Transcript

In today's episode, I'm gonna talk about a growing trend among online Christians that promotes vulgarity, verbal abuse, and even blasphemy.

I showed and even uttered this vulgarity in the original episode I recorded, but I realized that was as imprudent as showing pornography in order to fight pornography.

So, here is an edited version of that episode to better serve you.

God bless.

Lately, I've been seeing more and more self-professed Christians use profane, abusive, and even blasphemous language on the internet, and it needs to stop.

With that said, I want to be clear that the Church does not have a teaching on specific curse words.

Language changes so much, so it would be extremely difficult for the Church to do something like that.

So, while the Church doesn't teach on specific words, the Church does have teachings on the sinfulness of hateful desires, which these profane words often, but don't always, but often correlate.

So, there could be instances where it's licit to use profanity, maybe to make a rhetorical point.

For example, on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert informally debated psychologist Philip Zimbardo, and Colbert refuted Zimbardo's claim that God is the cause of evil.

Zimbardo said that Colbert must have done well in Sunday school, to which Colbert epically responded, I teach Sunday school, mother-f-er.

You could still argue Colbert shouldn't have been profane, but in the context, he wasn't trying to abuse Zimbardo.

Now, some people may still disagree with the profanity there, but other people might say profanity is acceptable in certain contexts as long as it does not become excessive.

In fact, that's one of the criticisms of Mark Wahlberg's film, Father Stu, was that it had an excessive use of profanity.

Now, one could justify profanity being used in at least some cases to portray Father Stu's vulgar pre-conversion lifestyle, but many filmgoers saw the use of profanities being excessive.

So, the studio released a version of Father Stu that dropped 100 swear words and all religious profanity.

By the way, I just want to say you guys have been freaking awesome in your support of the Council of Trent.

I never have to swear in anger at your lack of support.

And if you want to help us keep growing, please subscribe to the channel and support us over at trenthornpodcast.com.

Didn't even need profanity to make my point.

And by the way, the word profane, which we derive profanity from, profane just means not sacred.

The profane is the opposite of the sacred, as can be seen in Mircea Eliade's 1957 book, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion.

So, while profanity isn't intrinsically sinful, it is sinful to take something that is sacred, including a sacred name, and use it for a non-sacred or to use it for a profane purpose, like expressing frustration or anger.

Doing so will get you slapped by Sean Connery.

Two selfless martyrs.

Jesus Christ.

That's for blasphemy.

The Catechism says blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and His Holy Name.

It is, in itself, a grave sin.

The Second Commandment forbids the abuse of God's name, i.e., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also the Virgin Mary and all the saints.

A clear example of this would be the woman at a protest of the Daniel Penny trial, who said

These wonderful white people, I hope they celebrate their Christmas while the Neely family is praying and asking God for comfort.

God damn them and God damn America.

Before he was dismissed from the clerical state, Father Frank Pavone got in trouble for abusing God's name when he tweeted about, quote, This GD loser Biden and his morally corrupt, America-hating, God-hating, Democrat Party, a post he later apologized for and went to confession over.

But blasphemy doesn't just involve using God's name as a curse.

It also involves making crude jokes about God or the saints.

Remember, blasphemy is when we profane the sacred.

For example, it is blasphemous to use the sanctuary of a church for a vulgar music video, as happened in 2023 in a Sabrina Carpenter music video, which led to disciplinary action against the priest who unwittingly allowed this to happen.

It also includes making crude jokes about God or the saints that I've alluded to in previous episodes and I won't repeat here.

Now, obviously, nobody's perfect.

We all say things we regret.

But it's one thing to struggle with bad language and then be contrite about it.

It's quite another thing to revel in bad language and verbal abuse while claiming to be Christian.

Once again, it's not about the specific curse words themselves.

That's not what I'm concerned about as much as I'm concerned about their use in abusing other people.

The Catechism says, Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity.

Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil.

Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

You can't love your enemies when you tell them F you or call them derogatory names.

Here's a quote from a self-described Catholic with a large platform berating a man for liking a meme he didn't enjoy.

He said, Look at this disgusting fat P-word.

Look at this effing F-tard.

And for those who say this influencer was just joking around, I've mentioned before Proverbs 26:18, Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, 'I'm only joking!' But here's what Saint Alphonsus Liguori thought of these kinds of jokes.

The mouths of hell which frequently utter immodest words often regard them as trifles and are careless about confessing them, and when rebuked for this, they answer, 'I say these words in jest and without malice.' In jest?

Unhappy man, these jests make the devil laugh and shall make you weep for eternity in hell.Saint John Vianney likewise said, In spite of its enormity, its horror, its blackness, is there a more common sin than swearing and the uttering of blasphemies, imprecations, and curses?

Do we not all have the sorrow of hearing such language coming from the mouths of children who hardly know their Our Father?

Horrible words which are sufficient to draw down all sorts of evils upon a parish.

There's also something ironic about how these online Catholics interpret scripture.

So when the Bible talks about something that they obsess over, they'll interpret it very literally.

They'll read Ephesians Chapter 5 saying, Wives, also be subject in everything to their husbands, and say that means wives must do anything their husband asks, even if it's venially sinful, which is insane.

But those same people will simply ignore what Paul said about filthy speech, even in the same letter where Paul writes, Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

Let there be no filthiness nor silly talk nor levity, which are not fitting, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Or Colossians 3, Put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth.

Some of these profane online Christians even try to use the Bible to justify their abusive language and profanity.

They do this by citing Philippians 3:8's use of the word scubalonwhich they say means .

In most translations, however, the word is rendered refuse, as in the RSV, which says, Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, scubalon, in order that I may gain Christ.

It's something of a biblical urban legend that scubalon means or that it was an abusive insult.

The word means garbage or dung when it's talking about fecal matter.

There is little evidence the word was used as an insult or was considered rude, because it was used in ancient agricultural reports to describe the waste that appears in threshing floors when wheat is harvested.

The first-century Jewish author Philo uses it that way, and the same word is used in Sirach 27:4, When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains.

There are a few cases in scripture where prophets like Elijah own their opponents by making fun of their nonexistent God who can't take part in a miracle-off.

Or some of the biblical authors express their human emotions, like in Galatians 5:12, where Paul gets so mad about the Judaizers that he says they should just cut off their whole members if they love circumcision so much.

But in general, scripture teaches us to be patient with opponents, not to own them.

Paul wrote in Second Timothy 2:24-25, The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth.

Compare this to another prominent Christian YouTuber who told a former female pornographer, I'm not gonna take correction from a whore.

Get effin' real.

Get effed.

When someone becomes Christian through a valid baptism, that sacrament washes away his or her past sins, so it's not okay to use those sins as a slur against the person just because you're having heated disagreement with them, especially when the slur makes it sound like they still engage in the sinful behavior.

First Corinthians 6:9-11 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Such were some of you.

We should treat former prostitutes and pornographers like we treat former abortionists or former gang members.

We should pray for them and encourage them to share their testimony when it's genuinely helpful to other people, especially those who might be struggling with those same sins, while at the same time being cautious about giving these new converts a large public platform since they need to grow into their new faith, and it's easy at the start of your new faith to be theologically confused.

Check out my episode on how to engage new OnlyFans converts in the description below.

We should be kind to converts with especially sinful or dark pasts.

We should also remind them that they have an obligation to show charity to others, even if other Christians mistreat them.

It's kinda like that meme where the Christian hardcore biker is peacefully praying while the suburban Christians mock him.

All of this is why Saint James said, The tongue is a little member and boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire.

If the tongue is a fire, profanity and harsh language, while not intrinsically evil, can act like gasoline being poured on that fire and enflame hateful desires.

By the way, what I'm saying here is not tone-policing or being effeminate, as some of my critics are bound to say.

In fact, I've seen some of these Catholic critics say, Stop listening to feminized P words.

Sometimes men speak directly and use harsh language.

Yes, men should be direct and sometimes harsh.

Sodomy is perverted.

Transgenderism is a mental disorder.

Abortion is murder.

But you can be courageous without being crude.

A real man knows when to hold his tongue so he can save profanity for the times when it isn't sinful to utter, but instead has a powerful rhetorical effect.

That's why the Book of Sirach says, Do not accustom your mouth to lewd vulgarity, for it involves sinful speech.

A man accustomed to use insulting words will never become disciplined all his days.

Christians who use excessive profanity or abusive language remind me of junior high students who smoke cigarettes or vape in order to look cool, even though when they do that it's, as the kids say, cringe.

Finally, we have to take into account how people hear our words so we don't become a scandalous stumbling block to those who need to hear the Gospel but might be put off by one's choice of profane or abusive language.

That's why Saint Paul says, Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Thank you so much, and I hope you have a very blessed day.