Take it down @joshgroban!

Is it still up there?  Surely he’ll have taken it down by now.  He’s a sane fellow.  Surely it will come to him that he’s overdone it this time?

No.  It’s still up.  

Why does the “f” word bother me?

1. I grew up in a community and a family where it wasn’t used and was considered offensive.

2. When other people use it around me, I feel sexually harassed.  They are imposing their sexual thoughts and feelings on me in an unwanted and unsolicited manner.

3. People use this word like “um.”  Amongst young comedians in New York City, who I hang out with, it is commonly used in every sentence -- sometimes several times in a sentence. They know that if they say “Um, well, you know, like…” they will sound dumb.  They have acting and public speaking training.  They know simple rules of articulateness -- BUT they think that, if they substitute the “f” word or the “s” word, no one will notice their mental blanks spots.  They still sound dumb.  When you say the “f” word and the “s” word in virtually every sentence, you sound really, really dumb.

4. I have mild Giles de la Tourette’s Syndrome, with occasional involuntary speaking.  So far, this has never resulted in coprolalia, but then I was raised by people who never used profanity.  It was a very scary thing when my father said “heck,” for instance, because at that time it was unacceptable even to say “hell,” and “heck” was the next closest thing. But sometimes I find now myself using profanity at home, alone.  This scares me.  These foul mouthed kids I hang out with are infecting my speech.

I am literally traumatized  by the use of this word.  It hurts me.  I hate it.  I feel like I'm being beaten every time it is spoken.

But the fact that the “f” word bothers me is not the only issue here.  In this tweet that Josh retweeted on December 29, the “f” word is inserted between the word “Jesus” and the word “Christ.”  This is blatantly offensive to people of the Christian faith.

Now Josh is very PC.  He would never say anything to offend African Americans or gay people or Muslims or Hindus.  Why is it ok to offend Christians?  

It seems especially hypocritical to me that a man who started his career peddling Christian music thinks it’s ok to offend Christians.

I’m not a traditional Christian myself.  I, like Josh, was raised Episcopalian, but nowadays I call myself an eclectic universalist — and I’m also a member of a Friends Meeting, but they don’t impose any particular creed on me.  Still, as a universalist, I would never intentionally say something that would be hurtful to someone of any faith, unless it was part of a legitimate, constructive discussion — not just casually blowing off steam.

Granted this fan who was retweeted has a legitimate gripe with the cost of college. I feel for her.  But that doesn’t mean that she needs to make religiously offensive statements.  And it most especially does not mean that Josh has to retweet these statements to almost 800k people.

Some fans have complained that they think Josh is sadistic, that he says things just to get a rise out of his fans -- that he loves seeing us get all atwitter (pun intended), that the ruckus appeals to his sadistic side.  Really?  It’s ok to torture people for fun?

Take it down @joshgroban.  Take it down.

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Addendum 1/13/15

It's still up there tho you have to scroll down a bit to find it -- December 29.