Falling back on profanity

2008-08-05 08:40

Chris Moerdyk

I was engrossed in an article in the Lifestyle section of The Sunday Times yesterday when it struck me of how desperate some journalists can become when they can't think of words strong enough to make a point.

It was an article by Thomas Falkiner who seems to have taken over David Bullard's motoring beat in Sunday Times and he was writing about getting permission to use a 160km stretch of public road near Springbok to take the new Audi R8 to its top speed of just under 300km/h.

It was a fascinating article and being a car buff I was enjoying every minute of it until Falkiner got to the part where he tried to get across how nervous he was of pushing a car to that speed. He must have run out of inspiration because he resorted simply to saying: "...I started having second thoughts. The realisation hit me that, Christ, this is my reputation on the line..."

Well, I kind of lost interest in story at that point because three of my own realisations hit me and distracted me from what I was reading.

The first was that I was quite surprised to see the Sunday Times allowing blasphemy on its pages. But, I consoled my self with the fact that after the whole Bullard saga it is now common knowledge that no-one at Sunday Times seems to check what its people are writing.

My second realisation was that having produced such a good piece of descriptive writing up to that point, what suddenly made Falkiner run out of inspiration? Was he getting bored perhaps?

And the third realisation was that Christians are really very, very bad at protecting their own turf.

Defensive?

I mean if Falkiner had used a Muslim prophet or somehow alluded to Judaism he would, not only probably be on someone's hit list very quickly but the Sunday Times would be inundated with irate letters to the editor or be getting a roasting from the Jewish Board of Deputies.

I raised the subject at the family lunch table and everyone was in agreement. The expression "Jesus Christ" has become entrenched in the English language as a way of making a forceful point. As one of my kids pointed out, you couldn't watch a movie these days or read a novel without coming across profanity and blasphemy - but always in the context of the Christian Church.

So, one needs to ask, why aren't the Christians standing up in defence of their own turf the way the Muslims and Jews do so effectively?

Is it just a question of being lazy or a demonstration of the Christian ethic of turning the other cheek? Frankly I have no idea.

But, as a writer myself, it seems to me to be a great shame that talented journalists have to fall back on profanity or the good old f-word, to make a point.

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