Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Sacrament Talk Policy Update - 'Wooden Swearing'

In light of recently accelerating use of 'substitute swearing,' during Sacrament meeting talks, I'd like to remind the Ward members that this really doesn't fool anyone. For those who haven't figured it out yet, the mind is a powerful tool that quickly translates 'fetch,' 'friggin,' 'heck,' 'shoot,' etc,' into their respective swear words rather efficiently.

Please refrain from using phrases with these substitute swear words while giving Sacrament talks (:cough: Brother Bell :cough:), as it only brings attention and focus to these words and reminds me of my days in the Navy and the Lindon cannery.

With Affection,

Bishop M.T. Young

2 comments:

  1. Dear Bishop,
    What word would you suggest I use during my Sacrament talk when I need to talk about the place where Satan lives? Some ideas I've come up with are: the hot place, h-e-double hockey sticks, the fiery pit, the bowels of the earth, Baker, CA . . . Do you think that my above list of substitutions fall into the category of "wooden swearing?" I certainly don't want to offend anyone this Sunday when I give my talk. The topic you gave me: "Anything and Everything You'd Ever Want to Know about Satan" is very tricky to talk about without mentioning the word _ _ _ _. Please help!!

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  2. Well, we have to separate'wooden swearing' from literal places. In you example, you'd be completely justified using 'hell' as the location of The Evil One's abode. Totally fine. But, for example, if you were to comment on wishing someone would 'do to heck,' - not so appropriate.

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