Can Christian's swear?

Obviously the literal answer is 'yes, they physically can', but you know I actually mean the question should Christian's swear?

Swearing is defined by Google's dictionary as "the use of offensive language", so the automatic response may be that, Christian's shouldn't swear.  Ideally, I'd probably agree, though I'd have to admit that makes me a hypocrite, as I do use language that some consider offensive.

Searching the Bible for the word "swear", only brings up references to the "promise" definition of swearing.  However, there are other references to bad language:

Matthew 12:33-37 says “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 15:10-20 says "And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides.[c] And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?[d] 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Ephesians 4:29 says "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

So, Christians should not be offensive.

But what is it about "swear words" that make them considered so bad?

Many of them are used as an insult, and I would agree that would be an offensive use of language.  Some are used to shock the listener, and I agree that can be offensive, depending on its intent (for example, I wouldn't use certain language amongst children nor my grandparents).  But often, they are just words.  Descriptors to conjure an image, or as an exclamation.
There are books on the etymology of swearing, and scientific studies on the hypoalgesic affect of swearing.

Personally, I don't find most swear words to be offensive.  I was brought up not to swear at all.  This included words that I doubt anyone would consider swearing these days, such as damn, crap and even fart. In fact, I've got a true anecdote about how anti-swearing I used to be:

One day, when I was around 6 years old, I came off the school coach in floods of tears.  My mum was disturbed by my obvious distress and tried to find out what had happened.  All I could say to her was that people on the coach were swearing and wouldn't stop.  Let's just say my mum is where I get my temper from, so she was beginning to get het up.  She asked a few times what was said, and I replied that I couldn't tell her because I promised that I would never swear. 

Over the course of the evening, she tried to get me to tell her what was said, so that she could approach the school in the morning, but I refused to utter a word.  Eventually, just before bed, she convinced me to tell her what was said, on the promise that I would not get in trouble, and that she would not tell my dad: Liverpool.  Yes, in my house we were all Manchester United fans, and my dad had taught me from a very young age that "Liverpool" (their arch-rivals) was a swear word, and was never to be uttered.

At least I can laugh about it now! 

The most offensive thing I think about swear words, is not the words themselves, but that many of them are references to female genitalia. What's all that about?  Gone are the days when "fuck" is the worst thing to come out of someone's mouth, now it's "cunt".  To me, though, they are both just words.  While ideally your vocabulary should be such that you don't say them every other word, a light peppering of such words doesn't concern me at all.

What I do find offensive, however, are some of the supposed light or mild swear words: "Jesus Christ", "Oh my God", "Jesus, Mary and Joseph", "Jesus Wept", "OMFG" etc.  I realise that not everyone in the world is a Christian, but surely it's polite not to use such phrases when in the company of one?  Christianity is still the largest religion in the world, yet these phrases bound so much, you wouldn't necessarily think so.  In fact, the only time I've seen similar usage towards another religion has been about Muhammed, specifically to incite hatred towards Muslims.  (I hope I don't have to say it, but I don't condone that at all.)  Whereas the usage of these terms are equally offensive for Christians, but any concern is either ignored or not even considered.  I have had a few discussions with people about how I would prefer people to use the words "fuck", "bastard", "cunt", "shit" or whatever, to blasphemy.  They are just words.  They don't hold any meaning to me.  And as long as you're not calling me a "fucking shit bastarding cunt", it doesn't bother me in the slightest.  However, Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit are all personal to me, and as such, it holds much more offensive to me if people are careless in their usage of these words.


As for me, yes I do swear.  I try not to use it too often, but it does get used as an exclamation (of pain, or of annoyance - usually at myself) or sometimes for emphasis.  I am careful about my audience too.  The exception to that is my Facebook status, but again, I don't swear too often there, either.

My word of choice tends to be "fuck" as it can be used in many scenarios and many ways.  I don't mean it offensively, so can I claim it is not offensive language and therefore not swearing? 

I hope the fuck so.