maycocksean
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
80sU2isBest said:
I'm a writer, also, and I have never written a character using the Lord's name in vain. Not even when the characters are very angry. There are other ways that people express their anger that do not involve the Lord's name in vain. Using one of these in place of the Lord's name in vain detracts nothing from realism. Exclamatory words do indeed add to a movie's realism, but they don't have to be offensive words.
Well, I think that is a decision each artist has to wrestle with him or herself. And for those of us who are Christians, we have the additional responsiblity of our relationship with the Lord, and our witness to others. These are serious issues and I take them seriously. The fact remains that other artists may feel that their depictions (including those that use God's name in vain) are realistic and authentic. Perhaps they themselves as well as those around them use God's name this way a lot, and thus it seems natural. (This does have a big impact. The phrases "Oh my God" and "God" may turn up in my writing even though I don't use them because I hear them used by people around me quite a bit. I never use the phrase "Jesus Christ" because I don't hear that and it just doesn't flow in the dialogue I create, if you know what I mean). The fact remains, that for this artist the expunsion of these words from his/her work compromises the authenticity of the piece even if it wouldn't for you or I.
80sU2isBest said:
Have you ever walked out of a movie in which the Lord's name wasn't used in vain and said "You know, that movie would have been more realistic if the Lord's name had been used in vain"? Ever? I seriously doubt it.
No, but that's because most movies that don't use the Lord's name in vain (and there are only a few) aren't movies that have the sort of characters that would realistically use the Lord's name in vain. On the other hand, if I was watching a war movie and someone had their leg blown off and they said "Oh gol-DARN it, that hurts. Oh my goodness. Goodness. DANG! this is killing me" I'd question the authenticity. Unless the character was a chaplain.
Furthermore, a lot of Christian fiction does ring terribly false. Is it because they refuse to use the Lord's name in vain? Maybe not. But it probably does have to do with a desire (or the necessity) of sugar-coating reality to make it palatable to the Christian readers. I believe in Phillippians 4:8 as much as the next Christian, but I don't think Paul intended it as instruction to sugar coat or to recreate our own sanitized version of reality.
One author who is a Christian (who does not write for the Christian market) who I think does a remarkable job of navigating these issues is John Grisham (while he generally avoids obscenities in his books, I'm not sure about using God's name in vain). Granted, he's not exactly High Literature but still. Another author within the Christian market who I think does a pretty good job as well is Frank Peretti. Though even for him, and a lot of other Christian writers, what he does on the page would be harder to translate authentically to the screen. He'll do things like "Suddenly the car exploded in flames. Mike swore as he dove to the ground." We can imagine what Mike said as he dove to the ground, but the writer doesn't have to say it. When it comes time to film it, that gets a little bit more dicey.