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.

I’ve done it as well at work ( not in a meeting) and had a mild ticking off. I’m an atheist but I respect that my Christian colleagues don’t want to hear the lords name in vain. I don’t actually have any Colleagues who are religious or were bothered but I’ve accepted that’s beside the point.

I seem to remember that Christ taught, “Judge not lest you be judged”.

I can see that it’s against DEI etc…. Personally due to our shit IT system I spend most days quietly cursing at my laptop. My current phrase is asking why it’s such a massive effing bucket of jizz. But it is said under my breath and I hear managers ask their laptops why the fuck it doesn’t just fucking work and they can’t fucking get their bastard work done. You get the gist. I’d not say it loudly or in a meeting setting though.

Or : Krishna The elephant ! Or Ra the Cat , or Zen Zen Shinto ocaahomaaaaaaaahaamaaaaa

I have a couple of guys in my office that curse a lot and say "Jesus Christ" at their computers in a huffy and aggressive way. Other swear words too.
I'm a Christian and while I'm not about to go running to HR about, I (privately) take a pretty dim view of this behaviour and I probably think a bit less of them as a result.

and so understandably if you don’t wish to use what would be considered blasphemous language then of course you shouldn’t .

but I still don’t make the connection why someone else using these phrases is offensive. Your relationship with god is your own as is anyone else who is religious. Absolutely 100% you’re right. But why would it bother you if someone else uses the words? How does it affect your relationship with your god?

Do the objecters to "Jesus Christ" also not like "Jeeze" or "Jeeze Louise" etc?

They're not really that different in reality - everybody knows what you're getting at.

Supposing somebody decided to start shouting or exclaiming your Mum's name as a negative expression when something negative happened - would it make much difference to you if they changed it to (e.g.) 'Moany Joany Perkins!' or 'Joan Perkins on a bike!' ?

I’m pretty sure a real Christian would never tell someone they’re not a real Christian.

Good for you.

All religions should be treated with respect , had someone used a different word to blasphema different religion then I am quite sure it would have been picked up as being offensive . Therefore I think the manager was right if that is applied to all religions. Too often Christianity is ignored

Not to me.

You mean you are a Christian but then you slam His holy name.
Similar if you claimed you actually are thankful to someone who raped you. Does not make sense. And is again, a thread looking for a loophole to make a mockery of Christianity.

Jesus wept.

And presumably you'd also say the same to a black or Chinese person who objected to you using words that they found very offensive?

take my advice dear and next time you need an exclamation, slam the prophet or the the egyptian cat, or the Chinese dragon and let's see where you will end my dear. Come back and make thread about it also

I don’t know if i’d tell someone off but it’s not appropriate.

All religions should be treated with respect ,

Why ?

Yes, my view as well. I wouldn’t raise it with a colleague, but I do with my kids.

My black husband isn’t sensitive either.

They can't help being black or chinese.

Religion is choice.

Surely it isn’t so hard to imagine why this can be ‘an issue’ for Christians?

I find this (seemingly society-wide) lack of empathy and imagination about people different to ourselves quite worrying, even when sincerely expressed.

It's religiously offensive to some people, and therefore a no-no. Would you invoke the name of Mohammed, for instance, as a swear word? Just accept the lesson and move on. I'm sure you'll remember in future.

Well unless your business is selling Bibles, he can feck off trying to police other people’s use of language.

I’m in Ireland so we tend to enjoy a wide variety of blasphemous expletives.

I worked in a newsroom for 25 years where pressures were intense and enotions ran high; the air was often not only blue but indigo or even violet.
As such, I'm inured to pretty much all swearing and blaspheming. There were probably people of faith among my colleagues but I don't know as no-one made any kind of fuss about it.
If a person was offended enough to complain they would probably be told it was a newsroom, in the real world, where adult people of all faiths and none were trying to do their job under often difficult circumstances yet managing to get on with it, so they should probably reflect on whether it was the right environment for them.
That said, when general swearing became a personal attack, as happened occasionally, it felt much more dangerous. But on the whole in such a highly presssured environment, sometimes it is better to let off steam. Swearing has a purpose.