Replies

1. If I had kids, which I don’t, there’s no way I’d sign them up to watch the “10 Sweariest Movies” — or any movies until I’d screened them first. That’s one of the big problems; parents aren’t monitoring their kids’ days, friends, TV, internet, etc. It’s the parents’ responsibility to see that the children are seeing, hearing, and doing the right things. Mine were so strict that I never stepped a foot into a movie theater until I was 22 years old and on my own. (Sadly, I was way too innocent stepping into adulthood.) And it’s the parents’ responsibility to tell the kids what words are acceptable or not so they can judge whether or not a public speaker’s language is appropriate for them.

2. It’s true that a lot of the current “bad words” don’t sound nice. But your threshold of what words are acceptable or not is the threshold you’ve set for your family, and that’s great. Other families have set different limits. Why would you impose your exact guidelines on every other family in America? There are Biblical absolutes that offer no wiggle room, i.e., taking the Lord’s name in vain, homosexuality, stealing, cheating (hello... Cruz), etc.

Growing up, if we had said, “gee” or “gosh” — “minced oaths” — it was no different from “Jesus” or “God”, and we’d have been dealt with in an ugly way. Most of our friends’ parents had no problem with those kinds of words. Our family; our threshold.

3. Personally, I believe that Cruz on the campaign stages throwing around God the way he does, is taking the Lord’s name in vain. It’s not worshipful. It’s not ministering. It’s pandering to the evangelicals to get votes. It’s self-serving, and you can’t get more “in vain” than that.