Jan 17 2008
pop culture or blasphemy?
“Oh my God!”
The expression, once considered taboo in polite conversation, has become as commonplace as “that’s cool” or “see you later” in American parlance. The acronym, OMG, is nearly as ubiquitous. Room-chatters rely on it, so do text-messagers. The search engine Yahoo now uses OMG as the name of a gossip-alert service.
It’s a sign of a free-speech society, right? Say what you want when you want. But for many, the omnipresent phrase sounds like a sinful swipe at the Almighty. Or at least another iceberg of disrespect cracking away from the ice cap of civility.
Rosie Brecevic catches herself mid-sentence and says, instead, “Oh my gosh!”
“You try to pick a better way to say it,” the Colorado Springs kindergarten teacher says, especially “in front of the little children.”
Working at Sophisticac Boutique in Riverdale, Md., Vera Abel says she can’t imagine anyone ever uttering the phrase. As she moves merchandise from spot to spot, she invokes one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not call the name of your Lord God in vain.”
The Rev. Patrick Gray agrees with Brecevic and Abel. Curate of the Church of the Advent in Boston, Gray preached a sermon on the subject earlier this year. He exhorted his flock: “There’s one thing, or type of thing, that you’ll never hear me say. And for some reason, it still makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable when I hear someone else do it. If I learned anything in my Baptist upbringing, it’s that you never, ever say, ‘Oh my God!’ in casual conversation.” He finds other words.
Read about it here.
[From me]
It is one thing when someone who is not a follower of Jesus to say this. I don’t expect a non-believers to live up to the standards of Christians. What kills me is when I hear Christians use God’s name like this. Shouldn’t we have a little more reverence for God’s name?
What do you think?
14 responses so far
“God” is not a name.
I would not expect “Askanatheist.org” to have any reverence for God, and the Atheist doesn’t beleive in the Bible so therefore it is not relevant to them. But I think what you are asking should a person that beleives in God, to which we beleive that is a name, you this cathch phrase, I would say No!
I see this and the use of the name Jesus in the same way, as cursing God. It always surprises me when I hear Christians use the phrase, which is often. It also disappoints me very much in that person. It is simply taking the LORD’s name in vain and there is no excuse for it (for Christians).
A3,
That may be true but the Hebrews showed so much reverence they wouldn’t even say His name. Our culture uses His name as an adjective.
Brian,
Thanks for stopping by.
Marie,
Good to hear from you again and I agree.
Kevin,
I agree with you. I addressed this with my congregation last summer in a sermon series on the Ten Commandments.
Les
I’d like to hear more, “Oh my stars and garters” for what it’s worth.
Kevin,
Good point!
In fact, when you saw the Dead Sea Scrolls when they passed through Mobile, AL a few years back, you might have noticed that the name, YHVH, was written normally (that is, using normal script) in oldest writings. In the more recent writings, scribes used modern Hebrew block letters (Aramaic characters) for the entire text, but they used ancient Hebrew letters to write the name, YHVH. I don’t recall any special treatment for the name, “El”, do you?
Contemporary Jews say “Ha Shem” (literally, “the Name” in Hebrew) or “Adonai” (literally “my Lords” in Hebrew) instead of El, YHVH, or the English word, “God”. Still other contemporary Jews say “Adoshem” which is a made up word using Adonai and Shem. Many modern English-speaking Jews will write “G_d” instead of “God.”
Interestingly, “Adonai” comes from the name,”Adon”, which is the singular root of “Adonai”. Adon was the Phoenician dying-reviving vegetation and fertility god. “El” was the high god of the Canaanite pantheon, and YHVH was one of El’s sons.
We can follow first-hand the origins of the various names for the God of the Abrahamic religions, how they were treated in no special way in the early Hebrew writings, how they came to be treated differently over time as taboos regarding the name emerged, and how new generations added their own taboos to the old. And in the final (?) chapter, we are discussing right here right now how the casual use of the generic English term, “God”, has become taboo among some subset of the population. I’s pretty exciting to be a part of it!
“Blasphemy is a victimless crime”
But seriously, what does ‘blasphemy’ actually mean? Most people seem to think it’s saying the word ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ when you’re not actually really talking about them. I’ve also heard it said that blasphemy is doing something in the name of God when it’s not really his will (like saying ‘God is telling me to go to Africa’).
This makes more sense to me - I can’t imagine that, if God existed, he would be petty enough to worry about mere words.
What do you think?
Damian, that is exactly what it is.
Why would there be an entire commandment to tell us not to swear?
What God commanded us to do is NOT say you are doing something in His name.
Things like… oh I don’t know… start wars with other countries? Crusades, anyone? Bush with Iraqi War, anyone? No one? Hmm… hello… testing one, two, three… is this thing on?
Stop me when this gets familiar: “God told me that we need 100 people to give 1000 dollars a piece. If you believe, God is going to bless you with riches.”
I remember when I got the first sniff of prosperity gospel back when I was 16. I cramped up my stomach so fierce over the audacity of these preachers using the God’s name in vain and to purposely mislead their flock in such a way.
In turn, that makes me appreciate intercession even more so. You are begging God for mercy for people who don’t deserve it.
Makes sense to me, Joe. So what about those here who think that “OMG” is blasphemy? Do you think this is what the commandment was talking about?
Joe & Damian,
I agree too, I think you are both right that the reference really means not saying you are doing something in God’s name when you really aren’t. Maybe someone out there can explain to us how exclaiming “Oh my God”, even when not actually speaking to God, violates the commandment.
Some people substitute “Oh my Lord!” for “Oh my God!” to avoid swearing. Does that make it any better? If we take the commandment literally as some claim to do, it says that one should not use God’s name in vain. What is God’s name? What does the Bible say His name is (literal interpretation again)? YHVH? “I Am”? Jesus? Certainly His name is not “God” or “Lord”.
I agree for the most part with Joe’s comment (won’t get into the Bush thing). I, too, am awestruck when people, especially preachers, say “God spoke to me…” and it’s about something non-scriptural. I don’t have a problem with someone saying, “Based on what I’ve studied in God’s Word, I believe a proper application is….and I’m trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me [usually unconsciously] away from error.” That’s just applying the prayer of Psalm 23-deliver us from evil-to the possibility that my actions might lead to evil rather than good.
In the OT, the Hebrew “el” and “elohim” were used contextually to refer to “gods” (not of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or to the one true God. Again, context of the passage rules.
AAA, I agree that YHVH is the official name (transliterated) of the God of A, I, and J. That’s stated throughout the OT. It is rendered in the English most often as LORD, probably as the result of the LXX using the word kurios for the translation of YHVH to the Greek, and Lord is the English translation of kurios. It’s interesting the in the French OT, YHVH is rendered as the French word which means “Eternal,” much closer to the “I AM.” But in English, most people assign “God” as the name of the Christian diety; that is their intent, whether or not they’re accurate. At best, it’s inappropriate. And in context, I don’t think “Lord” is any less innocent.
Basically, people don’t think about what they say, or they don’t think words are important.
Kevin,
I don’t think the avoidance of speaking YHVH started until after the Babylonian captivity, and maybe not until the inter-testamentary period. I don’t really have any documentation on when it started, but there is nothing scriptural to say that they should speak God’s name.
Do you know of any historical documentation on when that started? I asked a couple of OT guys from NOBTS and they said, “Let me look that up” and I never heard back from them.
Bill,
My comment is about the origin of the name El. You are right that by the time the OT was being written, the Hebrews used the terms to mean “God”.
Interesting!
Sorry to jump in - and Kevin, I’m interested to hear anything you know about this as well.
I just wanted to offer that I recall that the tradition started in rabbinic times. I can’t put my finger on where I got the information that so take it with a grain of salt. But it might be a good place to start researching. Maybe as late as Rashi or Rambam?