Boss told me off for exclaiming Jesus Christ

[GloMum]

The other day my boss told me off for exclaiming Jesus Christ when I was surprised during a work meeting. Boss told me it’s rude towards people from different religions and asked me if I’d done my DEI training. I have, and I enjoy friendships with colleagues from varied backgrounds. I feel really stressed now in case I slip again, and embarrassed I should be told off.

YABU - This is an inappropriate exclamation at work
YANBU - It’s just an exclamation and you shouldn’t be told off for that.

Try fucking hell next time

so essentially We have an ‘offensive’ words but to get around using them we develop other words to mean the offensive word. If we use those other words it isn’t offensive all because we aren’t using those words… but we mean the same thing.

I mean, it is literally completely incorrect if it says oh my gosh doesn't reference God, because it 100% does.

I would just say that you are breaking a commandment when you do that though. I’m only saying this as you say you’re a Christian. Jesus upheld the 10 commandments so we really shouldn’t use his name in vain.

Saying oh my goodness is definitely not on a par with saying Jesus Christ,

@HipMax

I did have a glance at a couple of Christian websites before I posted.

Genuinely curious where you found this information

I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on this - if so, I can’t see it. Just didn’t want it to go unchallenged. The Christian and Muslim God are definitely not the same. They have very different characteristics that are central to them / the faith. Jesus is the Son of God (Christian), who came to earth. Not something the Muslim God would do. There are lots of similar significant differences.

In ...you know...history, language and reality.

Love your user name, one of my favourite cop programmes!

Some of us are religious, whichever faith we have. That’s up to us, not you, to decide whether or not religion is “special”.
Seeing as you aren’t “ eternally offended “ you can shove your thoughts where the sun doesn’t shine.

It's up to you to follow what religion you choose.
It's most definitely not up to you what expressions I use.

It was never deemed as appropriate to say this -it’s not people being ridiculous-we ( I’m in my late 50’s) we’re brought up knowing it was offensive.My husband works on site and hears all sorts but even he would balk at that. I’m not upset at swearing but I don’t like anyone saying that

Except I'm not offended personally. I do understand that others may be in a professional environment.

I have a mouth like a sailor and an extensive range of swear words (in multiple languages) in my vocabulary.
What I also have is the ability to know my audience: I don't use the same language in a work meeting that I would happily employ in a dinner meeting with friends of 20+ years.
Keep your language neutral and professional at all times. It's easier that way

100% agree. Unless you want to be viewed as rather thick at work then keep your language neutral and professionally appropriate. Common sense.

Ok but you need to also understand that others offense also does not matter. And so do they
It's not in the slightest bit complicated.
Everyone can be offended ...and just be quiet about it.

It was though. It's not all about what you personally think 🤷‍♀️

And you need to understand what professionalism is. Especially if you're working with a diverse range of people, or perhaps internationally. As offence absolutely can matter there. As we've pointed out.

It's not about what you personally think either, but hey.

You'd think.

But clearly common sense is a mystery to some...

I never quite get why certain atheists will assume and assert that their disbelief in the deity or religious significance of historical people such as Jesus, Mohammed and others must somehow mean that they didn't actually exist in history as people.

It does come across as childish and not very intelligent to call them made-up figments of people's imaginations.

Julius Caesar, Queen Victoria, Alexander the Great and countless others died before any of us now alive were born. I presume they were also imaginary fictional characters too?

Even the protesters who turn up at royal events with huge placards saying "Not my king" and other statements strongly suggesting that they don't like or respect King Charles or recognise his position or power don't actually deny that Charles Windsor is a real person.

Who are 'they'?

I presume you're deliberately ignoring very large parts of the world when you say that?

People with those names might have existed, in fact they undoubtedly will have, but it's a big step to suggest they're somehow special in their relationship to a god figure, or to assert that they rose from death!
Nobody worships Queen Victoria, Julius Caesar etc and we see their strengths and weaknesses as recorded in historical documents.

Read the comment in context - all will be revealed.

Well his threat to "smack you" is beyond deeply offensive.
I cannot believe he wasn't pulled up on that.
Make a note of that now of who was there, date etc.

He sounds like an utter twat.

Which is exactly why I clearly said that, regardless of any reverence for them or believe in their position or status, it's clearly silly to call them imaginary.

Saying "I don't believe that Jesus was god - he was just a man" is a perfectly valid opinion to have; people saying that he was actually a made up fictional character, along the lines of Winnie the Pooh or Harry Potter, is absurd.