Cursing with Christ

I'm cure we've all cursed and had someone tell us 'not to take the lord's name in vain'. This comes from the ten commandments, of course...

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

 But there are a few issues with the conclusion that by saying 'God damn it!' that you are taking his
name in vain. First off, when something goes wrong and you exclaim, 'God damn it!', isn't that more of a request? You don't like something, or the way something worked out, so you are asking God to damn it for you. Where are you apparently insulting God there?

There is further confusion on the whole name issue.When someone says 'God damn it!' they aren't even saying the Christian God's name. If you ask a Jehovah's witness, they will tell you his name is Jehovah. Have you ever said 'Jehovah damn it!'? Look at the scripture a bit more and the names YHWH, Yahweh, Elohim, I AM, or Ehyeh depending if you want to use Hebrew or a translation.

But 'God' is not his name, but rather the term Christians use to refer to him, since just saying his name has been a no-no since the Jews first began worshiping him. So no one is taking his name in vain, and his true name (if he existed) isn't even known for sure (if he even has one). It becomes clear that 'God damn it!' isn't taking a name in vain or even saying a name at all. If I choose to say 'Yahweh damn it!' then we can talk, but the statement of 'God damn it!' is no different than replacing anyone's name in a sentence with their job title. 'I'm going to a movie with Jackie', suddenly broadens dramatically, and looses almost all clarity if you instead say, 'I'm going to a movie with bank teller'.

The same dance is true with the statement 'Jesus Christ!' as well. Not to mention my favorite variation, 'Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ on a pogo-stick'. Again (if he existed), Jesus wasn't his name.

In Hebrew, he was called Yeshuwa. Yeshuwa in English is Joshua.

If we start with the Hebrew 'Yeshuwa' and translate to Greek, we get Iesous. Translate that to English, and we have Jesus.

So the name that most everyone uses for 'Jesus' is actually a less direct translation. So is his name Yeshuwa, Joshua, Jesus, or did some other name still predate all three? Considering how Jesus' own name isn't exactly known for a 100% fact to be Jesus, why do Christians get upset if I say 'Jesus Christ!', but don't if I say 'Joshua Christ!' or 'Yeshua Christ!'?



Perhaps the religious need to worry less about what people exclaim in anger or pain, and instead concentrate on such fundamentals as the names of their leading characters. But then again, who am I kidding... Plenty still subscribe to a literal interpretation of Genesis, so I'm surely asking too much.


-Brain Hulk

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