Taking the Lord's name in vain?

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Brendan_64

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I have a question about taking the Lord’s name in vain.

If I’m stood at a bar waiting to be served, the service is slow and people seem to be getting served other than me.Then a guy walks up and the barwoman serves him before me. In frustration, I utter, “Oh for God’s sake” and walk out of the bar.

Yes, I know this is sinful, but would it fulfil the criteria of grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent?

Any opinions on this?
 
Brendan_64 said:
I have a question about taking the Lord’s name in vain.

If I’m stood at a bar waiting to be served, the service is slow and people seem to be getting served other than me.Then a guy walks up and the barwoman serves him before me. In frustration, I utter, “Oh for God’s sake” and walk out of the bar.

Yes, I know this is sinful, but would it fulfil the criteria of grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent?

Any opinions on this?
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This is not what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. The understanding of this kind of behavior relates it to doing something hateful and praising G-d at the same time, for example, when going into battle during wartime or killing someone or robbing from them and thanking G-d for the opportunity. That is using the name of G-d to justify an evil act; and that is what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. Saying OMG or for G-d’s sake is NOT what is meant by taking G-d’s name in vain.
 
Ask your confessor.
IMO it’s sinful because it betrays impatience, lack of submission to God’s will, and desire to be treated fairly, as well as implies anger toward the server. Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be treated fairly, but the response to unfairness should be a calm, “I’m sorry, I think I was here first.”
But I wouldn’t say it was a mortal sin because it was impulsive.

.
 
meltzerboy said:
This is not what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. The understanding of this kind of behavior relates it to doing something hateful and praising G-d at the same time, for example, when going into battle during wartime or killing someone or robbing from them and thanking G-d for the opportunity. That is using the name of G-d to justify an evil act; and that is what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. Saying OMG or for G-d’s sake is NOT what is meant by taking G-d’s name in vain.
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Best advice!
 
Viki63 said:
Ask your confessor.
IMO it’s sinful because it betrays impatience, lack of submission to God’s will, and desire to be treated fairly, as well as implies anger toward the server. Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be treated fairly, but the response to unfairness should be a calm, “I’m sorry, I think I was here first.”
But I wouldn’t say it was a mortal sin because it was impulsive.

.
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I’m sorry, but “God’s will” at that moment is for slow service?
 
This is not the sin of blasphemy or a violation of the Second Commandment. A mild invocation of the word “God” is not matter for the sin. It could be mildly inappropriate in some circumstances.

There is a dearth of understanding about blasphemy and the Second Commandment in general. If you break this Commandment, you will be well aware. If you aren’t committing perjury (the main species of sin related to this Commandment), then you will either be committing flagrant heresy (heretical blasphemy), shaming God out of anger (imprecatory blasphemy), or dismissing Him out of pride (contumacious blasphemy).
 
Saying OMG constantly may be a venial sin…I hear young kids saying it & it becomes a habit. Children should be corrected of this casual use of the term…God.
 
meltzerboy said:
This is not what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. The understanding of this kind of behavior relates it to doing something hateful and praising G-d at the same time, for example, when going into battle during wartime or killing someone or robbing from them and thanking G-d for the opportunity. That is using the name of G-d to justify an evil act; and that is what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. Saying OMG or for G-d’s sake is NOT what is meant by taking G-d’s name in vain.
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e_c said:
This is not the sin of blasphemy or a violation of the Second Commandment. A mild invocation of the word “God” is not matter for the sin. It could be mildly inappropriate in some circumstances.

There is a dearth of understanding about blasphemy and the Second Commandment in general. If you break this Commandment, you will be well aware. If you aren’t committing perjury (the main species of sin related to this Commandment), then you will either be committing flagrant heresy (heretical blasphemy), shaming God out of anger (imprecatory blasphemy), or dismissing Him out of pride (contumacious blasphemy).
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Wow, thank you meltzerboy and e_c. Over twelve years of Catholic schooling, a lifetime of catechesis, and I genuinely had never heard these perspectives. :eek:
 
gracepoole said:
Wow, thank you meltzerboy and e_c. Over twelve years of Catholic schooling, a lifetime of catechesis, and I genuinely had never heard these perspectives. :eek:
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You’re welcome!

It is a good and commendable pious habit to avoid these things, but it is just not what blasphemy is, much less the clear sense of taking the Lord’s Name in vain - which is to perjure oneself (and Christ also seems to extend this to excessive oath-making).
 
e_c said:
You’re welcome!

It is a good and commendable pious habit to avoid these things, but it is just not what blasphemy is, much less the clear sense of taking the Lord’s Name in vain - which is to perjure oneself (and Christ also seems to extend this to excessive oath-making).
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👍
 
gracepoole said:
Wow, thank you meltzerboy and e_c. Over twelve years of Catholic schooling, a lifetime of catechesis, and I genuinely had never heard these perspectives. :eek:
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Mine is a Jewish perspective, which may be the reason you never came across it during your Catholic education.
 
meltzerboy said:
This is not what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. The understanding of this kind of behavior relates it to doing something hateful and praising G-d at the same time, for example, when going into battle during wartime or killing someone or robbing from them and thanking G-d for the opportunity. That is using the name of G-d to justify an evil act; and that is what is meant by taking the L-rd’s name in vain. Saying OMG or for G-d’s sake is NOT what is meant by taking G-d’s name in vain.
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I agree with all of this.

I have interpreted this commandment simply to mean that we must take His name seriously and not bandy it about lightly.

A habit of constantly saying OMG does violate this precept, but it goes much deeper than that. We need to be reeeeeeallly careful and discerning before attaching his name to our desires and agendas. Your example of war is spot-on: “We’re fighting this war for God! God is on our side!”

I heard a much more prosaic use-in-vain during my short-lived days as an Evangelical. “The Lord put it on my heart to tell you that [insert self-serving agenda or sly criticism here].” You could seriously sit through a heated meeting with everyone claiming that the Lord told them to X or they’ve prayed about it and concluded Y. (No, not all Evangelicals fit this bill). It’s not that God never guides us and leads us in the right direction; we just need to be super careful before we use His name with such confidence.
 
The Catechism states that the second commandment forbids “every improper use of the names of God, of Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints”.

It also state that blasphemy also includes “misusing God’s name”.

A reading of the Catechism would suggest that “God” is actually treated as a name if God.

So is uttering, “For God’s sake”, in frustration for having to give way to others and wait for a few minutes to be served, misusing God’s name? I think it is. Therefore it would seem to be an offence against the 2nd commandment.

Viki63’s point about impulsivity is a good one and I think I agree with that.

Thanks also to all for your valuable contributions.
 
How right you are!
But what always stuck me in the English language is, that even Catholics very often, and with the tiniest trifles, call out
“Oh my God!”
This ever since the 50s when I heard it first time, bashed me back.
In England that’s not quite as widely spread as in the USA, where almost nobody seems to think twice, before he screams out Oh, MY GOD at real inanities.
I once asked an American CATHOLIC - why do you say so? He said - Oh, I never really thought twice about it.
But we ought to! Let’s not this simply get to be a habit “everybody does”.

I must admit, here in Germany many too say similar at stupid occations. Not quite as loud though. Not like “Oh, my GOD!”. Rather like MY god… and then the sentence follows like “it’s not all that bad!”
Let’s fight it!

Yours
Bruno
 
Brendan_64 said:
The Catechism states that the second commandment forbids “every improper use of the names of God, of Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints”.

It also state that blasphemy also includes “misusing God’s name”.

A reading of the Catechism would suggest that “God” is actually treated as a name if God.

So is uttering, “For God’s sake”, in frustration for having to give way to others and wait for a few minutes to be served, misusing God’s name? I think it is. Therefore it would seem to be an offence against the 2nd commandment.

Viki63’s point about impulsivity is a good one and I think I agree with that.

Thanks also to all for your valuable contributions.
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I’m now unsure why you asked your question in the first place given this post. :confused:
 
Brendan_64 said:
So is uttering, “For God’s sake”, in frustration for having to give way to others and wait for a few minutes to be served, misusing God’s name? I think it is. Therefore it would seem to be an offence against the 2nd commandment.
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Yes, it violates the second commandment but in this situation where you are frustrated and blurt it out without thinking, the full consent of the will is probably not there so I don’t think it would be mortal sin.
 
gracepoole said:
I’m now unsure why you asked your question in the first place given this post. :confused:
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Because I was unsure. I thought it was grave matter, but wasn’t sure particularly on the issue of deliberate consent. I see nothing confusing in why I asked the question. The comments made by various posters has been very helpful and interesting.
 
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