Does Profanity Have a Place?

A question of constant debate and opinion is should a Christian actor swear? Some are of the opinion that swearing is alright because it not the actual person swearing but the character or that plays are designed to represent life and if a character swears, the actor must be true to the character. Others feel that swearing is swearing and should have no place in a Christian actor's life.

In the end you will have to make up your own mind based on your personal convictions.

Here is my own, personal conviction to help you sort it out. Should a Christian actor swear? My answer is "No!"

I base my answer on two main reasons.

The first is that the art I do, I want it to point to God. This does not mean that it will necessarily have a Gospel message to it, but I want it to be different then what the world offers. The best way to do this is to have no profanity. Profanity is so common on TV, movies, cartoons that it has become expected. It can be uttered without so much as a ripple anymore. I know that someone watching a play (for example) without swearing will realize that something is different, but not know what. Eventually it will dawn on them that they didn't hear a swear word! I hope they will then ask the question "why?"

That leads me to the second reason, and I base this on scripture. In James 3:10-11 it reads: "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?" To me, there is no exception to this. It does not say, "unless it is in a script."

What it comes down to is that we are responsible for what comes out of our mouth and I, in no way, see how a curse word in a script justifies it coming out of my mouth.

Again, this is my personal view and in the end we are "in the world but not of it" and I want my art to be as well.

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