I went bowling once. And as I cringed watching the curious one bowl her "slow moving, yet strangely effective" balls for strikes and spares, I kept on saying things like "Holy Cow!" "Good Lord!" "Jee-sus Christ!" And I said all of this loudly. Because getting clobbered by your twin sister at any activity remotely resembling a sport elicits life threatening exclamations. However, I realized that a girl I liked at the time, started getting kind of upset with me. And because I liked her, I wanted to figure out why she was getting upset. My teenage mind couldn't come up with an answer. So finally, I got up the courage to ask her. Sister. The answer I received was that she was upset because I was using the Lord's name in vain.

posted by The Wizard



Good God! No way!

posted by Tin Man



Stop it. You're not funny. After that incident many years ago, I've tried to refrain from using any God related words in times of stress. I've replaced my "Jesus Christ's" and stuff with curse words so that I offend everyone. And not just Christians. But sometimes I forget. I'm trying to figure out why it's apparently hard wired into me. I can't figure out at what point "God" and "Christ" entered the verbal lexicon as words of frustration and astonishment.

posted by The Wizard



I can't really help you here. I don't have any answers. Do you feel bad when you forget and slip up?

posted by Tin Man



Well. Sort of. I mean, I don't want to offend anyone. But at the same time, it's something that everyone says. So it's not that horrible. It's like letting a curse word slip in church. It's not good. But it's not a crisis. I just try to not do it again.

posted by The Wizard



Do you think your Christian friends mind?

posted by Tin Man



I dunno. I've never asked.