Did you have Ezra Pound's startling parody of "Sumer is icumen in" in mind when you wrote this? I don't know what the rules would be here about posting such a thing, given its language, so I'll only mention that the piece is included in full at a later point in the Wiki article to which Mark has linked. Pound - an infamous man, to be sure, but no dummy in an academic sense - turns the poem's structure and style to winter, instead, and in so doing replaces the "lhude sing cuccoo" with loud cries of frustrated damnation.

Though we may certainly object to its language, it can still at least stand as a delightful novelty in terms of Poundian lucidity - a commodity otherwise lacking in some of his more famous work.

Do you have some CL friends that swear a lot? I bet you do...

I certainly agree that there's no moral equivalence between blasphemy and mere foul language. I'd certainly be lying if I said I never used it. I think perhaps there are occasions where it could be okay, depending on the context. However, at least in my experience, it's generally connected to some sort of sin- usually anger, and sometimes in reference to the opposite sex. Those instances should be avoided.

I read this article with particular interest as this weekend while I was walking the subject Of the differences between vulgarity, swearing and cursing sprang to mind unbidden. Your article explained them in far more depth than I achieved on my own. Thanks for a good piece.

I believe firmly that what goes into our stomach and intenstines through our mouth has an effect on the health of our body as well as is directly related to how much manure we produce. Analogously, what we allow to go into our minds through our eyes and ears will have an effect on the health of our soul and how much filth comes out of our mouths. Every foul-mouthed word we permit to pass our lips brings down the level of dignity in our world... and every expletive that we feel like saying but don't... raises the culture a little higher... towards God.

My very holy pastor has explained that all vulgarity is a sin against modesty.

Perhaps know you will stop sarcastically referring to Senator Obama as the Son of God.

...Didn't think so.

I wholeheartedly agree with Ches. Our culture is saturated with foul, course, crude, obscene language. What happens to that language after it is "ingested?" It stays in the brain, in the spirit, in the soul and, obviously, on the mouths and lips and tongues of those who allow it into their lives. We become what we take in! We must guard against foul language as vigorously we do against images which do not honor God and which offend Him. Quote from St. Augustine: "Do not say that you have chaste minds if you have unchaste eyes, because an unchaste eye is the messenger of an unchaste heart." I submit that this quote is quite applicable to the horrible situation our children and our young people (actually, our whole culture) are assaulted with. Unclean eyes and unclean ears will produce unclean hearts and lips and words. We have become so desensitized to this "sewer" language that it has become "normalized." Our nation, in fact, our whole society, is now teetering on a precipice, in danger of falling into an abyss of corrupted hearts, minds, and llives, from which we may not recover. Gone are the lovely words, the kind expressions, the innocent remarks that are now so misinterpreted and often mocked. Instead we have gutter words, double-speak, and hateful, mean-spirited mockery and just plain gross words which mirror/produce gross, obscene behavior. I for one am sick and tired of it. It's everywhere! It assaults you and bruises you, hurts you, affects you. And if you dare object to it, watch out! Be prepared for more vitriol and quite explicit verbiage.
God help us all, especially our children! They are in the cross hairs of satan's evil barrage! We continue to pray!

We live in a culture awash in it, and adding to the river of sewage in the world is not a big help. Christian homeschoolers do well, as a general rule, not to instruct their kids in what the Sixties tediously called "keepin' it real."

My daughter just started public school in the 10th grade and she was shocked that all the kids curse all the time in school. Maybe I was more shocked because we used to get in trouble for that. I am a generation above her, but I didn't think I was that old that the notion of cursing minors was something of a shocker. More than that though, I remember learning at home that is was low-class and girls should never swear in public. I know many females these days as a show of being enlightened, but in the end it is unnattractive.

I have to say though, when I was young, I never cursed, but since having children, becoming over-tired, being around constant spills and accidents, my tongue has loosened and I am often ashamed of myself. You'd think it would be the other way around.

is not making fun of God.

It's really not complicated, dude. So the Church Lady bit really doesn't fly with me.

I didn't accuse you of making fun of Obama Worship. I accused you of blasphemy. Get it right. It's not complicated dude.

You learn something every day.

This is really good news for me!

Two of my (and many people's) most favoritist novelists, Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor (well, and Christopher Moore, too, though he's far from a "Catholic novelist"), frequently used vulgarity to expose some eternal Truth or satirize the culture at large.

"To the hard of hearing, you shout," and for some reason no matter how loud the ambient noise in the office is, everyone can still hear a fart.

I know this sounds simple but remember the song Be careful Little Ears What you hear? Then the other verses are mouth what you say, next eyes what you see etc. There was a reason our parents taught us this. Becoming Holy is hard work but can be put into simple terms! God wants us to have the faith of a child.

The problem is that when parents teach their kids that something is wrong because it's socially inappropriate and not good manners, well, sorry, that's weak, and you're leaving your child utterly uncatechized. Because if they grow up in a coarser culture and don't really have a problem with it, well, then, you've lost the battle.

If parents teach their children what is right and wrong because of morals and what God thinks about things...then they at least know where they stand morally, no matter how coarse and immoral the culture gets.

VV

The whole verse for this song finishes as... because the Lord up above is looking down in love be careful little eyes what you see. So, as you can see not doing the right thing upsets God and yes we need to remember that manners mean something also! So it's both the God and how we act and treat people so yes it is catechizing your children, it's just easier for children to remember songs. also we don't need to be so legalistic. We need balance between love nad law! God Bless!

My holy mother (coincidentally named Mary) taught me from the get-go that there are "bad words" that I shouldn't say. This included all the "bad words" YOU can think of and even the word "b-u-t-t." Imagine how threatening "I'm going to kick your b-u-t-t" must have sounded when you spelled the word. A month before I turned 19, I actually asked my mother if she would allow me to use "the b-word" and "the c-word" (c-r-a-p). I was always made fun of for not using those words and covering my mouth when hearing them (yes, I actually did; it was my first reaction). I didn't care about being made fun of, though, because I believed strongly in the commandment, "Obey thy father and thy mother." If I were to say those words, I would be disobeying my mother, no matter how old I was, and that would be a sin. My mom gave me permission to use those two words, and, after two weeks of not being able to bring myself to say them because my mouth just couldn't form the words, I started using them constantly.

Shortly after I turned 20, I asked my mother if she would allow me to use expletives. I don't use them nearly as often, but I have said them with a smile on my face, thinking that it was funny. I only use them to be "funny."

Now, I'm not saying that "the b-word" is a bad word. In fact, I really don't think it is, but my mother said it was crude. (Why would you really be talking about rear ends in the first place, though?) The point of my story is that, in the end, I realize how fortunate I am that my mother raised me the way she did. I never NEEDED to use those words, nor do I need to use them now. Perhaps expletives help release emotional stress at times for some reason. (Example: I woke up with 4 minutes until class this morning and started whisper-yelling the s-word multiple times because I was scared to death of what would happen to me for being late. God took care of it in the end, of course.)

I agree that expletives and vulgarity run rampant in our society. I wish my mother had never given me "permission" to use the words. (She only did reluctantly and because I noted that I should be old enough to say a word and not feel guilty. She also granted me "permission" under the conditions that I not use them around her or my younger siblings.) Almost every single time I say a "bad word" besides the 4-letter b-word and the c-word, I feel guilty: not because I feel like I'm disobeying my mother but because those words do not bring me closer to God, nor are they truly necessary for anything.

I know this is long, but I hope at least someone got a kick out of it.

And I do remember that simple song, Robin. I love it, and now it's stuck in my head. So thanks for that. ;o)

Yesterday, my daughter came home from school, and she mentioned not only the vulgarity again, but she said she is sick and tired of hearing the "n" word all over the place. She said everyone (all races) uses it and they say it is acceptable because they pronounce the "er" at the end accented with an 'a', and it means "my friend". As in "what's up my n&^%a?" Or "N$%$a, please!" Why is it because some idiot decided the most offensive term can now be colloquial, it makes it OK. I am really beside myself. I am glad my children know better, but haven't people in this country suffered enough to make that term unacceptable? What's next, swatikas on street wear because it's cool? What does this say about these kids-all of them-their parents...Their is too much allowance with "well, their just kids" as an excuse for a lack of just simple manners for nothing more than the sake of nothing more than at least manners.

Manners should be dumped on kids in more abundance than the other way around because they are being formed into people. Later in life it is easier for them to determine what manners can be dropped in certain situations than it is to construct an adult into a functionally respectful member of society when they have had no exposure to such thinking before.

It seems that many of the earlier commenters are failing either to recognize the distinction Mark made, or to argue that such a distinction isn't useful or meaningful. I agree such a distinction between blasphemy and vulgarity is important; in addition it might be helpful to draw a distinction between insulting and non-insulting vulgarity. The latter distinction is probably going to be largely contextual, I reckon.

Skubala? Love it.

I was so fortunate to have taken 2 years of Latin in school. I think my first incidence of swearing in a foreign language was when I cobbled together "taurus feces". I almost never swore in English!

Sadly, as I age I find myself serving as an increasingly bad example of control of linguistic passion.

Thanks Mark for clarifying the difference between blasphemy and vulgarity. Here's to the Anglo-Saxon roots.

I wrote an article on this topic, if anyone is interested:

http://tinyurl.com/3z3lrh

Mine goes more into what Scripture and the Catechism have to say about using foul language.