Swearing is a Foolish Habit

By Mrs. A. J. Wilder

I heard a boy swear the other day, and it gave me a distinctly different kind of a shock than usual. I had just been reading an article in which our soldiers were called crusaders who were offering themselves, in their youth, as a sacrifice in order that right might prevail against wrong and that those ideals, which are in effect the teachings of Christ, shall be accepted as the law of nations.

When I heard the boy use the name of Christ in an oath, I felt that he had belittled the mighty effort we are making and that he had put an affront upon our brave soldiers by using lightly the name of the great leader who first taught the principles for which they are dying. The boy had not thought of it in this way at all. He imagined he was being very bold and witty, quite a grown man in fact.

I wonder how things came to be so reversed, from the right order, that it should be thought daring and smart to swear, instead of being regarded as utterly foolish and a sign of weakness, betraying a lack of self-control. If people could only realize how ridiculous they appear when they call down the wrath of the Creator and Ruler of the Universe just because they have jammed their thumbs, I feel sure they would  never be guilty of swearing again. It is so out of proportion, something as foolish and wasteful as it would be to use the long range gun which bombarded Paris, to shoot a fly. If we call upon the Mightiest for trivial things, upon whom or what shall we call in the great moments of life?

There are some things in the world which should be damned to the nethermost regions, but surely it is not some frightened animal whom our own lack of self-control has made rebellious, or an inanimate object that our own carelessness has caused to smite us. Language loses its value when it is so misapplied and in moments of real and great stress or danger we have nothing left to say.

It is almost hopeless to try to reform older persons who have the habit of swearing fastened upon them. Like any other habit, it is difficult to break and it is useless to explain to them that it is a waste of force and nervous energy, but I think we should show the children the absurdity of wasting the big shells of language on small insignificant objects. Perhaps a little ridicule might prick that bubble of conceit and the boy with his mouth full of his first oaths might not feel himself such a dashing, daredevil of a fellow if he feared that he had made himself ridiculous.

Mrs. A. J. Wilder. "Swearing is a Foolish Habit" Missouri Ruralist,  (August 5, 1918): page 10.

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