how to handle profanity

[Million Pieces]

Carolina, this has so little do to with constitutional rights, I'm having difficulty figuring out how you made the connection. I live in Canada, and we don't have a constitutional amendment protecting right to free speech. But my kids are still not allowed to say words like that. It's not a legal thing, it's a moral one.

This is not about getting put in jail for saying words, it's about raising children to be properly mannered Godly people. "There is no age limit on that right . . " There's a reason they're called minors. They are under the authority of their parent or guardian. Yes, these rights protect these children's civil liberties to life and safety, but the right to free speech was intended to protect a person's speech regarding political and religious liberties. Yes, religious liberties. That's a whole other thread....... Does your argument go on to allow these kids as teens the right to bear arms to the corner store? .... on the bus?.... to their school hallways? Are these same little children permitted to engage in civil disobedience against THEIR perception of opression? I can just see it, a class of second graders staging a march on the White House protesting the unconstitutionality of forced confinement in classrooms..... whatever.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Eph. 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the LORD.

Eph. 4:29. Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

That's my Constitution.

 

[CarolinaGirl24]

I'm not sure how Canada's laws work, since I don't live there.

However, in reference to young people here in the United States having the same rights under the First Amendment as everyone else, there was actually a Supreme Court case back in 1969 that dealt with that very issue. The case was actually about several teenagers in Des Moines, Iowa, wearing black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War. Well, the school authorities didn't like it too well, so the students sued. The case went to the Supreme Court, and the Supremes ruled that in fact young people DO have the same right to free speech as everyone else. The actual text of the ruling was "students in school as well as out of school are considered persons under the Constitution." Just for reference, the case is Tinker vs Des Moines school district.

Just thought you would like to know that interesting piece of American judicial history.

I guess the reason I don't think that "cuss words" are as bad as they seem to be is that I was taught what they meant. And before anyone goes blaming the public school system in this nation, I went to a private prep school.

 

[Million Pieces]

Still my point is, we are not arguing that kids should be sent to the authorities for using cuss words, just that in our experience as parents, we have a moral responsibility to impart to them Godly qualities. The original question had to do with how best to accomplish THAT, not what civil right she might be stepping on in the process. Whether or not it is allowed Constitutionally or not isn't the issue, at issue is whether or not it is desirable for kids to speak that way.

BTW, I was not aware of that Supreme Court ruling. That's an interesting one to know! Thanks for taking the time to do that research.

 

[CarolinaGirl24]

I agree that we should not CONDONE this kind of language, however, the point I was trying to make was that it often gets blown completely out of proportion when someone hears a kid say a "cuss word."

I don't know if you saw the documentary that aired earlier this year about the NYC firefighters that I referenced earlier, but all throughout the film, they were cussing like soldiers. I don't know if its just some professions are more prone to using "cuss words" or what the deal is.

One thing I'm curious about, who designated certain words as "dirty" in our language? There are a few words which we would consider "dirty" words that are in the Bible, and mean completely different things. One references an animal, which we now call by a different name for obvious reasons. Any of you "Bible scholars" out there want to take a crack at this?

 

[sulphur]

*edited due to a violation of CF rule #6.

God bless,

Reformationist

 

[paulewog]

When a word acquires a bad connatation in a language... I think we should avoid using it, unless we clearly aren't using it badly. For example, a preacher can preach about "damnation" and I don't think anyone is going to accuse him of swearing.

Or as my pastor put it, preaching "hellfire and dalmations." slips of tongues are funny things.

 

[CarolinaGirl24]

Originally posted by paulewog

Or as my pastor put it, preaching "hellfire and dalmations." slips of tongues are funny things. [/B]

[GLOW=crimson]LOL! That's funny! [/GLOW]