Have I just broken the 3rd commandment? Or do euphemisms get you a pass?
DISCLAIMER: This is based on 30 year old memory of material I didn’t even care about at the time. I’m fully prepared to be proven wrong about this.
As I understand Catholic dogma, if you believe that you have offered offense then you have committed sin. Was there full intent of the will? If so then get thee to a confessional.
If only for the sake of pedantry, I’ll point out that different religious traditions number the Ten Commandments differently, so not everyone has the same “3rd commandment.” I assume you’re referring to the one that prohibits “taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
There are also differences of opinion about what, exactly, is prohibited by the letter and the spirit of the commandment. My own personal “humble opinion” answer is that, in saying something like the thread title, you are not actually using a name of God, and are in fact deliberately avoiding doing so, so you get a pass.
My wife is the only other person I know who uses, “Jeez-oh-Pete,” so you must be Slovakian.
Even as a kid, it seemed weird to me that our Catholic teachers told us that the third commandment prohibited obscene language, when it clearly says nothing of the sort. Unless God’s real name is “shit”.
In my simplistic theology, the sin is in the intention and not just the action.
If you are saying Golly Gosh or Jiminy Crickets because you really want to use one of the nine billion names and are yeti g to lawyer yourself out, then you are guilty.
If you say Jesus Fucking Christ because you like the so8nd then you are innocent.
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Obviously, different sects and denominations have different interpretations so there’s no one answer.
However, these superstitions go way back to the days when names were considered magic. Jewish tradition forbade writing the name of God, and some orthodox still write it in English as G-d. Yahweh, JHVH, Jehovah, and other variations are euphemisms that avoid the danger.
Hundreds of superstitions about not using true names abound in hundreds of cultures. Not telling a person your real name is a trope in fantasy fiction in worlds where magic exists.
Euphemisms are powerful in their way and once served a perceived purpose. That’s why they’re accepted most times in most places.
My MIL, the strictest Baptist I ever met, would use funny words for curses. She would say “fudge” or "bass-ackwards"regularly. I never could make her believe she might as well use a real curse word if her intent was the same.
You know what they say about the road to hell?
This strikes me as backwards. If you do something wrong, that’s what makes you guilty. If you want to do something wrong, but you know it’s wrong so you do something else instead, you’re not guilty. (Although there are several variables to consider, such as why you wanted to do it, why you refrained from doing it, and what effects doing it vs, doing the something else might have on the people around you.)
On the other hand, if you “say Jesus Fucking Christ because you like the sound,” you are (at least in the eyes of some religious people) guilty of being flippant and careless with something that should be sacred and holy.
I agree and even extend it to such stupid things as “the N word” and f*ck" just say it or write it. Euphemisms are just plain stupid. Of course some people think it is a more polite way to curse. If you are going to curse, curse.
IMNSHO, statements that break the third commandment are more along the lines of “This summer’s fires in California are God’s judgement upon us for our tolerance of homosexuals”
This is based on a non-majority but actually reasonably respectable reading of “take in vain” to mean something more like “fling it round like you own it, for whatever idiocy you feel like perpetrating”
That said, I rather like the creative use of non-swear-swears, and find them pretty amusing. My kids are fond of “well, heck your face” and “what the gary?”
Only until yeti h comes along.
I agree with this. The Commandments are not shallow proscriptions, otherwise they wouldn’t have lasted for 4000 or so years. Even though humans love to have simple unambiguous rules for life, that isn’t the intent of the Commandments. It would be a better translation to say something like, “do not use the name of God for evil purposes.” Meaning more like Aspidistra’s example.
Hmm, I say “jeez-oh-Pete” myself but I have no idea where I got it from. I assume tv. I happen to be Slovak but I can’t recall any of my Slovak relatives saying it.
Huh!
Following up on Aspidistra’s post - In commandments 1 and 2 we already have clear direction that we should respect God and not use his name to express our frustration. I interpret the 3rd commandment as “Do not attach the Lord’s name to anything he has not authorized” - don’t attach God’s name to traditions, rules, restrictions, political causes, attacks on other people, etc. Do not do violence in God’s name or presume to know his will other than as revealed in his word.
This because you TRUE Slovak! Only rightful Slovak wield power of “jeez-oh-Pete.” Other relatiffs doubtless TURKS! ptoo
I don’t think swear words as such are even mentioned in the Bible. To Curse is to wish ill on somebody. To blaspheme is to use God’s name in an irreligious manner. Obscene jesting is cited as wrong, so no dirty jokes. But just plain swear words are not mentioned.
Of course, a good many English swear words reflect the class differences between the Anglo Saxon and the French
Normans, which has zero Biblical context.
What I’m saying is say piss and shit all you want. It’s not a sin. Just swearing.
I know what you mean, but swearing, in the literal, “I solemnly swear…” sense, is precisely what the third commandment is about, according to the Judaism 101 site:
There’s also this, from Jesus:
Yes, but I didn’t mean swearing as in oath taking.
I guess the word I should have used was obscenities.
Aspidistra actually got closer than most people do.
Dennis Prager once explained that the Hebrew would be better translated as “Do not carry the LORD’s name in vain.”
So do not claim to be a Christian and do or say things that violate God’s commands.
Members of Westboro Baptist is a prime example of living violations of the 3rd commandment. If anyone actually looked, they would see that they are an anomaly and not accepted by other Baptists.