Before the movie began, I overheard two grandmothers sitting behind me swapping stories about their grandchildren. Now on screen the first alien leaps out to attack the boys. Both grandmothers scream in unison, "Jesus Christ!!"
Does this underscore for you that Jesus Christ is America's favorite curse word? Have you recently heard the Lord's name used in vain? Among friends or acquaintances? In your own speech?
Can you imagine Krishna becoming the favorite curse word in India? Buddha evolving into a profanity in Tibet? Allah an obscenity in the Middle East? Why then is "Jesus Christ!" the favorite swear word in America, not only in daily conversation, but in literature, television, and movies?
In past decades most curse words derived from bodily functions related to urination, defecation, sexual intercourse, or contempt for another human being. Why, then, this choice? This leap from excrement and sex to a sacred religious name, the name at the heart of Christianity? A name held holy by the majority of Americans and over two billion Christians worldwide? Why does Jesus Christ head the list of national vulgarities, so endemic to American culture?
Using Jesus as a swear word used to break a cultural taboo. Its shock value used to surpass those taboos broken by "F-you" and "you A-hole!" However, after three decades of usage, it no longer shocks at all. That's why the curse word "Jesus Christ" is used in so many contexts today -- anywhere from cussing out an enemy, to showing surprise and awe, reacting to physical pain, venting anger, and revealing contempt for a person or idea.
Those of us who choose Jesus as a swear word do it because of the power embedded in Jesus' name.
The power of Jesus' name, used perversely.
Converting a term that stands for holiness, hope, and heaven into profanity repudiates the holy object, in this case the person of Christ. So in exclaiming, "Oh Jesus!" -- or "Jesus Christ!" -- a person consciously or unconsciously conveys, "I am not a follower of Christ and spurn what he stands for!"
When this particular cuss word becomes so second-nature that grandmothers and children use it to express negative emotional states (shock, fear, anger, or disgust), then, derogatory though it is, the Christ-expletive becomes a societal merit badge. A badge of mockery. A verbal badge that dishonors Christ, Christianity, and Christians.
Here is a consciousness-raising experiment you might try out this week. When you stub your toe, witness a shocking event, or get furious at someone who crosses you, see if your unconscious flips into automatic pilot by erupting with a desecration of Jesus' name. If not, it means you've successfully averted this national trend. And if so, it means that with a little spiritual vigilance you can remove its influence from within your psyche.
Wouldn't we all find benefit from a constructive separation between religious sensibility and cursing?
For more about Dr. Dan's integration of psychology and theology in the 21st century, read:
For more about Dr. Dan's integration of psychology and theology in the 21st century, read:
COMPASS PSYCHOTHEOLOGY: WHERE PSYCHOLOGY AND THEOLOGY REALLY MEET
I was struck by something Tom Wolfe wrote in the dedication of his novel, "I am Charlotte Simmons." Since he was writing about university students, he had asked his two university-aged children to read it to "vet it for undergraduate vocabulary." He writes,"I learned that using the oath Jesus Christ establishes the speaker as, among other things, middle-aged or older."
ReplyDeleteI think Wolfe has something here. That script was written by middle aged people who probably don't listen to actual children and are perhaps projecting their own antipathy to Christ into their mouths.
I sometimes ask colleagues and friends why they use the name Christ in a vulgar way and they are typically at a loss for words. They don't consciously know why. I tell them it marks them as old fashioned and that, more an any remorse makes them want to curb the habit.
Do you have a list of other Movies and TV shows that swear using "Jesus" or some variation thereof?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a list, no, but they seem innumerable. I do hope to see the day when it goes out of fashion.
DeleteI dont think it will go out of fashion. I think people tend to take the Lord's name in vain so often because subconsciously they feel the great power attached to the name, as Jesus is the name above all names. His name has the power to raise the dead and cast out demons, so its no wonder that it has found its way into vulgarity as a means to intensify the emphasis of their statement.
DeleteTo me this further proves the power invoked by using the name of Jesus
Obviously Hollywood is using the power in the name of Jesus Christ to promote
ReplyDeletetheir movies. What power is in the name of Buddha Damn? What would happen
if they were to say Allah Damn? They are probably too afraid to do that. They know
they can get away with using the name of Jesus Christ any way they wish. Maybe
if enough of us would complain, they would stop this. In the mean time I will still be
picking movies very carefully. clh
My atheist son says it ALL the time. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). His Name is above ALL names, regardless of how we may consciously or unconsciously use it. "Oh My God" I hear all the time, and that's pretty much universal. Think about it. Just another sign of the times.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that His name is used as a swear word in this world proves even more that He is the true God. Its a mind game. God says in the Bible that persecution comes with the job. His name as a swear word is a category of that. I make sure to give a look or say something when someone says it. It's irritating.
ReplyDeleteOMG
DeleteAmen! It really does become obvious when they say it so much... it's even crazier when the character in a show has been outspoken about not believing in Jesus, and then they use His name in vain. It drives me crazy to hear people repeating that blasphemy... and it doesn't even make logical sense to say His name as a swear word.
DeleteI believe that it is the Holy Ghost inside saved people that is grieved when we hear people say it, and that's why it's so irritating to hear. I didn't really take notice of it before I was born again.
Zionists control media/Hollywood, especially Steven Spielberg! People learned it from TV/ movies decades of influence. Zionists HATE Christ. They crucified him! So they have tricked the world into using the name as a swear.
ReplyDeleteI've thought of that too!
DeleteMaybe actors have to say it in order to get ahead in their careers!
It would be great if people would choose to use Osama Bin Laden's name as a curse word because he was so evil. I don't believe that Jesus was a god but he wasn't evil either. However, we can all agree that Osama Bin Laden should have never been born in the first place.
ReplyDelete