No ******* Swearing!

As a keen amateur cook I often watch TV cookery shows. However, I always avoid any production involving Gordon Ramsay. While I am certain that he is an excellent chef and an overall good person, I seriously object to the behaviour trait which has brought him notoriety......he swears a lot, even on TV.

According to Wikipedia, “Ramsay's reputation is built upon his goal of culinary perfection. Since the airing of ‘Boiling Point’ which followed Ramsay's quest of earning three Michelin stars, the chef has also become infamous for his fiery temper and use of expletives. Ramsay once famously ejected food critic A. A. Gill along with his dining companion, Joan Collins, from his restaurant, leading Gill to state that ‘Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being’. Ramsay admitted in his autobiography that he did not mind if Gill insulted his food, but a personal insult he was not going to stand for.”

Five years ago, the Daily Telegraph analysed Ramsay’s TV swearing. Journalist Chris Irvine noted that the Channel 4 programme “had a total of 312 swear words in 103 minutes, including the F-word 240 times.  Ramsay himself swore 243 times, 187 of them the F-word. The chefs and restaurant owners he was helping also swore 69 times, although always in anger, compared with Ramsay's more general use of the words.”

As a Christian I find the use of foul and abusive language to be offensive, particularly when it involves taking the name of my Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in vain.

The Bible is very clear about this issue in the Third of the Ten Commandments which states, "You shall not take The Name of The Lord your God in vain; for The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain."

I have often wondered what the word "vain" means in the context of language?

In the original Hebrew, the word ‘vain’ has two meanings, one of which means evil and the other means to lie as a matter of vanity.

Firstly, vain meaning evil, is frequently heard, when people use God's Name, or the Son of God's Name, as a form of expletive, or profanity. This is according to the Bible a sinful and blasphemous act.

Those who speak in this way may think that only themselves or those they are talking to hears their language. They may be surprised to know that the Living God hears them every time they blaspheme Him or His Son.

Secondly, those who break the Third Commandment through vanity, are often offended when they hear the name of God or Jesus Christ used as an expletive. However they can be just as guilty as the first group.

Writing in the Keyway website, Wayne Blank explains. “Because they use the Name of God to seem righteous, in their own eyes or someone else's, or they use the Name of the Son of God to claim to be Christian, all without truly obeying God according to God's own word. Taking the name of the Son of God, claiming to be Christian, is vain in God's sight if it's nothing more than a self-serving, self-indulgent ‘I'll do it my way’ religious experience.”

Most really civilised people can get along most of the time without using foul and abusive language. As to those who have the same problem as Gordon Ramsay, the cure is to turn your heart to Christ and repent. When a person takes this step, he/she immediately becomes a ‘first-rate human being’.