WOC at Sadly, No pointed over to this column by Mike Adams at Townhall. Adams teaches at UNC Wilmington, where he is a lonely righteous man — like Lot in Sodom (except without the whole getting drunk in a cave and knocking up your daughters part).
Adams' basic point — that "comfort level" is a lousy yardstick for acceptable behavior — is probably true. But what I want to focus on is his particular complaint about one item in his long and cherished list of things that make him uncomfortable:
Then there are all the times that the name Jesus Christ has been used as a form of profanity in the office. That makes me feel uncomfortable. By the way, I am especially offended by the phrase "Jesus F***ing Christ!" I mean, no one ever says "Mo-F***ing-Hammed!" or "F***ing Buddha!," do they?
I think Adams here is observing something real. In American English, our oaths tend to be specifically Christian blasphemies. Adams seems to think that this is evidence of the pervasive persecution of straightwhiteChristianmales.
I think, rather, it is another example of what Solicitor General Ted Olson has called "ceremonial deism" arising from our "nation's historical origins." What Adams is seeing is the last bit of crumbling plaster from our long lost sacred canopy. Christendom is no more and where it once ensured a shared sense of the sacred its remnant now ensures only a shared vocabulary of sacrilege. As euphonious as a phrase like "L. Ron freaking Hubbard" may be, it can't compete with the phrases Adams finds offensive as long as the scent from the empty vase of Christendom hangs in the air.
Olson has argued that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance doesn't really mean much of anything. And in a sense he's right — it's a reflexive anachronism, a once-meaningful phrase that now is regarded as no more of a theological statement than our customary minor blasphemies.
I suppose the only people perverse enough to take offense at these three trivial syllables would be fervent atheists like Michael Newdow or fervent believers like myself.
Ruben Bolling has more on this debate.
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