Cussing and prayer, two healing balms, help when your country’s in chaos.

Goddamn, I feel like cussing today. I’m cussing in relief and cussing in frustration. Hell, I am cussing just for the sheer enjoyment of swearing. Given today, maybe I should swear in terror too. Trump supporters, domestic terrorists, have stormed and breached the Capitol.

How are you doing? Glued to television? I am. But not this morning. Around 8am, I was delighting in nature and new possibilities—can’t tell you where. Police advised me not to because of people making death threats. Sorry, can’t tell you more about that. Watch the video—

Cussing with the Happy Wanderer

If there is a saint in the 20th-century who deserves to be called “the Great,” it was that Happy Wanderer, Fr. Anthony de Mello. Never heard of him? Pope John Paul II maligned him a decade after he died. And the dead can’t defend themselves. De Mello was a dangerous storyteller who once explained the extraordinary grace of cussing. 

“Profanity has been known to offer spiritual relief denied to prayer.” 

AMEN! I’ll cuss to that! 

Cussing & Christians Don’t Mix!

But wait! Christians mustn’t use dirty language and profanity! What does Paul say in Ephesians 4:29?—

No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

Some clarifications are in order. First, Paul didn’t write “Ephesians,” an inspired forger did. But deutero-Pauline forgery though it is, “Ephesians,” a sort-of letter, nevertheless is inspired and canonical. What weight does it bear on us and our cussing?

Indeed as the Pauline forger says, there should be no negative speech in the Jesus groups. Messianists should bless and not curse, and one’s words should be honorable and not antagonistic to the spirit of God. But what of Christians living today?

The Cussing of Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul

What about γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν used by Jesus in Matthew 12:34 and John the Baptist in Luke 3:7)? Our translators try and clean that up into “brood of vipers,” but the meaning is “snake bastards.” Sounds like exasperated cussing and insults to me. Or what about Paul calling everything σκύβαλα (sh-t) in Philippians 3:8? Sorry, NABRE, it doesn’t correctly translate into the polite “rubbish.” Σκύβαλα is a crudity.

So even saints, and God’s human word himself, cussed. Good! Brings a kick to the Pauline instruction, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

If we are to follow Paul, who followed Jesus, cussing and crudities will follow. I was cussing in relief earlier this morning. Cussing, and prayer, got me through 2020. I was made homeless this past year, stripped of medical insurance at the time of pandemic, canceled by fundamentalists and disgraced persons. Read about my story here.

Cussing and Killing

There are many snake bastards in Washington, D.C., and they aren’t limited to just Donald Trump and the GOP traitors. Don’t be deluded into thinking Biden is a magic fix. We have colossal problems.

Friends, amazed by blue skies and ducks on the pond this morning, I was a bit premature about Overlord Trump. We aren’t done with him yet. Or rather, he isn’t done with us yet. Powerless legally, he has hordes of followers. And he endures, like a mediocre Sauron. As a symbol, his evil will outlast him like a stain on our country. 

So I’m cussing in grief. But not in shock. USA Today reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested that the National Guard clear and secure the Capitol Graphic footage ahead…

Bishops Call Trump Pro-Life

U.S. Bishops? What were you thinking calling Donald Trump pro-life? What were you thinking making press statements like:

“We are deeply grateful for the President’s pro-life commitment, and for all the actions this administration has taken to protect unborn children and their mothers from the violence of abortion.”

Why have you permitted the disgrace of Father Frank Pavone to go on his dangerous rants, assembling an army of domestic terrorists? You do realize you are partially responsible for the death and destruction going on, yes? There are Catholics in the mob! 

On social media, I see fanatical Catholics posting this delightful header from Lifesite News—

javascript:;https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/it-is-time-for-civil-disobedience-in-the-name-of-fidelity-to-christ?fbclid=IwAR0lZ5MFAg8hoQI3eg2t-UR_Wq6e0XUCaKh4KXJmktkSwiIMtZoxFpP3FLc

I see a pro-life fanatic posting about meeting with his cronies in person, planning lawlessness, and “taking action”—in acts of “civil disobedience.” Then he quoted Scar from the Lion King—“Be prepared!” 

This is a ministry leader, folks. One that won’t be “forced to resign” like me. And he’s talking criminal violence. This is where the U.S. bishops have lead us through the decades. 

Cussing in Helplessness 

I am cussing thinking about how many bishops are enabling civil war and pooling ignorance among Catholics. We need to begin talking about this and demanding accountability from the USCCB with diocesan heads giving Trump veiled endorsements. Bishops need checking. If you are waiting for them to deliver that power to you, fellow lay Catholics, it will never come. You already have the ability. Drop the illusion and seize the power you already have. We need to take authority now.

The bishop’s criminal failure with the sexual abuse of our young people should have been enough. But brainwashed, we couldn’t do anything. Or wouldn’t. Our sleep means they keep dreaming their dreams at our expense. No more. They are asleep at the wheel at best and centripetal villains at worst. Someone has to wake up. The bishops are to be servants, not feudal landlords.

Cussing at Naivete

I also cuss in frustration for the naïve liberal Catholics who think Biden is a messiah. He’s the best we were allowed to vote for, and that’s a far cry from what is needed. And even the best president ever couldn’t fix this mess.

Maybe we get our $2,000 because of the Senate flipping today. Yay. Look, it is excellent for many Americans (myself included!) who need far more than that. Thank God! But that’s our money, not theirs. Not Biden’s or Trump’s. Ours.  

Trump Must Go, Says Money

The fact is Trump is a major liability to the oligarchs, the ones who really pull the strings. Look at the stock market. Do you think they want civil unrest? Civil war? 

And it’s not because of the goodness of their hearts. Like pandemics, civil wars disclose the illusion world, the mirage and bubble of their inflated wealth. Things are getting real, and they won’t have that. “Ensure the election: Biden wins.”

By the way, I don’t believe in Lizard Men. Biden ACTUALLY won. I cuss because that is the best we can do. And I swear because of stupid Catholics who worship him and will tolerate nothing less than his adoration. This country mass-produces fanatics. Yes, I am cussing in sadness and bitter frustration.   

Civil War Looms

I wrote before about the genuine possibility of civil war. It may be inevitable. Did Donald Trump and his cronies, Ted Cruz and friends, commit acts of sedition against the people of the United States and the federal government? Listen to Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state. He has damaged the presidency in ways that make Watergate look like a Girl Scout prank.

Was this a federal crime? Anyone who “knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process” breaks the law, no?

Hope in Cussing?

But where do we go from here? If you aren’t cussing now, you better be praying. I keep thinking about Father Tony de Mello. 

“Don’t worry, Bill,” say my liberal Catholic friends. “Biden is president now. Everything will be better.” 

“We’ll see,” says your Fellow Dying Inmate. “We’ll see.” 

God help us. Hundreds of thousands dead from the pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of more to come. Riots in the capital city and possible civil war being egged on by Donald Trump, calling Americans “evil.” There will be no Mason-Dixon line in the new civil war. If we enter it and pray cussing we don’t, it may be the end of civilization on earth.

We need to learn to actively listen and feel the other’s pain. I’m talking about empathy. The people we hate won’t go away when Trump is finally gone. We need to learn to listen.