I understand your unease, but do not share it.

Words about religion are fair game, especially when current events elicit an interest in them. The interest that we feel in a topic is important moreover to learning. A saying of mine is, "Interest strengthens memory."

But there is an even more important reason to deal with interesting, controversial, or interesting because controversial words. We use words! At least I do, don't you?

I use words among other things to engage in controversy. That in fact was the very origin of rhetoric, to learn how to prevail (persuade) in suits, legislative debates, or any discussion for that matter.

So suppose we agree with Samuel Johnson's view of free speech:

Every man has a right to speak his mind, and every other man has a right to punch him in the nose for it. The test is martyrdom.

At least that is how I remember the quote.

And suppose someone has the termerity to advance a controversial opinion and someone disagrees (even disagreeably), what of it? How much courage does it take to disagree when it is via email? and just what is there to fear in a chat forum, a frown emotican?!

But did you notice the title of this subsection? "Miscellany!" This is the right venue for things even further out of the main line than comments on a number of religious terms with some veiled religious opinions offered along the way.

Your objection to the religious context of a religious term frankly puzzles me. We would try to identify the botanical context of a botanical term would we not?

I regard "hijacking" as impolite and will not engage in it myself. How hard is it to just ignore a thread and start a new one? No more difficult than to cluck your tongue disapprovingly in a response surely.