minoanmiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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agonyaunt2021-11-18 01:38 pm
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2021-11-18 01:38 pm
That Bad Advice: Help! I Can't Use Racial Slurs!
Social Q’s, The New York Times, 21 January 2021:
As a Christian, I find it hurtful when I hear the Lord’s name used as swear words. If I used sexist, racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic language as curse words, I might be garroted. So, it’s hard for me to understand why such swearing is acceptable when it comes to Christ. But the idea of confronting people about this makes me uneasy. Is there a better way to communicate my hurt? — DAINA
Dear Daina,
Perhaps we mere mortals are not meant to know why the all-powerful eternal being worshipped by you specifically is so incredibly pissy about the use of His name, being as He is all powerful and eternal and surely burdened with shit vastly more important than whether the kid behind the counter at Blockbuster mutters “Christ Almighty” under his breath when you pay for your rental in loose change. The Lord, as they say, moves in mysterious ways!
But to the crux (sorry!!!!!) of the matter: why are people allowed to do a cuss at Jesus, a cruel attack on a defenseless baby/the immortal Son of God and our Holy Redeemer and the Lamb of Vengeance who literally has the ability to damn humans to an eternity of unimaginable torment, but you can’t unleash a barrage of violent slurs on people whenever the mood strikes? How can it be that just anybody can string the words “god” and “damn” together, doing immeasurable harm to a helpless Supreme Creator who might, at any moment, begin unleashing a series of plagues upon the world to usher in Armageddon and put a final end to humanity as we know it like the good and loving sky-Parent He is, but you can’t verbally abuse people such that they fear for their safety and wellbeing?
I mean, where’s the justice in that? Nobody is allowed to use sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, or homophobic curse words these days without suffering horrible consequences, such as being invited to direct Lethal Weapon Five, while everyone is allowed to say mean things about your particular religion of choice, for example, authors are having their books ripped from the shelves of public schools if they even vaguely hint at the idea that people other than white, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian Americans exist. So your worldview definitely tracks with reality there!
Certainly what Jesus had in mind when He commanded us to love our neighbors was for good Christians such as yourself to release a battery of offensive slurs against our fellow community members in order to balance the scales of power, at last, in favor of the Almighty God The Creator of Heaven and Earth.
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(I *know* I read an article recently about how societal mores control whether swearing in profane or sexual terms is worse at different points in history. Can I find it? Of course not.)
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There's Jesus-fucking-Christ, but I don't know of any others.
"Godfuck it!" isn't one I've heard, for instance.
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And you can always prefix "damn(ed)" or "goddamn(ed)" to a sexual noun.
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There's God's Ballls and its derivatives...
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GARROTED.
These chucklefucks want to be persecuted so badly.
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But the next time I saw a conservative claim they would be lynched I would have made bingo!
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Not least considering the plurality of people who cite Christianity as their reason for disrespecting pronouns, no less.
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There's a thing in US parlance where conservatives claim in supposed hyperbole they will be lynched for their beliefs. Considering that 1) I was taught as a Christian child that I would face vast amounts of violence for my faith, none of which ever coalesced and 2) that the people getting physically attacked and killed for their beliefs and existence include queer people being gaybashed, trans people being killed for being trans, Muslims being attacked and killed on the street, Jewish people being attacked in synagogues, Black people hunted like deer by the police, and so on, I reserve the right to mock such conservatives.
She may want to live in the time of the Acts of the Apostles facing martyrdom for her Lord, but she really doesn't live then or there. And this question isn't academic to me, since I was told as a child that those were the conditions Christians faced in the US and I realized later it was a huge lie and the reasons for it.
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What is this LW really suffering? What is she being targeted for? Who is going to punch her in the face or shoot up her church or arrest her for walking down the street for being a Christian?
ANd if you think calling the US fucked-up is an insult to me, I'd be the first to agree with you that it's a fucked up country indeed. Not least because of people who think a little critique is the same as being raped to "cure" homosexuality or being sent to "conversion therapy" to be tortured or being beaten to death.
If you want to know if someone is being "lynched" for their beliefs, go look at a picture of Emmett Till in his coffin and ask yourself if that person looks like that after whatever they were made to endure.
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"I'm going on a limb here and assuming no one of us writing on forums or DW has been lynched or brutally killed on a hate crime "
No, that's not the limb you've gone out on. While insisting that we have no right to snark about this Christian woman who doesn't even know we're talking about her, you've assumed that no one of us on DW has ever been personally harmed in a hate crime that didn't actually kill us, and also that we cannot possibly care about or identify with anyone has been harmed or killed, that we cannot be frightened by a crime inflicted on someone who shares a characteristic with us because of that shared characteristic..
I've heard this argument many a time, that snarking about someone with privilege (and Christianity is definitely privileged in the US at least) is Just As Bad Or Even Worse than inflicting actual pain on someone disprivileged. I doubt this round will convince me.
(frozen comment) Mod post: Rule 8
To be clear: I am all for this comm discussing difficult issues. But a big part of why I'm all for that is that I am wise enough in the ways of internet discussion to know when something is about to go pear-shaped in very bad ways. This is one of those times.
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The best part is textually it's not so much about cuss words (swearing as in obscenity that includes the word "God" or whatever), as oathbreaking (swearing as in promising to do something in the name of the Lord, then not doing the thing) ... so just saying "God damn" or "Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker" is fine; it's people who spew hate in the name of God or Jesus who are violating the commandment.