Catholics Posting the name of God

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Tis_Bearself

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In the last few weeks I’ve seen at least 2 or 3 people who self-identify as Catholic or Roman Catholic, and are not typing the name of “God” when they reference God in their posts.

I’ve seen it typed as G*d and G_d.

What’s the deal with this? It’s normal for Catholics to say and type “God”. There is no prohibition on us using his name, assuming it’s done with respect. I understand that Jewish people do not call God by name, or type out his name, but the posters doing it aren’t Jewish. I have never seen a Catholic do this until the last few weeks and now it seems to be more than one person. Where is this coming from?
 
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Me too, I have never seen this outside Jewish use. Good question!
 
I’ve seen a very few people, including some I know personally, that do this — I think it’s just an effort to be as respectful as possible in honoring the name of God, not necessarily that we have to do so. I’d almost equate it to women veiling at Mass.
 
The thing is, women covering their heads at Mass was the pre-Vatican II norm, so it has roots in tradition and also I’ve always seen some women doing it (older ladies continued to do it after V2 because they’d done it their whole life).

I am not aware of any pre-V2 Catholics who didn’t write out “God”, so it’s not to my knowledge a traditional Catholic practice. Therefore it made me wonder if this is some new teaching being promulgated by some clergy or group, or is it just something somebody decided on their own to do one day after reading some Bible verse or some blog etc.
 
I have seen this in Protestant circles, but it never really caught on wholesale.

Although we’re not supposed to sing Yahweh at Mass anymore, so maybe these Catholics are taking a cue from that? Sort of?
 
Technically though, isn’t it true that “God” isn’t God’s name? I thought the Divine Name was YHWH, and that “God” was closer to being in effect - though not in actual usage - a title.
 
I am sure that God’s actual name is something way beyond human comprehension.

However, if we instead call him YHWH, or Yahweh, during my life Catholics have also written that out, usually as Yahweh. We did used to sing it at Mass, it was in some of the hymns, although as Scarlet says we’re not supposed to do that anymore, but I thought that was more out of respect for Jewish people? Or perhaps because Yahweh is not our own Catholic traditional term for God?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
G_d
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To me, that combination of characters looks like a person wearing a monocle upside down while straining his or her right ear to eavesdrop on a conversation.
Tis_Bearself said:
Where is this coming from?
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I have an inkling that it might be due in part to the influence of the Messianic Judaism (more-or-less evangelical Protestantism) spilling over into other Christian communities. But I do know of Hebrew Catholics who continue write G-d as a pious custom (or just out of sheer habit).
 
It is actually fear of being face to face with God causing them to use third person rubrics and more distancing references ( The Name | SoftVocation ) .

Only Moses goes near and calls God ‘I AM’; only the High Priest once a year enters the Holy of Holies and calls Him by His actual name rather than rubric reference. And only Catholics are able to voice his name face to face without fear as Jesus, ‘I AM SAVING’, did.
 
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I just see it as a kind of spiritualism some people choose. If they want to take the effort for that, no big deal. I still take the time to use capitalization thought, even on pronouns referring to God or Jesus.
 
Those Catholic posters must be allowing themselves to be influenced by Jewish posters. Not a good thing at all.
 
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