Secularized Language

While the development of conservative words grows by doubling each century, those with an anti-Christian and anti-American agenda, such as liberals, homosexuals, atheists, evolutionists and leftists, have diluted the Christian origins of our language by replacing common phrases with secularized versions. See also Religious language.

For example, "God be with you" was secularized to "Goodbye". Many more examples are listed below.

By appealing to tolerance and political correctness, they have succeeded in propagating these secularized versions, even among those who don't share their views. Such deceitful tactics are a prime example of Liberal redefinition and other Liberal tools.

Calendar Terms

Original expression	Secularized version
B.C./A.D.	B.C.E./C.E.1
Christ's Mass	Christmas
Christmas	Xmas2
Christmas Tree	Celebration Tree. Holiday Tree
Christmas Party	Holiday Party
Christmas Holiday	Winter Break
Easter Holiday	Spring Break
Gregorian calendar	Civil calendar
All Hallow's Eve	Halloween
Holy Day	Holiday
Independence Day	The Fourth of July
Merry Christmas	Happy Holidays/Season's Greetings
Pascha/Resurrection Sunday	Easter Sunday3
Saint Patrick's Day	Paddy's Day
Saint Valentine's Day	Valentine's Day
Shrove Tuesday	Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival
Thanksgiving	Turkey Day
The Lord's Day	Football Sunday
The Reverend Martin Luther King Day	MLK Day
Washington's Birthday4	President's Day

Expressions and Colloquialisms

NOTE: In some cases, the secularized version is used as a "minced oath" in order to avoid using the original expression as a profanity.

Original expression	Secularized version
God be with you	Good luck
God be with you	Goodbye
God bless you/Bless you	Gesundheit
Godspeed	Be good
What the dickens	What the devil
God Willing	Hopefully
Jesus!	Gee whiz!
One nation under God	One nation5
Praise the Lord	Praise be
Thank God!	Thank Goodness!
Thank heavens	Thank goodness
Thank the Lord	Give thanks
Do God's work	Do good
Have a blessed day	Have a nice/good day

General Examples

Original expression	Secularized version
Abomination	Mistake
Abortion	Birth control6
Abortion	Reproductive Rights
Act of God	Natural disaster
Adultery	Cheating
Adultery	Fooling around
Angelic	Pretty
Religious Suppression	Separation of church and state
Anti-life	Pro-choice
Atheistic	Secular
Bible study	Fundamentalism
Blasphemy	Secular opinion
Blasphemy	Religious "freedoms"
Blessed	Lucky
Blessing	Stars aligned
Chosen lifestyle	Innate characteristic
Communist	Liberal
Constitutionalist	Birther
Contraception	Protection
Covetousness	Inequality
Creation	Abiogenesis
Curse	Bad luck
Disciple of Christ	Christian
Disciple of Christ	Wingnut
Diabolical	Dishonest/Underhanded
Domestic Terrorism	Workplace violence
Drunkard	Alcoholic
Easter Egg	Spring Sphere [3], Chocolate Egg
Effeminate	Transgender
Eternity	Forever
Father	Old man
Fertile	Breeder
Flood	Myth
Freedom Fighter	Terrorist
Gender confusion	Living one's truth
Glory	Praise
God	A higher power
God	Mother Nature
God	The universe
God-fearing	Intolerant
God-given	Natural
Godless	Secular
Golden Rule	Altruism
Govern	Rule
Harlot	Sex worker
Harlot	Prostitute
Harlot	Slut
Harlot	Empowerment
Harlot	Liberated woman
Harlot	Feminist
Heathen	Multicultural
Hell (or Heaven)	Afterlife
Heavenly	Beautiful
Heresy	Scientific theory
Heresy	Freedom of Opinion
Heretic	Crackpot
Holy matrimony	Civil union
Homosexual	Gay
Homosexuality	Lifestyle choice
Husband or wife	Significant other/life partner
Judgement Day	Death
Immoral	Personal choice
Islamic Terrorism	Man-caused disaster
Lazy	Lacks motivation
Living in sin	Shacking up/cohabitation/domestic partnership
Lust	Love
Mankind	Humankind
Meek	Weak
Miraculous	Amazing
Mother	Parent
Morality	Social Oppression
Nature	Social construct
Perversion	Diversity
Possessed	Crazy
Possessed	Influenced
Pray	Plead
Prayer/blessing	Moment of silence
Principled	Extremist
Prison	Correctional center
Pro-abortion	Pro-choice
Pro-murder	Pro-choice
Providence	Lucky break
Rebuke	Hate speech
Reckoning	Accountability
Religion	Spirituality
Religion	Superstition
Righteous	Law-abiding
Sacred	Respected
Sanctify	Set apart
Saintly	Well-behaved
Sex before marriage	Liberated
Sin	Crime
Sin	Lifestyle Choice
Sodomite (generally)	Gay; LGBT
Sodomite (in antiquity)	Male shrine prostitute
Sodomy	Relations
Solemn	Dignified
Son/Daughter	Offspring
Soul	Spirit
The State	The Government
Terrorist	Freedom fighter
Unborn baby	Fetus
Unequally yoked	Multicultural
Unequally yoked	Diverse
Virgin	Young woman
Wicked	Antisocial
Wicked	Naughty
Witchcraft	Wicca, (Neo-)Pagan
With child	Pregnant
Worldly	Secular
Worldly	Non-religious

Names

Original expression	Secularized version
Christian Name	Given Name, First Name, forename
Mary Magdalene	maudlin

Historical Examples

Starting in 1933 Nazi Germany had a program to secularize the German language. The Nazis themselves called it Sprachregelung (regulation of language). The Sprachregelung was mainly directed by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (RMVP) (Ministry for the Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda). While the RMVP concentrated mainly on controlling and censoring the language of the media and the language used in movies and other cultural ventures, there were other actions as well. The Nazi government published a new dictionary, which contained only secularized language, that was in unison with the party's ideology.
The sad culmination of the Sprachregelung was in the vocabulary for the Endlösung.
Humans became units, murder became deportation etc.

George Orwell's 1984 describes how a tyrannical government changes language to entrench its power. This is done by the so-called Newspeak. Newspeak is a slimmed-down version of normal English. Its goal is to prevent the speaker from forming thoughts like rebellion or dislike against the government or one of its leaders. Even if an individual would be able to form such thoughts, it would be impossible to communicate them to others using Newspeak. Orwell's description of newspeak was heavily influenced by the language controls of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Avoiding Blasphemy

While motivations will vary from one individual to the next there is a degree to which the secularization of language may be driven by some Christians wanting to avoid breaking the Third Commandment. In what is sometimes described as a 'minced oath' a speaker, often under stress, begins to form a taboo term and then corrects himself with an acceptable term that rhymes or has a similar initial sound. Thus 'God' becomes 'gosh', 'golly' or 'goodness gracious'; 'Jesus' becomes 'gee' or 'jeepers creepers'; 'Christ' becomes 'crikey' or 'crumbs'. The taboo term may not have any religious connotations: 'shoot' and 'sugar' are used merely to avoid a vulgarity. The fact that words such as 'crikey' and 'gee' have become less prevalent in recent decades, to be replaced with the original 'Christ' or 'Jesus' may be as much down to a reduction concern about breaching the Third Commandment as it is to an increasing desire to reintroduce Christian terminology into everyday speech.

21st century, desecularization and language

See also: Desecularization

Donald Trump, courting the vote of religious conservatives, said, "If I become president, we're gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store ... You can leave happy holidays at the corner."

The 21st century is expected to be a time of the decline of atheism in terms of its global market share and religious conservatism/fundamentalism is expected to grow in both the developing world and the developed world (see: Desecularization). There are a number of causes of desecularization in the developed world (and the world at large), but two of the primary causes are the higher fertility rate of religious conservatives and immigration of the religious into developed countries.

The 21st century may see a growing desecularization of language.

Donald Trump, courting the vote of religious conservatives, said, "If I become president, we're gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store ... You can leave happy holidays at the corner." CNN reported about this incident, "Trump supporters in the room said it was precisely Trump's aversion to political correctness that attracted them to the colorful candidate." See also: Atheism and Christmas

See also

• Militant atheism
• Politically correct
• Atheists and the endurance of religion
• Secularization thesis
• Desecularization
• Liberal creep
• Liberal euphemisms
• Opposition to Christianity
• Contrast with Essay:Best New Conservative Words
• Transmigration of Words in Religion: an essay

Notes

• ¹ Sometimes C.E. is an abbreviation for "Christian era" instead of "common era", but this also conceals the historical basis due to Jesus Christ being Jewish. Christianity would not exist as a separate religion until much later.
• ² The 'X' in "Xmas" was originally an abbreviation for the Greek letter "chi" translated as "Ch", though the abbreviation eventually became a means of "crossing out Christ".
• ³ Easter was originally a pagan festival, upon which Christianity would later apply the Resurrection of Christ and surrounding events (such as the Crucifixion on Good Friday). "Resurrection Sunday" is often used to emphasize the Resurrection of Christ rather than the pagan holiday.
• ⁴ Washington's Birthday was February 11 in the Julian calendar, while Lincoln's Birthday was February 12 in the Gregorian. Under the Gregorian calendar, Washington's Birthday would be February 22. Thus Washington's birthday would be more accurate. (source)
• ⁵ This was part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. "Under God" was added in the 1950s at the request of President Eisenhower. (source) However, atheists such as Michael Newdow have been trying to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge through the federal courts (source)
• ⁶ Pro-choice people often use the phrase "birth control" regardless of whether conception has occurred.