Sarcasm

I am definitely not even close to being perfect in the area, but some things I've read on a certain blog recently have really bugged me. I am one who enjoys sarcasm, but within limits. I probably need to do a lot better.

I found some thoughts on the matter: www.lds.org (bold print added by me)

Loud laughter, light-mindedness, and flippancy often betray a state of mind that is lacking in seriousness. “Empty levity,” as Brigham Young called it, detracts from the dignity of those who indulge in it to excess. Such people “have little sense, and know not the difference between a happy smile of satisfaction to cheer the countenance of a friend, or a contemptuous sneer that brings the curses of man upon man.” (Journal of Discourses 9:290.) A person given to such frivolity would find it difficult to follow the Lord’s counsel to “look unto me in every thought” (D&C 6:36) or to “let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds” (D&C 43:34). He would be impaired in receiving revelation and would be weakened in the hour of temptation. C. S. Lewis has written that “if prolonged, the habit of flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour plating against [God] that I know. It is a thousand miles from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practise it.” (Screwtape Letters [New York: The MacMillan Co., 1962], p. 52.)

A most damaging form of humor is sarcasm, or cutting, hostile, or contemptuous remarks. Though often meant to be harmless, sarcasm denotes insensitivity to the feelings of others, stemming either from thoughtlessness or maliciousness.

Those who profess belief in Christ should shape their humor in the light of Christ’s teachings. Being rejected from His kingdom because of a warped sense of humor would not be funny.

~ A Serious Look At Humor by Peter B. Rawlins 1974~