He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. – Psalm 109:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 6, 2016): Psalm 109

Back in 1982, one of the most riveting T.V. moments in history happened on “Letterman.” Okay, not the most riveting event, but definitely one of the T.V. moments that everyone needs to see. The moment was the fight between Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawlor. Of course, we only suspected then what we know now – the event was staged. To hear Lawlor remember it, Kaufman was supposed to apologize and then Lawlor would reciprocate. But unknown to Letterman or any of the network bosses, Kaufman and Lawlor talked on the phone before the show and discussed changing the format. According to Lawlor, they discussed the idea of Lawlor hitting Kaufman, but then decided that if they actually did that the network would most likely just pull the spot. So they decided to keep with the network's original plan. But when the moment came, Lawlor moved to plan B. Even without talking more about it, Kaufman understood exactly where Lawlor was going. The heat in the argument ramped up until just before the end of the segment Lawlor slapped Kaufman so hard that he fell out of his chair. Lawlor says that he was then removed and about fifteen minutes passed before he was invited back for an unexpected third segment. Lawlor was afraid he was about to be arrested, instead, he was ushered back to Letterman. And then Kaufman pushed the limit even further. He was standing on the other side of the stage and he came up on Lawlor with Letterman sitting at his desk in between and just started to scream at Lawlor. Every second word, and at times every word, was inappropriate for a T.V. audience, even in the middle of the night. Lawlor was afraid that if his slap was not enough to have the moment removed from the show, the language of Kaufman was definitely over the edge. He said he wanted to have an aside with his friend and remind him that what they wanted was for this segment of the show to air. Then Kaufman looked at Lawlor and communicated his next move. He was going to throw Letterman’s coffee at Lawlor. On the video, you can watch Lawlor lean forward just as the coffee was thrown behind him.

Lawlor admitted that as he left the soundstage, he questioned how much of the interview would actually be aired. To his surprise, the answer was all of it. But Lawlor says that what made especially the last part so riveting is that it was so out of character for Kaufman. Kaufman did not swear. To hear him use the language that he used, all the audience would hear was a hilarious “cookoo” overdubbing Kaufman words, was shocking – and it worked.

David is not talking about the Kaufman’s of our world. But rather about those for whom cursing becomes second nature. For them, it pours out of them like water. And like anointing oil, it penetrated even into the very bone. And for David, that communicated a serious lack of character. And the reality is that if we are always cursing people, eventually we stop having an impact because the people have long stopped listening.

And it would seem that this kind of cursing could only come from an evil that resided deep down in the soul of the person. And to remove the cursing, first, the evil must be removed.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 110