And yet... several on this forum have said they found the use of the word "magic" to be offensive when describing their religion (I'm not really one of them, but I get it). The term magic is open to a lot of equivocation -- it's loaded. "My wife's kisses are magic" (nice). "Your religion is just a bunch of magic" (not nice).
Say what you will about my Confederate flag analogy, I think it was very apt. Isn't it clear? The phrase, "Why should it bother you? It's just a word" is often is the exact same phrase used whenever a racist defends his use of a word or symbol that others keep telling him/her is offensive. As in, people in this thread repeatedly object to the word "magic" as kind of offensive, then the users of the term say, "Why should it bother you, it's completely inoffensive." My great grandpa might have used that exact argument when calling people "Coloreds" in the 1990s, and Confederate flag flyers are using that exact same argument today. I say offensiveness is usually best left in the eyes of the receiver, not the giver.
It doesn't matter what word I use or how "correct" my literal use of the term, as I define it, may be. If I say to Bill, "your car is beautiful," and he says he's offended by the use of that word in describing his car because it's a tough guy car -- well, I'm not going to keep repeating it to him and explaining to him why he shouldn't be offended by it. I may not feel bad about having used the word the first time, because my intent was honorable, but I should feel bad if I keep doing it and telling him why he shouldn't be offended by it.
Here's another one: Maybe someone will call their wealthy boss who happens to be Jewish "the rich Jew" every time they see him/her. I'm sure when the boss is ready to throw them out on their ass for being so offensive (but factually accurate), the claim "You shouldn't be offended, it's an accurate description" will go over just fine. Or people calling us on this MMM site "cheap" because we save our money shouldn't draw any offense. Yet it's okay to say, "Wow, I got this coat on sale, it was so cheap!" You see how the words have different meaning (equivocation) based on their usage?