A weekend in Christendom

The friend I was staying with in Budapest, a fellow volunteer in my program, is working for the World Student Christian Federation. Not surprisingly, she’s a rather devout Christian. Most of her friends in Budapest are people that she met in her Friday night English language Bible study. I attended said Bible study and met a lot of her friends. It was an interesting subculture to join for a few days… but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Everyone was very kind and extremely welcoming, though. A few of the Hungarians in the crowd took the time to answer my rather dumb questions [“Are the what-I-think-of-as-Russian nesting dolls that people are trying to sell to tourists actually from here?” (no.) “Why don’t the supermarkets here give out plastic bags?” (There’s a tax on plastic.) I also learned that when Hungarians don’t understand something, they say, ‘that’s Chinese.’]

I was reminded that heteronormity exists [Yes, I live in a bubble.] and also of a certain variety of self-righteousness. After Bible study and coffee at a café run by Campus Crusade for Christ, we walked home along the Danube. Two obviously chemically-addled men asked, ‘where are you going? Do you want to go to a reggae party?’ as they walked by us. One of my walking companions replied with, ‘no, we’re going to heaven.’ I never knew that reggae parties and heaven were mutually exclusive.

During night number two with the Budapest English-speaking Christians (a night of borscht-eating and praise song-singing, with guitar and recorder accompaniment). The topic of discussion turned to cursing. Everyone is opposed, unsurprisingly, but I challenged them on it. Especially when a curse isn’t directed at someone in anger, when it is used to express frustration or as an adjective, I have no opposition. I rarely curse, but that isn’t based on any moral principles; I believe over-reliance on curse words is a lazy way to talk & it robs the words of their power for when you really need them.

I recognize that not taking the Lord’s name in vain is one of the big rules of Christianity, but it seems rather unchristian to be complaining about someone’s gutter mouth (someone who apparently restricted their curses to the secular sphere) when there are naked to clothe, hungry to feed, and brothers to keep.