Goddamn Blasphemy

When I was growing up in Southern Baptist-fried Alabama, I was taught one of the worst things you can do.....besides having premarital sex....was using the Lord's name in vain. An innocent exclamation of Oh my God!! could land you in some hot water. If you let a GD slip...may the force be with you.

In this same vein, some folks seem more offended by me using the “f” word than they are about the horrors I’m saying are fucking fucked up. Oh my…a lady shouldn’t use that language. Crickets when it comes to the fucked up part about people being horribly used and abused by a system that was designed to do exactly that.

I have come to know that blasphemy has zero to do with speech, words, sayings, vocabulary…and everything to do with intention and being and actions.

Show me. Don’t tell me.

I had a real estate client several years ago who was a legit billionaire. With a B. He owned so much real estate, but there was a particular piece of land that he wanted that was not for sale. He had tried in the past to get the owner to sell to him to no avail. He asked me if I would work on it. Sounded like a fun challenge, so I reached out and started trying to charm him. Turns out there were 3 owners that I had to charm. I got 2 on board, but the last was a no-go.

From speaking with these 3 men I learned a lot about them, and would pass along our conversations to my billionaire client. One day something I said struck a chord with him and apparently gave him an idea. He learned that the hold out was on the board of a Christian nonprofit that he was familiar with. He told me that he had donated to them in the past and was very aligned with their cause. And said that if he were allowed to purchase this land (it was like 30 acres) that he would develop it into a Christian camp and let organizations such as the one we were talking about use it for free.

This man purported to be a Christian and talked about God and Jesus a LOT, so I had no reason to be suspicious. I passed this info along to the hold out, and it was exactly what he needed/wanted to hear. He said that the only way he would ever let this land go is if it were God's will and being used to advance the kingdom.

Not only did he say he would sell...it was at a much better price than we thought. Apparently being part of God's army gets you a discount on land.

So my client bought it.

Did he ever mention the Christian camp again? Nope.

Did he ever do anything to use that land for nonprofits or in the name of God? Nope.

But he did get a hell of a deal. And the property is now worth about $800,000 more than he paid for it.

Praise Jesus.

A few years ago, I saw the same trick again. An agent I am friends with had a real estate listing when things were insane and every listing was getting like 20 offers. His clients were elderly and downsizing and the sale of this house was their retirement money. As soon as the listing went up there were a million offers as expected.

One came with a love letter. A love letter is basically the prospective buyer writing a letter to the seller to convince them to pick their offer.

I should mention that my market has a lot of overnight rental properties, and many homes that have typically been residential homes have been converted into rentals. For obvious reasons many locals do not like this.

Back to the love letter.

These buyers wrote a letter invoking the name of God and about how they were such devoted Christians and were following God’s plan for their life and that God wanted them to have this house. And that they know how many people are taking family homes and turning them into rentals, and they wanted to let the seller know they planned to live in this home with their Christian family doing Christian things. They could rest assured in their retirement that this home would be full of prayers and hymns and casseroles on the counter after Wednesday night church.

My co-worker passed the letter along with the offer and all of the other offers. This particular one was considerably lower than the others. Many were over asking price.

But this elderly couple read the letter and loved the idea of their home going to a Christian family who was going to live in it. Loved that it would not be turned into a rental property. They sold it to them for around $80,000 less than the highest offer they could have chosen.

Fast forward a few weeks and the home was back on the market with some fresh paint on the walls, furnished and being flipped for a profit as a turnkey rental property.

Hallelujah. Pass the fried chicken and gravy.

These are perfect examples of blasphemy. Of using the Lord’s name in vain. Invoking the divine to fulfill your own desires. They both involved calling on Jesus in order to manipulate people in a competitive real estate market.

But blasphemy does not limit itself to real estate in the Smoky Mountains. This is a tale as old as time. Pretty much every war has involved someone claiming their god is better than your god, so they reserve the right to murder, rape and pillage your people and land.

To purport that you are the superior race or religion or superior anything. And that your god wants your people to have more land or money or more rights than others….and then to literally kill those people. To bomb schools full of children and say it is just the cost of getting what god wants you to have.

While also calling yourself Pro-Life and trying to lord over women’s bodies. And then forsaking the babies you say you care so much about and refusing to offer them basic human care and decency.

Is probably the best definition of using the Lord’s name in vain that I can conjure.

War is a lie. Religion is a lie.

Believing that there is a God who wants you to take over the world and murder people to fulfill a prophecy of your people..the right people…being raptured and saved…while torturing, bombing, raping and murdering those who don’t look or believe the same as you….is literally fucking insane.

I believe that most people are mostly good. And that we are all pretty much the same in the realm of our humanity.

So in order to convince mostly good people to agree with plans to systematically harm their brothers and sisters, you have to have a story.

Cue religion. Cue politics.

The story that there are chosen ones. That we are different. That those who don’t look like you or speak your language are the enemy and want to harm you and take what is yours. It is all propaganda designed to create fear and chaos and division. Create an us versus them narrative.

That is the spell that has been spoken over and cast upon our world.

And it is a lie.

I think this is the original sin. Not a woman reaching for knowledge. Sinking her teeth and heart into truth.

Rather a man (many men) throughout history systematically using the name of a god to increase their power and wealth. Invoking the name of a god to manipulate others for their own gain. Weaponizing the name of a god to conquer.

Blasphemy.

Goddamn blasphemy.

May God truly damn it. May we damn it. And may we all remove the veil from our eyes and see that there is no division.

We are all the chosen ones.

We are all One.