be some responsibility on the part of the consumer? Should they not do some homework, and find out themselves what is in the book, and make their own decisions accordingly. Some responsibility must be taken in reading/movie choices, methinks.

    Again, great post. God bless. 🙂

  3. Erica says:

    Excellent post! Sometimes as readers we can only preview so much of a book and later on we read more and discover “Oops” a bad word! Yet if the words are swear words throughout the work, we can opt to stop reading it. Meanwhile if used in gentle context to enhance scene or character that is fine.

    • Kirsty says:

      Alternatively you can do as the previous owner of a second-hand book I had did. Go through scoring out all the swear-words. Thus drawing far more attention to them. I got rid of that copy.

      Interestingly, that was a Christian book (Miracle on the River Kwai) but published by a secular publisher. Most of the characters were soldiers, so I suppose it was appropriate – though toned down a lot I imagine, as it was only milder swear-words used.

      This is a very interesting subject, but my thoughts are too hazy to make any kind of coherent comment without spending ages over it. Except that some of the comments seem to assume that the swearing applies only to the bad guys or rough characters. In real life, though, it’s not like that.

  4. I was curious to see how this series would end up, but I think this is an excellent wrap-up post.

    I myself struggled a little with language in my last ms., where the non-Christian heroine uses “God” a couple of times in a somewhat thoughtless (“God help me” tossed off in a casual way), then a little less thoughtless (“‘Oh God,’ I moaned, not sure whether it was a curse or a prayer”), and finally in a deliberate and prayerful (“God help me,” I prayed), way. I wrestled with those first two because I never want to be disrespectful to God’s name, but in the end I felt it necessary to show the heroine’s progression from “God” being just another word, to being aware that His name is either a prayer or a curse but not a neutral thing, to finally casting herself on His mercy.

    Whether readers will pick up on this, however, is another matter!

  5. Luther says:

    Very good wrap up post Stephen. It truly is a balancing act between Christian liberty and concern for weaker brothers. We must always remember that “‘weaker brothers “‘ are not always weak in all areas. We may be the weaker brother and rely on others for support.

  6. Nikole Hahn says:

    My only objection to cussing is this: that cussing is so overused in the secular world it’s a breath of fresh air when you read a novel that doesn’t include a single cuss word. If a novel has a cuss word or two, I don’t find an objection for it if the author has cleverly worded it so that there’s a reason for the cuss word and not just following the secular tradition of cussing every other word and considering it a language or a character trait.

    Real life needs to be portrayed so that the secular can relate to it, too, in Christian fiction, but with some boundaries. I thought The Ressurection was an awesome book and it’s characters were perfect. You could relate to the characters. If that’s considered edgy, I’m okay with edgy.

  7. Thank you so much for a very thought-provoking post. I have a lot to think about and pray about.

What do you think?