Not sure if this is Mpsims, GQ or what.
I would consider myself Pagan, but I was raised with Christian beliefs and some of those I still keep with me.
Okay, my oldest is 15 and my youngest is 7 and we have over the years collected many, many friends and neighborhood children.
I realise that “Oh my God” is a catch phrase/exclamation of shock or suprise, but why is it blasphamus?
It is one of my issues to hear people around me to say “oh my God!” it irritates me and make me grit my teeth. I am constantly telling the children to say “gosh” or something else.
Now, I swear, and I do try to watch my language, but this one really bothers me for some reason.
Is this phrase sometimes acceptable in certain situations? Am I a prude?
Heck, I got enough grief for reminding my children at every house to say “trick or treat” and “thank you”. My youngest actually cried when someone shut the door in her face as she was trying to thank them.
I am, at best, agnostic, but I was raised to not take the Lord’s name in vain. It bothers me too. However, “Oh my God” doesn’t bother me so much. “God Damn” does.
Tho I’m not Christian or Jewish, I’m going to take a stab at this. I’m going to approach this as an anthropologist, looking at the culture of the Israelites of that time period (when the 10 Cs were formulated/handed down by God).
Mary Douglas, in her book, Purity and Danger (chapter 3) explains that the dietary restriction in Leviticus are due to the symbolic world-view of the Israelites of the time. Simplifying this (perhaps too simply), the Israelites were trying to maintain holiness in their society. To maintain this holiness, everything had to conform to a specific order and heirarchy. If something did not fit within that order, it was consider an abomination, something anomalous or “un-natural.” Hence, animals like the rock badger were considered is considered an abomination since it didn’t fit into the proper category of foods to eat, having features that made it anomalous.
With me so far? Good!
So, how does the Lord’s Name fit into this? Given their desire for keeping everything in its proper place and category, I would venture to say that using the Lord’s name for anything other than a blessing or other religious activities was being using it “out of place or order.” Hence the ban on using the Lord’s name in vain. If you’re simply using it as a curse or as an exclamation of surprise, that’s not right, you’re using it in non-religious or profane ways, which is against the whole idea of maintaining holiness.
Is that clear?