Rev. Don Campbell
Sin Is No Joke
“Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding” (Prov 10:23, ESV). Humor is an integral part of humanity, and the ability to laugh is often a sign of good emotional health. However, what we laugh at reveals much about what is truly in our hearts. Few people, even the vilest, find people feeding in a garbage dump funny, but fools pay big money to be fed garbage by foul-mouthed comedians.
“The speech of a good person clears the air; the words of the wicked pollute it” (Prov 10:32, The Message). Americans are rightfully concerned about air pollution—auto exhaust, smokestack emissions, vapors from aerosol cans, landfill gases, even methane emitted by belching cows. But when it comes to polluting the air with vile, vulgar, and vicious words, there is no regulation, because a foul mouth is, so the Supreme Court tells us, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Some of us can still recall when even dirty-minded, foul-mouthed men cleaned up their language in the presence of ladies and children. Today, millions pipe the words of dirty-minded, foul-mouthed men and women into their living rooms. An interesting note: My grammar checker flagged the word “ladies” because it is no longer politically correct. Women have not only won the right to vote, but the right to, proverbially, “cuss like a sailor.”
