What is it with Christians and "dirty" words?
Offline One of the responses to The Coolest 8-Year-Old in the World was, predictably, that eight-year-olds shouldn't swear...only the spelling was atrocious. (I would start a topic entitled, "What is it with Christians and their inability to spell?" but I think that's already been covered on this forum.)
After reading and watching Dawkins, I have to agree that young children really don't have good reasons for what they believe. This child's parents are almost certainly freethinkers. An eight-year-old child of Christian parents could be expected to feel the same way as his or her parents. Both could be equally sincere, but they believe because their parents believe, not because they have good reasons of their own.
My mother, a extreme right-wing Christian, has the most incredible hang-up concerning what she perceives as "bad" words. I do try to curtail my true self when I'm around her (sad, huh?), but sometimes I slip and act like who I truly am.
Back before I successfully created some boundaries (it took ostracizing family for six months), my mother and I were sitting in a parking lot. I had my parrot with me and (for some reason I can't remember) I needed the door open for a few minutes. Some jerk in a big vehicle insisted on squeezing into the adjacent parking space. I couldn't close the door and I was afraid the person would spook my parrot.
Then I said it: "Jesus Christ, lady, couldn't you have waited thirty seconds?"
My mother literally abducted me, driving all over the county, lambasting me for "taking God's name in vain." I was in my early thirties and I didn't believe the same way she did, so in my own view, I hadn't done anything wrong.
She drove from town to town without stopping, despite my repeatedly insisting on being taken home. It was very traumatic because even though my mother is religiously insane, I love her.
How can a word be "bad" in and of itself. In my view, a word can only be "bad" if it's specifically used to hurt someone else. Also, if Jesus is so all-powerful, why would he need someone like my mother to protect his name? How come he never shows up in person?
This morning, for the first time, I've begun to wonder if my mother's belief in god is on shaky ground because of me. She knows I'm intelligent. She knows I never stop educating myself. I can't help but share exciting information about natural history with her and all of it is in direct conflict with her creationism.
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God can suck my cock, Jesus can go get fucked up the ass sideways by a big rubber dildoe and the holy spirit is a piece of shit.
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I swear like a sailor, with liberal use of the word fuck. It's a useful fucking word. I'm fond of swear words. They provide much needed entertainment to angry diatribes.
But one time in grade 12, I smashed my finger between 2 desks and said, "Aw, jesus CHRIST!"
Really loud, pretty much without noticing.
And my art teacher said, "Watch your language!"
And I was perplexed.
It took me probably a few seconds longer than I'm proud of to figure out that he thought "jesus christ" was a profanity.
After I realized he was trying to get me to not say his gods name, I asked if he was okay with me saying "Oh, Bacchus!"
I told him it was dumb. After a short argument he said forget it, and we went back to setting up the pottery wheels.
Swearing to one man is just a word to someone else.
I mean just look at North America vs. The United Kingdom
Shag vs. Fuck
Pussy vs. Cunt
I have British friends who jovially call their male buddies "Silly old cunts!" And you can't say "shag" in front of your grandmother(usually).
For your amusement, a chart to tell how "T'd off" the Mormon in your life is. It's surprisingly accurate. A Mormon I knew got me hooked on saying "frick" ages ago. Mormons are fun.
Odd, I tend to say cunt more than pussy.
While I think it is somewhat important for a parent to curb a child's behavior, I do think when you are in your 30s it's none of your parent's business what you say. Sorry about your mom, Iruka Naminori.
My kid's cuss when they don't think I'm right there listening. I've heard them say fuck, damn, shit, etc. But they will say shit in front of me when they drop something or stub their toe or something like that. They sometimes tell me that they are really "pissed off". I don't really care about that. I cuss. I can't tell them I do it but they can't. I do tell them that there are certain words that will alarm people. I tell them that they should not say them at school around teachers. Or around their grandparents when they come to visit once a year.
I don't want my kids to be foul-mouthed but I think that if I don't let them be themselves, they'll act even worse when I'm not around because that's what I did.
As George Carlin put it, there are no bad words, just bad thoughts.
We're all pretty loose with the language where I work. It's always been that way.
A while back a guy started who was a church deacon. He often corrected people on their use of profanity. Most people continued to talk the same way.
I looked at it like this... whenever I was speaking directly to him, I attempted to watch my language. If he jumped into the conversation while I was speaking to someone else, I would continue to use whatever language I wanted to.
I didn't think it was fair of him to expect 20 other people to edit their language for his benefit.
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It's unfortunate that one person can dictate how everyone else speaks and acts in the workplace.
I took a management class at my Day Job and one of the rules of correctness these days is "if it offends someone, the offending party must cease and desist or be written up." If you receive three written warnings, you will be fired.
My language was a problem for the bible thumper that sat across from me and I had stop for fear of losing my job. Not all was profanity, she also took issue with the term "boy toy" and didn't like how loudly my phone rang!
However, when she plastered god messages and prayers in and outside her cube (some pointing directly at me). I went to my supervisor and said that I was truly offended and he took the message to upper management. The message came back that nothing would be done.
Ah, the bible belt!
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