Is That a Swear?

After Ethan and Madeleine spent hours on the weekend raking the leaves in our backyard, our town had the most colossal leaf dump I've ever seen in a 24 hour period.  Every yard and even some streets were covered in a massive blanket of oak leaves.  It happened to be the day before Veterans Day that this leaf-fall occurred, so Madeleine discovered our oaken lawn on the no-school day following.

MADELEINE: (peering out the back door to the lawn) Jesus Christ, didn't we JUST rake all those leaves?
ETHAN: I know it.  (pausing for a moment) Did you just say "Jesus Christ?"
MADELEINE: Yeah.  Why? (dread slowly coming over her face) Is that a swear?
ME: Well, it's considered sort of a swear when you use it like that, because you're "taking the Lord's name
in vain."
MADELEINE: (standing in silence with an increasing look of angst and embarrassment on her face)
ME: It's okay, honey.
MADELEINE: (in utter despair) No it's NOT!
ETHAN: You didn't know.
ME: And even if you did, it's not the end of the world.  
MADELEINE: I'm BAD!

Despite our protests to the contrary, Madeleine was driven by shame and humiliation to her bedroom, wherein she hid under her blanket to punish herself for her unforgivable crimes.  I attempted to talk her down and finally got her to come out of her room and eat snack, but unfortunately she decided to join the table as Cousin It from the Addams Family:

Madeleine was the only one who found the situation appalling.  Ethan and I helpfully couldn't stop breaking into laughter over the fact that the child who "mreer!"s over words like "fool" and "dumb" outright exclaimed "Jesus Christ!" over the backyard leaves.  

Cousin It remained with us for quite awhile, but I'm pleased to report that Madeleine has completed her self-inflicted penance and has deemed herself henceforth acceptable to return to society.