Compared to vile language heard today, "hell" and "damn" seem tame, just minor cuss words. At least they're in the Bible. Here's a story of what happened to me in Washington County.
"You can't play that kind of music in here," I said to an eighth-grader. He had pulled the earbuds from his phone. His music was now loud enough to hear clear across the classroom. It was disgusting, sexist speech about using females, defiling.
"Why not?" he said.
"Because it's vulgar," I replied.
"What's vulgar mean?"
"You know," I said.
Two months later, in a different class at a different junior high, we were getting ready for the bell to ring. A boy pulled his phone out and turned on a song with filthy lyrics.
"Hey!" I said. "You are not allowed to play that kind of music in my classroom!"
"Why not?"
"Because it's vulgar."
"What does 'vulgar' mean"
"You know what it means."
Different boys, same response. He turned it off but began to exchange comments with a classmate using foul language. I called him by name and said, "is there any person on this planet that you respect?"
"My mother." He replied.
"Well, your mother wouldn't want you to use that language in here." He flew into a rage and charged across the room and tried to knock me off my feet. I stood my ground, keeping my hands by my side.
"You can't hurt me. You're only going to hurt yourself." He charged into me a second time.
Another kid captured it all on his cell phone. The principal, then the police, came for him.
Another resentful boy, abandoned by his father, growing up filled with rage. Rejection does that to kids.
As America's culture becomes increasingly anti-God, anti-religion, and anti-conservative, we're left with a moral vacuum. Like it or not, we need an outside power to save us from self-destruction. As a Bible teacher, I believe that is the good news of Christ. He transforms souls and repairs families.
Today the entertainment world has a huge megaphone. It pours wicked lyrics non-stop into kids. Most parents don't have a clue about the R-rated and X-rated content of many music videos.
Without vigilant parents policing their kids, the children and teens have no frame of reference to resist, to be able to say, "This is wrong for me. I don't want these words in my head."
Besides the music world, the elite news media is a channel of bias being piped into every home. It has a continual flood of opinions slanted against conservative beliefs. It flings unremitting disrespect against our president. We saw a blatant example recently.
At the annual White House correspondents' dinner, the room was filled with Washington's news media, plus a few invited guests from the administration. Wisely, President Trump skipped it. Their usual routine is to roast the president, or in this case, Sarah Sanders Huckabee. The main comedian was a woman whose specialty was the use of despicable language. The room laughed with glee as she excoriated President Trump and then tried to eviscerate Ms. Huckabee. Sarah stuck it out with poise and grace, but anyone listening with a sense of dignity or morality was shocked.
Polite conversation has vanished. Now, entertainers use speech laced with expletives designed to shock listeners. Call it what it is. It is sewage. It smells. Such people need their mouth washed out with soap. Broadcasters need to fire them. Deny them the pedestal they stand on. Stop de-civilizing our nation.
• • •
Ron Wood is a writer and minister. Email him at [email protected] or visit www.touchedbygrace.org. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 05/09/2018