Jesus' Prohibition Against Swearing and His Philosophy of Language
In an article entitled "Oath Taking in the Community of the New Age (Matthew 5:33-37)," Don Garlington calls Jesus' prohibition against swearing an oddity and the avoidance of swearing by certain Christian sects a superficial application of the logion.[1] As a member of one such group, the Mennonites, I offer an apology rather than a rebutal. Mennonites make affirmations rather than swear oaths in order to fulfil Jesus' command often without wondering if they have fulfilled his intention. When they find rationale for their avoidance of oaths, they tend to point to swearing as an occasion for sin rather than something sinful in itself. According to the Mennonite Encyclopedia, one avoids swearing in order to avoid an inadvertant sin of error or the habit of lying when one is not under oath.[2] Both of these reasons for minding the prohibition can be extrapolated from the Matthean text, but neither explains why the act of swearing a truthful oath is from evil. In order to comprehend Jesus' intent, we need to examine Jesus' understanding of language as a human activty that is not always accompanied by mindfulness of the reality that makes it potent, possible, and meaningful.
Given that modern usage of "to swear" has come to include the acts of cursing and of using colorful expletives, a definition based upon biblical usage is essential. An oath is a performative utterance; it does not describe something, it does something.[3] According to speech-act theory, an oath accomplishes a number of separate acts. First, it can either expound a view by making a statement of fact regarding past or present events or it can commit the speaker to an obligation in the future. The oath's power to expound or commit relies upon its capacity to execute a second speech-act, the act of invoking God or some divine authority as a witness or guarantor. Finally, the oath puts into place a third speech-act, a conditional curse. Zechariah illustrates the potential of the curse with the metaphor of the flying scroll that consumes the house of any one who swears falsely (Zech 5:1-4). The speech-act of cursing does not depend upon the locutionary act; whether the curse is articulated or not the deed is done.[4] If one's oath proves to be false, God is justified in enacting the curse.[5]
Speech-act theorist John Austin describes how oaths can go wrong under the rubric of the doctrine of the infelicitous.
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
the court, and for saying “I say-I say – God is dead” (p.115). The day
Swearing has the ability to get someone in a whole load of trouble at the dinner table with their mother but could also be their choice of words when they accidently stub their toe on the coffee table in the living room. Natalie Angier discusses this controversial topic of words that shouldn’t be said in her article feature in The New York Times, “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore”. Provoked by a recently proposed bill to increase fines for using swear words on television, Angier analyzes not only the impact of swearing, but also where the desire to speak obscene words comes from. She references many credible studies and sources as she unfolds her argument. She uses a diverse slew of studies, experiments, and famous pieces of literature and
Childhood experiences tend to stay within a person 's life, including the ones that have taught you something as valuable as courage. For me, such experience that taught me how to be courageous, as I am presently, took place when I was about the age of 8. I was traveling with my family from one continent to another to reach our desired destination: America. Before, I had lived in the same city for as long as I remembered and knew everyone around me. I knew my whole village in and out like it was at the back of my hand and was comfortable in whatever corner I went. So as one could imagine, a hometown girl, who hasn’t been exposed to any other areas besides her birthplace, planted in an immense airport, in New York City, wouldn’t result pleasantly. When we were waiting for our
The gay rights movement has made great progress in the United States, compared to generations ago, with the legalization of marriage in some states, and also the gaining of certain equal rights. Many people today accept homosexuals within society, and society in general is more...
2. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
To understand the theory of gender inequality better, it is necessary to confront the obstacles that have limited prior attempts. Amongst these, one the most important ones is the strong urge to minimize all explanations of gender inequality to some fundamental contrast between the sexes.
Each country has different aspects that they focus on depending on their culture and beliefs. However, the most common theme around the world was the wage gap and domestic violence for women. According to the “Violence against Women” article 1 and 3 women experience violence by intimate partners worldwide (Violence against Women, 2016, pg. 1). Unfortunately, this has increased the global rate of intimate partners who have committed murders of women to 38% (Violence against Women, 2016, pg. 1). These are significate numbers, yet worldwide women are being treated worse than men are treated. The same goes for the wage gap. In the United States it is hard for a women to get a job as a CEO or high ranking yet 56.3% of women 15 years or older were working according to the Gender Inequality Index in 2013. This relates directly to a global wage gap and glass ceiling placed on women worldwide because the Gender Inequality Index states that worldwide 50.3% of women 15 and older were working in the work force. However, they were being paid less and were less likely to get promotions when compared to men. The fact that women in other countries are married at younger ages and having children also puts them at a disadvantage because they are mothers meaning they will be paid less for having children. Gender stratification is not just an Untied States problem, but a worldwide problem that needs to be
Expressing heightened emotions is the swear word’s objective, the most common ones are either anger or frustration. For those receiving the other end have an emotional response depending on their culture and its language functions.
Choosing a sexual preference is considered one of the biggest decisions of one’s life. Among the human race, heterosexuality (the attraction to persons of the opposite sex) is considered normal. However, over the years, homosexuality (the attraction to persons of the same sex) has become more common. The origin of homosexuality dates back as far as the 5th century B.C. Homosexuality became very popular in ancient Greece. The Greeks approved of same-sex relationships. When homosexuality first became popular though, the relationships were rarely sexual. Most relationships were usually between older men and younger boys. These relationships were more of courtship rituals than anything. In other parts of the world though, homosexuality was kept a secret among couples for many years. Unbelievably, it is still hidden today. It is kept a secret because in society, homosexuality is not considered normal. Therefore, to avoid being judged, ridiculed and belittled, homosexuality is conducted in secrecy. Over the years however, homosexuals have grown tired of not being able to do what they believe in, when and where they pleased. Many homosexuals began to fight for their rights to do as they pleased. What non-supporters of homosexuality thought or said about homosexuals no longer affected the homosexual community. Although many people still disagree with homosexuality, our society today has begun to accept homosexuals as a norm.
With the constant representation and naturalization of the discourse, heterosexuality is an identity assumed unconsciously. Heterosexuality is experienced so frequently is it no longer witnessed. It has become normalized. A simple way of explaining this process is the naturalization of sexuality. There is the continual framing of what sexual practices are natural based upon people’s biological and instinctual need to reproduce. In other words, sexuality isn’t deemed to be an exercise of agency, rather it is implemented as person’s identity from birth similarly to gender. The notion heterosexuality stems primarily from a biological sense of reproducing gives way to the mentality of it being the norm because that’s how the body was designed to work. However, this theory is socially constructed. The discourses of science explaining sexuality are produced by institutions to reinforce and maintain their power. This power conservation is demonstrated by heterosexuality’s dominance in the media, privileges deriving from heterosexuality and the correspondence between heterosexuality and gender. Heterosexuality is the identity that can’t be
According to Maguire (1995:1), “The inequality between the sexes is one of the most intractable features of human culture.”Frankly, it is undeniable that gender inequality exists in every part of the world. Macionis (2006:252) also admits that “In most aspects, men are still in charge.” Nowadays, women keep on fighting for their right, urging for equal opportunity and fair treatment. Gender stratification, which is the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women, seems to be narrowed, but it actually remains its existence to some extends. (Macionis, John. J. 2006: 256)
Our world is constantly changing and people are constantly facing many new experiences. Throughout society, there are many different people and different opinions to match. One matter that has a lot of different opinions is the matter of homosexuality. Depending on what a person believes or how accepting they are, will reflect on their opinion on this topic. With the world constantly, we have very old styles of thinking versus more modern opinions. This essay will show the ways that homosexuals are sometimes looked down upon in society (with older views) and the way that the world is changing.
Strategic management is the way of implementing different business strategies and plans to attain certain specific aims and objectives. It involves collection of decisions and different rules and policies that tend to define the results that are generated in the form of better business performance. For undertaking these activities, management should possess an in depth understanding and be able to assess the general and competitive external and internal business environment to take proper business decisions (Cornelis, 2010). McDonalds is an organization that offers a range of products and services in a very effective manner that makes it a market leader in providing fast food services all over the world. By enforcing suitable strategies, McDonalds can increase its level of sales and will also help in upgrading as well as sustaining the market by acquiring competitive advantage (Schoenberg, Collier and Bowman, 2013).
In this era of modernization with the advancement of technology, there are some countries which are still in the stage of developing country trying to improve the status by offering more jobs to the society like Malaysia, India and Korea. As we know, a country needs the excellent people who can work and sacrifice for the country to improve the economics and lifestyle. But, there is some Asian culture which seriously appears in Malaysia. Generally in the corporate sectors, our government have found out that the women are still being left out decision-making due to relunctance and stereotyping of gender roles. Let’s see the phenomenon of gender inequalities. For example, in Japan, many women move into part-time work upon having children. In United States of America, women held only 16% of board seats of large companies. A study shows that women in senior management positions were three times more likely to lose other jobs than men in similar positions. Let’s move on to see the occurrence of gender inequality in our country, Malaysia. Recently, the minister Datuk Seri Sharizat A.J. stated that the women are still being left out of decision-making due to the gender inequality.Nowadays, gender inequality is being practiced widely in corporate sectors. So, what do you know actually about gender inequality? Gender Inequalities refers to the obvious or ...