World News and Trends: Cursing more prevalent on American TV
In a study of U.S. television programming between 1998 and 2002, cursing had risen 95 percent during the television family hour (from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time) each evening. The very next hour, from 9 to 10 p.m., showed a 109 percent increase in cursing.
Television mirrors life, but it also helps to shape it. In this case, a coarse stratum of American life has broken out of barrooms and settled into our living rooms. Should television be used to spread cursing into our homes while indoctrinating our children?
Psychologist Timothy Jay has written a book on the subject of swearing in public, Cursing in America (2000). He claims that women and children are swearing more in public because the culture is changing and that it's more pervasive. Television actors, celebrities, sports figures and even cartoons show people cursing the air blue.
Modern societies and their cultures are indeed changing for the worse, and a good part of the blame can be laid at the doors of media. The more families watch evening television sitcoms—filled with sexual innuendos, four-letter words and religious expletives—the easier it becomes for everyone to curse more in public. The ever-ubiquitous television industry becomes our moral standard. Regrettably, the amoral standards of media typically set an entire nation's social norms.
Have you noticed how easy it is for people on television game shows to use the religious expletive "Oh my God!"? If you watch TV game shows, notice how many times this phrase is used. Does this expletive have any real meaning?
The point is that human beings have strayed so far from God that just about any kind of epithet is acceptable. Your Bible says that we should not take God's name in vain and that He pronounces a sentence of guilt on anyone who does (Exodus 20:7). Yet people have long used God's name loosely and profanely.
This is symptomatic of a greater problem: People who call themselves Christians are unwittingly following a new kind of religious secularism. If the majority of society curses freely, does that make it all right? Not according to your Bible. God says He will not always ignore how people talk and think about Him with callous disregard: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
Anyone who curses to make a point is either willingly ignorant or too lazy to expand his or her vocabulary to more articulately address important issues. Cursing also suggests a willing slavishness to peer pressure. Don't fall into the social trap of making your point with cursing just because others do.
Don't be fooled into following the foul-mouthed foolish. Cursing the air blue comes from the wickedness of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). It is a sin that must be repented of and overcome (Romans 12:21). (Source: Associated Press.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: November - December 2003
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
