J is for Jesus

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Jesus was a man who lived, well, you know, about 2000 years ago! Many people, myself among them, believe that he was also God, and that after his execution he came back to life. I worship this man/God Jesus as God. And it really bothers me when people use the name Jesus as a curse.

Now, just to get one elephant out of the room: I know Jesus probably wasn’t called Jesus. In Hebrew, there is no letter for “j”. There isn’t one in Latin or Greek either, and I’d be willing to bet there wasn’t a J in Aramaic, so we can rule out Jesus as the actual name. His name was a variant on the Hebrew word for save, which means it was closer to Joshua than Jesus. And given the lack of J, it would’ve been pronounced with a “y” sound, so we’re talking about something a lot more like Yeshua. So, yeah, I know that Jesus didn’t answer to that particular phonic combination. However, when people use “jesus” as a swear word, they definitely are referring to Jesus Christ, the man I worship as God.

I also really hate it when people use God as a swear, as in “on my god” and “god dammit.” To me, this is a direct violation of the 10 Commandments, and I find it highly ironic that so many Christians use the second commandment to prohibit saying “shit” or “damn” but go ahead and say “oh my god” all the time. The second commandment doesn’t say one damn thing about curse words – it only refers to the name of God.

And another rabbit trail: I fully believe that Christians are free from the law, all of it, including the 10 Commandments. So I’m not saying that Christians who say “oh my god” are bad or evil or offensive to God. I’m just saying it’s offensive to ME, and frankly, I don’t have the right to never be offended. But on my blog, I get to say my piece and so I’m saying it right now.

The thing about using Jesus or God as expletives is that “Jesus” really, really bothers me. The phrase “oh my god” is practically ubiquitous, and god can refer to more than one deity. So I can always pretend that the use of “god” is in reference to Zeus or some other deity. But when the name Jesus is used, I physically wince. There is no escaping that. It feels to me as though someone is taking something beautiful and precious and stomping it into the dirt. So there you have it. A pet peeve of mine.