Euphemisms Are Just Like Curse Words

[debrand]

When I attended an Independent Baptist Church in Iowa, the pastor told us that even mild euphemisms were on par with cursing. He was a mind reader who automatically assumed that the word, darn meant damn in people's head. When I asked what words someone should say if they are shocked, he couldn't provide me with appropriate words. After reading about a poster's shock at the words, Merciful Heavens on the thread about Fundies and The Christmas Carol, I decided to see if I could find anyone else who agreed with my pastor. This was the first article that I found.

whatchristianswanttoknow.com/christian-swearing-and-swear-words-a-lesson-on-guarding-your-tongue/

When people say “gheeze†or jeewiz, they are actually substituting these words as euphemisms. These are euphemisms for Jesus’ name. They might not think that they are actually swearing but even using names as a substitution, it is considered sin. When someone says, “Darn!†or “Darn it!“ they are actually substituting it for “Damn!†or “Damn it!â€. And the often used “Oh my God!†is obvious taking God‘s name in vain, even if people don’t‘ think so. Even further, the use of “Oh my gosh!†is a euphemism for “Oh my God!†and there is no difference at all. That is the way that God looks at it and it is breaking the Third Commandment. God hears it as a substitution for His name and we are told not to take God’s name in vain at any time and for any reason. Taking His name in vain means using it in a careless, useless, or meaningless way. Sometimes people will even attach the word “damn†after it and this God hates. This is clearly sin. Jesus said in Matthew 12:36 “that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.â€

I always read the verses on guarding your tongue to mean that Christians should speak with kindness and not gossip. The god of Conservative Christians is very small. There are people who, at this moment, are being tortured and raped and yet, their god is concerned that someone says, Drat. And how can gosh be a substitution for the name god if the individual saying gosh wasn't thinking the world, god? How do you omit all exclamatory words from your speech? What would be the advantage in doing so?

[formergothardite]

I was raised that words like "gosh", "darn", "golly" and "drat" were bad. But "merciful heavens"? That was okay. "Good grief" was okay too.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Ok fundies, you asked for it. Next time, instead of saying darn it, I will just say "Oh shit". Cause that's okay cause its not taking God's name in vain. Right?

[Ralar]

What about "nike!" Everyone knows that means "defrauding slut nearby."

[Sydney Fox]

I had a friend in high school whose father was a Baptist minister. We used to kid around and say "spazz" to each other. Her father found out and told her to stop saying the word because in his eyes it was like cursing. It didn't make sense to me since we were certainly not swearing at each other.

[Palimpsest]

I had a friend in high school whose father was a Baptist minister. We used to kid around and say "spazz" to each other. Her father found out and told her to stop saying the word because in his eyes it was like cursing. It didn't make sense to me since we were certainly not swearing at each other.

Perhaps he did not mean using that word was like cursing, but that using it is extraordinarily insensitive and ableist. "Spazz" is a derivation of spastic/spastic paralysis a now outdated term for cerebral palsy. I object to people saying it in my presence too. :(

Back to cursing, growing up, I wasn't allowed to say gosh, oh my gosh, or darn either. And bloody, blimey and blast were also forbidden. On the other hand "Crikey" was allowed. Odd since it derives from Christ!

If someone objected to "Merciful Heavens" then I'm sure they object to my favorite curse: Jesus wept! Hey, I'm only quoting the shortest sentence in the Bible. :mrgreen:

[RachelB]

Yeah, there was a thread on Puritan Board a while back about "minced oaths." "Goodness" and "mercy" are not okay to say when you're expressing irritation, because they're attributes of God, and you're blaspheming God by using them in that way. Also, my beloved "criminy," "oh, for crying out loud," and "crumbs," are apparently equivalent to "Christ" because they start with the same phoneme.

If I meant "Christ," I would say "Christ." Yikes. ("Yikes" is okay according to the OED, stemming from a word used to call hounds when hunting. But probably some legalist has come up with a reason that it, too, is a minced oath.)

[smittykins]

I used to have a book called "Growing Up Born Again," which was the fundie version of the "Growing Up Catholic" series. It had a section on this, basically saying "God hears what you mean, not just what you say." Also, in Jim Bakker's book "I Was Wrong"(don't judge me!), he mentions that his father whipped him for saying "Gee whiz!"

Two more links for your perusal:

biblebelievers.com/jmelton/ChristianCursing.html

gochristianhelps.com/books/b/bynum/ccursing.htm

Notice how neither one gives any suggestions on what to say instead... :shifty-kitty:

[Sydney Fox]

Perhaps he did not mean using that word was like cursing, but that using it is extraordinarily insensitive and ableist. "Spazz" is a derivation of spastic/spastic paralysis a now outdated term for cerebral palsy. I object to people saying it in my presence too. :(

Back to cursing, growing up, I wasn't allowed to say gosh, oh my gosh, or darn either. And bloody, blimey and blast were also forbidden. On the other hand "Crikey" was allowed. Odd since it derives from Christ!

If someone objected to "Merciful Heavens" then I'm sure they object to my favorite curse: Jesus wept! Hey, I'm only quoting the shortest sentence in the Bible. :mrgreen:

I remember he said it was actually a form of cursing. It was back in the late 70's/early 80's and we weren't referring to cerebral palsy, it was just a word she, another friend and I had come up with to be silly. FTR, I would never use the word now as an adult, since I recognize how hurtful it could be.

[thoughtful]

Well, heck. :D

I remember a chat with a devout, born-again college classmate. With a twinkle in his eye, he said he'd never damn anyone -- that was cruel. But he'd say "fuck," since that was a pleasant activity and there was no sacrilege involved!

How about "heckfire?"

7JEryd3Y_G8

[tigerchild]

One of my fondest childhood memories was when I first discovered cursing in the 7th grade, and dared to say "Jesus!" as an expression outside of church (and not in an "Amen, brother!" sense either). Anyway, my mother was already on one of her rampages, I was fucking sick of having to cover for her and pretend everything was normal, so I goaded her with letting this slip a few times until she screamed so loud I'm sure the neighbors could hear it, "STOP TAKING THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN GODDAMNIT!"

Fun times. :lol: By that point I could run faster as well as block all her strikes anyway, so...it was worth it.

[Vex]

Oh boy. I can't think of sexual euphemisms without thinking of 'navy' (semen), 'duck' (dick), 'comeuppance' (male orgasm), 'china' (vagina) and so forth. The worst part is the euphemisms were used in a 'children's' comic about hybrid sonic the hedgehog/pokemon that included an instruction manual about how they had sex. You know. For the kids!

[Dysfundamental]

My grandmother was a real old-school swamp Yankee, and she never used minced oaths, to the point where she would say "I swan" instead of "I swear" (the latter being too much like an oath).

"Heavenly days" and "Well, my stars" were her favorite expostulations.

She was a Unitarian, though.

Oh boy. I can't think of sexual euphemisms without thinking of 'navy' (semen), 'duck' (dick), 'comeuppance' (male orgasm), 'china' (vagina) and so forth. The worst part is the euphemisms were used in a 'children's' comic about hybrid sonic the hedgehog/pokemon that included an instruction manual about how they had sex. You know. For the kids!

CWC poisons everything forever.

[JesusFightClub]

Small says " I'M SO ANGRY I'M GOING TO SAY THE F WORD! NOT "FANNY!" THE BIG ONE!" :lol:

She calls what I would call my fanny (for non-Scots, I mean the vulva) "a flower". This is kind of cute, I think.

[Peas n carrots]

Really, talk about squelching all forms of self expression. Be an unfeeling robot.

At least I don't try to pretend to have manners...I'll come out and say fuckity fuck fuck fuck!

[alchemy]

In addition to the regular swear words, their softer counterparts like dang, jeez, crap, and even fart were banned from my vocabulary when I was growing up, because they were either taking the lord's name in vain or considered just plain vulgar. Male and female anatomy was not spoken of so I didn't even use the real or slang words for vagina or penis, etc.. The only substitute I was allowed was fluff to use in place of fart.

My parents were pretty sheltered fundies and tried to keep us that way, but somehow my sister picked up cunt from somewhere. She spent a few months using it in regular conversation and we all had no clue how terrible it was, until a teacher finally set her (and my mortified parents) straight. :lol:

[PennySycamore]

Dysfundamental,

Swamp Yankees aren't the only one to say "I swan" or "I swannie". My mom said that and so does Clairee Belcher in Steel Magnolias. "I swannie! I don't see how M'Lynn puts up with that."

I also found out what a swamp Yankee is, too.

Alchemy, what you wrote about your sister and the "See you next Tuesday" word was hilarious!

[canela]

Growing up in a household of pretty mild language, we didn't often use "cuss" words. We used euphemisms all the time. There were a lot of darns/dangs/shoots/hecks in my childhood home. My mom spoke to us exclusively in Spanish, and I really can't remember any cussing from her. My sister, however, claims she heard her say "Oh, shit!" last year when she was really angry. We are all well into adulthood and think it is funnily out of place. My dad spoke to us exclusively in English, and he did use strong words sometimes. The "worst" I can remember were "Hell's bells!" and "... bastards" which was prefaced by an appropriate adjective such as thievin' or lyin'. I never in my life heard him say anything stronger than "shit." This had nothing to do with religion. My mom is a lapsed Catholic and my father neither associated with nor identified himself as any religion. I think it was more a question of social propriety. So euphemisms were allowed because they weren't "vulgar."

I was only scolded for using improper language twice. I was maybe eight or ten and had said I hated someone (quite possibly my then teenaged sister as we fought constantly). Dad told me he didn't want me to use that word about a person because it meant that I had such strong negative feelings toward said person that I wanted them to die. That stuck with me and even now I have a visceral reaction when I hear that expression. The other time, I was a bit younger and called my sister a word that I didn't know was a slur. We were joking around and were calling each other food names. At one point, I called her "cracker." My dad was so upset. He gave me a lecture about how I shouldn't use that word because it was very insulting (he grew up in east Texas and came from a family of poorly defined western European/possibly English/Scottish ancestry). Then he told me not to use other such words to refer to people's backgrounds because that language reflected ugly thoughts (racism) and those were wrong.

All in all, I think my dad would have much preferred to hear me call someone an asshole or a shithead (if they deserved it) than to call someone a racial slur. He might have objected to me saying "Jesus Christ" or the equivalent if it would have insulted someone around me. My mom's view is use that language around your friends, not around me.

[Dysfundamental]

Dysfundamental,

Swamp Yankees aren't the only one to say "I swan" or "I swannie". My mom said that and so does Clairee Belcher in Steel Magnolias. "I swannie! I don't see how M'Lynn puts up with that."

I also found out what a swamp Yankee is, too.

Alchemy, what you wrote about your sister and the "See you next Tuesday" word was hilarious!

! I have learned something new today. I always thought it was a New England thing, but that may be reinforced by my grampa's singing [link=http://digital.library.msstate.edu/cdm/ref/collection/SheetMusic/id/6357]this song[/link] to us kids. (Click for the PDF if you want to see the lyrics and a ridiculously wonderful cover illustration!)

[Vex]

He sure does, Dysfundamental. Nothing is untouched by CWC's greasy grasp.

[debrand]

Wait....I just realized that my grandmother sometimes said I swannie. She also said fuck and flipped people off. Damn, I miss my grandma.

What is strange is the insistent that some euphemisms are substitutions for curse words. I say,drat because I grew up hearing that word but I don't believe that cursing is bad. The reason that I don't curse a lot is because I am sensitive to other's feelings and believes. However, I don't think that some random connections of sounds is worse than another group of sounds. There is no reason that fuck is a worse word than foot except that one society has decided that one word is bad and the other is okay. If I wanted to say damn instead of drat, I would say damn. I just like the sound of the word, drat.

[purpleeee]

What would these folks think of Quebec cursing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity

Essentially, religious words, like "holy", "tabernacle," "host," "virgin," "chalice" are the absolutely foulest things you can say, worse than fuck and it's friends. We human beings have funny ways of tabooing language :) One thing I always wondered is if it seems weird hearing them during a real church service. Any Quebecers here who know? Does it sound like the priest is cursing?

[gardenvarietycitizen]

However, I don't think that some random connections of sounds is worse than another group of sounds. There is no reason that fuck is a worse word than foot except that one society has decided that one word is bad and the other is okay. If I wanted to say damn instead of drat, I would say damn. I just like the sound of the word, drat.

This is a curious thing for me too, about English. I've been around a radio station, and it's to the point where they will worry if someone says something that isn't a curse word but just SOUNDS too much like one (someone really says "ship" but it sounds like "shit" on the air, so they worry about the FCC, that sort of thing).

I mean, it's just a sound, right? I can understand the idea that "for decorum reasons we do not talk about topics X, Y, and Z with any slang words on the air" (so, no talk about sex, no matter how "clean," before 10 PM or whatever) but the absolute prohibition on the SYLLABLE "fuck" and "shit" (while maybe "shtupping" or "poop" would be fine in the same after-10 broadcast) just seems really, really arbitrary.

Anyway. Same low-power FM community station would cue up songs for auto-play during hours when no one was available to actively DJ, and they played a lot of locally-made political music. One of these was a song that had plenty of innuendo, referring to "the same old politics" with a refrain involving "put it on the ground, spread it all around, strike it with a hoe, it will make the flowers grow!" type thing, and whoever cued up the music listened to a good three verses, said it was okay, and put it in.

Well, come 10:30 or so we are listening, and that song comes on, sure enough the whole song is okay but at the very end of the track the singer just yells "BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!!" again and again, which was hilarious, but there was quite the "oh no someone run over there and delete that thing from the lineup NOW" panicking. It's a small enough place and far enough from any office likely to care that it's probably not an issue, but just can't be too careful...

(same station runs a lot of church services too, but it's a different audience that time of day!)

Anyway. At home our main rule for cursing was, don't call people names, curse words or not. Don't use curse words in anger at someone else. So "fuck you!" or "you piece of shit" would be a problem, but messing up some project you're on and just yelling "aw fuck it!" in frustration was okay.

[moodygirl86]

Somehow my sister picked up cunt from somewhere. She spent a few months using it in regular conversation and we all had no clue how terrible it was, until a teacher finally set her (and my mortified parents) straight. :lol:

My eldest brother never tires of telling me about the almighty bollocking he got when he was about seven for using that word. Like your sister, he didn't actually know it was a swear word and must have picked it up from some older kids. But this one day, our mum heard him using it and started whacking him with a pool cue!

As for euphemisms being just as bad as the words themselves, I think fundies would do well to apply that advice to themselves saying "bless your heart" and "I'll pray for you" when what they'd really like to say is "fuck you."

[penguinagogo]

I like bloody - as a corruption of ' by our lady'- nice medieval oath there, not swearing at all

but theres nothing wrong with fuck, its one of the most useful words in the english language

as long as its not used ad-fucking-nauseam :whistle: