I had a politically liberal friend, recently passed away, who said Jesus God! many times per day. Did you here what Rush Limbaugh said today? he would ask. Jesus God! What does that man use for brains?
The Yankees beat the Rays 10-0 last night. Jesus God!
And so on. He was proud of his atheism and I would remind him that he cursed like a Christian. Expressions like Jesus God, or damn or dammit or hell or to hell with that or goddammit, all that stuff doesn’t bother most people but it does give credence to the Christian outlook.
I have always been offended by people who support wars of aggression, who think nothing of killing animals for food and for “sport,” who applaud executions, who call black or gay people names, who want all Mexicans deported from the country that was taken from them by murderous force, but who bristle if someone “takes the name of the Lord in vain.” Such superficial, obnoxious Christian morality always makes me think of throwing up.
For that reason, I was happy for many years to take the name of their lord in vain whenever I felt like it, out of sheer disrespect for self-righteous Christians.
But it slowly dawned on me that I was playing their game.
One way to root out Christianity and the horrors it now stands for (I’m not a big fan of abortions – no one is – but the Christians who applaud the murder of abortion doctors are monsters) is to stop using its words. As Buddhists, we can remove Christian curse words from our vocabulary as an exercise in Right Speech.
I don’t know any Buddhist curse words, so dropping the Christian ones is a step in the direction of Right Speech and provides much-wanted space between me and the Christians who invented such cursing.
One of Zen Master Thick Naht Hahn’s (not to be confused with Stuart Smalley’s) affirmations in Present Moment, Wonderful Moment concludes with “…and when my mouth is fragrant with Right Speech, a flower blooms in the garden of my heart.” When we curse like a Christian, our mouths stink of Wrong Speech and mean thoughts grow in the darkness of intolerance and bigotry.
Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
The Mind of the Bible-Believer
