As I mentioned in my Monday Morning Musings this week, I’ve long suspected that exclaiming “Oh, my God!” does not constitute a violation of the 3rd Commandment, which states (in the NASB):
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
If not for the corpus of built-up interpretation that equates “OMG” with “taking the name in vain,” how might we view this? By the way, check out the Message on this:
No using the name of GOD, your God, in curses or silly banter; GOD won’t put up with the irreverent use of his name.
Is this rendering even close to the real meaning? I don’t really think so (not that I’m surprised…it is The Message, after all). But, I didn’t want to be hasty, so I looked up the word translated “take” in Strong’s (courtesy NETBible). Here’s what I got:
1) to lift, bear up, carry, take
1a1) to lift, lift up
1a2) to bear, carry, support, sustain, endure
So, take is in there. But in the context of the other definitions, it seems to mean more “take up” than “use.” So what’s it mean? Dennis Prager, a radio talk show host who also teaches Old Testament, has said on many occasions that it means, “committing evil while acting religious.”
Which justifies the thought I had back in the 80s, when David Duke (former-KKK-white-supremecist-pond-scum, the last adjective of which is totally redundant) said on national television, “I claim Jesus Christ as my personal savior,” that he was taking the name of Christ in vain. Likewise for any who do evil in Christ’s name (Fred “God hates fags” Phelps, you there?) or in God’s name (Al Quaeda?).
All that to say that I don’t believe “misusing” God’s name is a specific violation of the 3rd Commandment. But is it okay? I personally flinch whenever I hear anything approaching “OMG,” which includes “Gosh”. I once heard Ethan’s Sunday School teacher use it while doing the Bible Story of the day. I wanted to throw something at her. I don’t want my son using such language. Am I overreacting?
And yet, you’ll catch me saying “Geez!” What? How about, “Oh, my word!” or “My goodness!”? Aren’t they all derivatives? How about “Crikey!” and “Cripes!” and “For Pete’s Sake!”? How far do I take this?
Here’s another angle. How about if you put your husband/wife into the position of God in the statement. What would people think if you said, “Oh my wife, it’s hot out here?” Isn’t it a bit silly? Does using her in that kind of speech lift her up or cheapen her? Not sure you could argue the former.
What about darn, dang, and drat? Why not just go with damn? Aren’t they the same? While researching the various varieties of variations, I discovered the term “minced oaths” from Wikipedia, the locus of all knowledge we take other people’s word for (BTW, that link contains some naughty language).
I guess, for me, even though I don’t think many of these are specifically forbidden for Christian folks to do, they’re not a good thing. Any of them. Specifically, the uses of “OMG” and it’s forms. They’ve been so long associated with “taking the name in vain” - even in popular (secular) culture - that they now rise to that level. As Christians, we should try to move as far from that as possible. As for some of the minced oaths, I can see it two ways. To be completely consistent, we’d have to nix all of them. On the other hand, it shows a certain innocence to stay away from the more crass terms and use something “nicer” (even if it really isn’t nicer). That alone could be the thing someone notices, which causes them to ask you what makes you different.
I’m curious about others’ opinions on this. If you use OMG (or OMGosh), is it just habit? Do you think it’s good/bad/indifferent? Now you have a topic. Discuss…
August 7th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I flinch when I hear who I believe to be Christian believers say Oh My G– ! . It offends me greatly. I HAVE asked the question to someone: why don’t you just stick your mother’s name in there or your husband’s name in there. Would you still say it? They had no response. Likewise, when bloggers write words that have long been associated with swearing or offensive, I am so disappointed. When bloggers try to camoflauge the offensive swear words with OMG or the ever-popular a$$ ( and whatever else people dream up for expressing themselves), it’s just as offensive to me. It’s really a jolt to me when people who have authority over our children and adults in a church situation say and write these things. I don’t undrstand why people who claim to be believers in Christ joke about these expressions as if we should accept them as a part of the culture of today. In my opinion they have sunk to a level which causes me to question their character as a believer in Christ. An acquaintance of mine told me this story: she was standing in line at an amusement park and the people in front of her kept saying “Oh My G– ! after every sentence or remark. She got up the nerve to look them in the face and ask … “who IS your god ? ” They swore at her, turned their backs, and were quietly talking after that. Recently a blogger asked the reader to just insert whatever word they felt like expressing into the parenthesis. To what level will Christians stoop to feel like they are connecting with today’s culture ?
JRupp
Seth replied:
August 7th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Yeah, I’m not big on using words in print I wouldn’t speak. Television has a bad case of OMG-itis, too, from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to (insert sitcom of the month here). As the f-word has become a filler in movie dialogue, OMG has done the same on TV. Not sure if it’s art imitating life, or it’s art imitating life imitating art. Not sure what I just wrote…
On the other hand, when I find myself saying, “Geez,” I’m not conscious of it relating back to its root (Jesus). It’s something that I picked up somewhere and never really examined. I think that pattern holds with many people. Doesn’t excuse it, of course.
Thanks for the great response!