Clergyman Charlie: On “naughty words”
June 3rd, 2007 by Charles Lamb
Once, when my children were small, I was invited to be the guest preacher in a small church. I knew there would be only about 30 people there, and that they were kindly, informal folk. I decided to ask each of my three daughters to take part in the service.
I asked the oldest daughter to say a prayer. I knew she could do that. She was about 12 years old at the time. In fact, I encourage her to think of things to say that would lead the thoughts of all the people as she prayed. After all, prayer in church is not our private devotions. It is praying aloud things that everyone can join, silently, in praying also. She agreed to do this.
The middle daughter agreed to ask people to present their offerings, and then to give the prayer after the offering was received. This was a very short prayer and at 10 she knew she could do that easy task. I knew that the people in the congregation would be beaming with delight to see these little children helping with the service.
I had saved the Scripture reading for the youngest daughter, who was about 8 years old. She was a good reader. She knew how to project her voice. And she didn’t have to shut her eyes or make up anything to read the short text, which was from Matthew 25. In this Scripture, Jesus said that insofar as people took care of “the least of these” it was counted as done unto him. If you gave food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, or shelter to the homeless, you did it for him. He continued to tell people to give clothes to the naked, to take care of the sick, and to visit the prisoners.
My daughter read this over and then firmly told me, “I’m not reading this!”
“Why not�” I asked, surprised.”There are no hard words here. Of course you can do it.”
“No,” she said, “I’m not saying that bad word.”
“What bad word?” I couldn’t imagine what she was talking about.
“I won’t say it,” she said. But she held the Bible in front of my face and pointed. It was the word “naked.” She was not about to stand up in front of people and say “that naughty word.”
“Well,” I said, “we’ll do a new translation of the Greek right on the spot, Jennifer. Could you read it as ‘I was without clothes, and you gave me some?’”
“Sure,” she said, “I could say that.”
Problem solved!
Whatever happened to modesty? Please don’t get me wrong, but it seems to me our language and morals have become much more crass and crude, to our detriment. I’m not a person who wants to go back to the Victorian era. I think the human body is beautiful. At this point I’m not talking so much about what we wear or see (that’s another subject) as I am about what we say.
A lot of our language is not only vulgar, it is so uneducated. The “F” word doesn’t make sense if translated literally. Most objects that are described with that adjective aren’t capable of sexual intercourse! Aren’t we able to use descriptive words that make sense? Do we think that our children are well served to hear this kind of talk from our mouths?
It offends me when this type of language is called “adult content.” I think it is far below the standard that adults should have.
Sex is a beautiful thing, but when we use angry and hurtful words about it we cheapen it.
This is an appeal to speak with a little more culture, a little more restraint, a little more modesty. We’ll all be better off for it.
Remember my daughter sometime and say to yourself, “I’m not going to say that naughty word!”
Share This
Add this to your favorites