On a very personal level, I have to make a confession. As a Christian, I’ve always had a struggle with using profanity. It started way before I came to know the Lord. I remember once when I was a kid, my Dad said, “Boy, you have a problem with profanity.”
Wise-ass me looked at him and said, “No I don’t. I know what the words mean.”
My Dad was not a mean person, but he definitely was a no nonsense kind of guy. He certainly didn’t share my sense of the absurd. Let’s just say I’m lucky to have made it to adulthood.
So, as a Christian, I’ve had to really, really work at not using the expletive deleteds. I’ve tried to rationalize it by calling it a pressure valve for frustration, but as I said, it’s a struggle.
Because of this, I’ve taken a slightly different perspective at what’s going on in our overall culture and especially in the cultural cesspool we call politics.
Exodus 20:7 is where the verse “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” is found. Does this refer specifically to cursing, or does it mean calling yourself a believer when you’re not? I’ve read theologians who take each of those views on the meaning of this verse. Apparently, it can go either way.
Ephesians 4:29 is where “corrupt communications” comes from. “Let no corrupt communications proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying…”.
Couple this with Matt. 5:37:” But let your communications by yea, yea; Nay, nay, for whatever is more than these cometh of evil.” In other words, be true to your word. Mean what you say.
Before getting into the contemporary significance of this, a bit of background. The English word for “corruption” comes from the Greek phtheiro which means to pine or waste.
Biblical usage of “corrupt” usually means to destroy. In Jewish tradition, the temple was corrupted or destroyed when anyone defiled it, caused any damage, or if the attending priests weren’t faithful in their duties. The Christian tradition uses the word to mean the church turning away from holiness and knowledge of Christ. In colloquial use, it means to destroy, perish, or cause to be depraved.
Corrupt communication goes beyond mere profanity. It has become the foundation for the mindset that allows evil to be called good, and simple disagreements to be called hate. It is creating the world George Orwell fictionalized.
There are two main sources for corrupt communication that have entered contemporary society in this country.
Of course the so-called “news media” is one of these corrupt sources. With a continuous 24/7 news cycle on cable, it’s hard to escape the sleaze. However, it is hopeful that so many Americans are waking up to what is actually being spewed forth. There’s a lot that has already been written about media corruption, so I’m not going to even try and add to it. One of the best in-depth looks at the media is Bernard Goldberg’s 2001 book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. The subtitle pretty much says it all.
The second source of corrupt communication is much hard to nail down as one specific institution, person, or venue as a root cause.
Perhaps it would be best to regard the cause as more of an attitude. True corruption of the culture isn’t necessarily coming from lewd music, film, TV or any one particular art form. It comes from allowing the PC mindset to control our very language. “Hate” is now anything liberals disagree with. “Racism” is now any criticism of an individual of any non-white minority, even if that individual is involved in criminal activity. “Tolerance” exists only among liberals for other liberals. (Even then, there’s strict guidelines that must be followed.)
We could go on and on and on with examples of cultural corrupt communication, but if you’re reading this, you probably already know what I’m talking about.
It’s going to be up to true conservative Christians to combat this. Liberals love the saying “…truth to power…”, but they are only interested in the power. And only interested in truth as they get to define it.
It sounds simple to say we have to stand up to the corruption, but that’s the only way to fight it. We do so by not becoming like them. Scripturally, there’s some great ammunition to take to the fight.
Prov. 21:23: Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
Prov. 18:13: If one gives an answer before he knows, it is his folly and shame.
Col. 3:8: …put off all of these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth.
Matt. 12:36,37: I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Also see James 3:1-14 which gives guidance for controlling the tongue.
We are living in a tech soaked world, with 24/7 entertainment of all kinds. Our political reality sometimes falls within the entertainment world. Because there are a number of people who regard politics that way, it’s made it easy for the PC nonsense to take hold and no longer seem Orwellian.
While many would regard President Trumps penchant for Twitter use to fall under “corrupt communications”, I don’t think so. While what he says is often acerbic, asinine, annoying, they are nonetheless amusing in the least and accurate at best. Given what we went through for eight years, I don’t feel President Trump is corrupt at all.
It’s up to the rest of us to rise above the mental disorder that is liberalism and always… ALWAYS…avoid corruption and uphold the truth. (And we’ve been given a great guide book to show us how.)
photo credit: taberandrew [mobile] IT’S THE LAW via photopin (license)
