The Opposite of Love is Sin

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Today’s reading: Proverbs 15:1-4

One day at a church retreat, a pastor gave each of us in the group a card and asked us to write a question we had always wanted to ask a preacher. He and a couple of other pastors were going to select several of the more interesting ones to answer publicly.

This caught me off guard, so my question was a ridiculous, egg-headed one about some then-raging theological debate that I cannot now recall. It didn’t get chosen for an answer.

I wish I had asked this: Is it a sin to cuss?

Having known many pastors who slip into vulgar slang on occassion (I’ve heard one even do it from the pulpit), I’ve always assumed that cursing’s sinfulness is relative. I even remember as a teenager seeing curse words attributed to  great, Godly, men like Bob Hope, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and even Martin Luther King.

But then I run across scripture like today’s reading: “The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.” (Verse 2)

The word “fools” brings to mind something a brilliant friend of mine said some 25 years ago.

“Every time I’m tempted to use a four letter word that has the potential to offend someone, I remind myself that’s foolish. I stop and think of the beauty of English. There are too many other words to choose from for me to fool around with something that’s going to make people cringe unnecessarily,” she said.

Depending upon one’s definition of “word,” English has between 150,000 and 750,00 of those things. If I can’t find a replacement for those 7 “banned” words that comedian George Carlin so famously identified in the 70’s, then I am foolish indeed.

Sure, people who are offended over another person’s use of a curse word are probably being foolish themselves. The Bible tells us we’re supposed to forgive the transgressions of others, right? But The Bible tells us also that we are supposed to love others. And forcing upon others words with painful connotations is the opposite of love — especially when God’s gift of the English language gives us many other, more precise, words to use.

So I’ll answer my own question:

Yes it is a sin to cuss. It’s the opposite of love. God please help me to give up that sinful habit. I know I can always find other words.

Thanks be to God for love. May I (and we) always be its vessel.