You can go nowhere these days, save a church, hopefully your own home, without hearing a profanity, blasphemy, or cuss word.

It’s a sign of the times.

Everyone swears. And it’s not just vulgarity. We’re talking curses and the f-word and worst of all, the Name of God and Jesus in vain.

“Swearing, cursing and vulgarity have always been associated with those who do not live Christian or virtuous lives,” notes Tradition in Action. “This stigma made even those who were not Christian mindful of avoiding foul language on many occasions.

“The increased acceptance of vulgar language is everywhere. Vulgarity has swept over society in every aspect, much like a tsunami. What was once so rare today is common. People do not consider whether priests, religious, women, or children are present. There is a total absence of self-restraint. The use of foul language now extends to every race, sex, age and state of life. Instead of being castigated as something censorable, people use vulgar speech as a way of fitting in with a culture that idolizes this usage as ‘cool’ or ‘radical.'”

It is uttered everywhere, from the leading podcasts (these are especially foul-mouthed) to the current president and also the incoming one.

They may not share political views, but, unfortunately, they seem to speak the same salty language.

“I might be the oldest president, but I know more world leaders than any one of you have ever met in your whole g-d d— life!” he said, in response to a reporter’s question Sunday night.

His nemesis and the incoming president raised eyebrows during the Catholic Alfred Smith dinner last October, hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, when he said he “didn’t give a s—-” about something or other.

Language on the Watergate tapes was notorious. It apparently goes with the turf, from politics to the boardroom to the construction site.

The world’s leading podcaster regularly used the Name of the Lord in vain (though he says he’s not sure he believes in Him), while another major podcaster, self-professed Christian, and former Catholic, along with many guests, toss around such language with great alacrity.

Women now curse as much as men, and movies have been foul-mouthed now for decades (along with their other transgressions).

It is difficult to get through a day without hearing someone swear.

 “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man,” said Jesus (Matthew 15:11–12), “but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

Have we forgotten what Saint Paul commands: “Put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth” (Colossians 3:8)?

At LaSalette, France, Our Lady warned, “Six days I have given you to labor, the seventh I had kept for myself; and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy.”

A famine followed.

Or Saint Clement of Alexandria: “From filthy speaking, we ourselves must entirely abstain and stop the mouths of those who practice it by stern looks and averting the face and by what we call making a mock of one: often also by a harsher mode of speech. For what proceedeth out of the mouth, He says, ‘defileth a man ‘—shows him to be unclean, heathenish, untrained, licentious, and not, select, proper, honorable, and temperate.”

And it’s a problem, because swearing is often inspired by the demonic (witness the foul language documented in exorcisms).

“In the modern definition of cursing, usually people use the Name of  Jesus or God in vain and swear with curses such as ‘go to hell’ or ‘damn you,'” notes Biblicist Betty Miller. “These words clearly show it is an evil coming from the devil. Have you ever wondered why people do not use the names of gods of other religions when they curse? The names that the devil hates and uses people to voice hateful curses are ‘God,’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Jesus Christ’ and ‘Jesus.’ Terms about hell and heaven are also used in derogatory ways. The very misuse of these words should prove the existence of God and the reality of a heaven and hell.

“Even Christians have been tricked into using bad expressions when they are upset. They are take-offs of the Lord’s names such as: ‘Geeze’ or ‘Jes’ (short for Jesus), ‘Good Gosh,’ ‘Gosh Darn,’ ‘Lordy.’  This is known as ‘shoot cussin.’ There are other terms used, which we will not repeat, as they are vulgar profanities. However, these illustrations make the point. Many good movies have been ruined for Christians because the script writers thought adding profane language (which they refer to as adult language) somehow made the movie more realistic.”

When we curse someone, we may actually be cursing them.

Do we really want to emulate evil spirits?

Do we want to speak their lingo?

And when we do, does that not open a portal; does it not make us “one” with them; are we not on the same team, at least for the moment of such utterance?