What Do You Do When Someone Takes God's Name in Vain?

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Thank you for your advice tk421 I was also wondering how to ask a person I know to stop using the Lord’s name in vain. I’ll use your advice. Thank you Catholic33 for asking the question. For my 2cents worth I think it’s a horrible sin. I say the little prayer ‘admirable is the name of God’ when I hear it. I generally only correct friends and walk away from others if I can. God bless
 
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For one’s own benefit: doing something spontaneously may make it seem like a habit that can’t be controlled (since a person does it before thinking) but if a person has the habit of using God, or Jesus Christ, or other sacred things carelessly, there are ways of making this stop.
  • Daily petitioning. Ask God on a daily basis for the grace to stop the habit.
  • Daily examination at the end of the day. After saying ‘thank you’ for the day, think back if there were any occasions that you said God’s name carelessly; if you think back in the evening on the same day, you ought to be able to remember if you did or if you probably did. Ask pardon for this and then resolve with God’s help not to do it again. Remember that God is always eager to give his grace and he will never refuse a person’s sincere prayer for help.
Do these two things over and over again. This will create a new habit, which will become entrenched in roughly 3 weeks. This will start to give you an automatic notification (an, “oh yeah I’m suppose to do this” moment) to avoid the improper use of these words, even if they are usually said spontaneously.

Peace.
 
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You can respond with, “Blessed be His name!”
Very likely that they will grow more weary of hearing your exclamation than you are of theirs.

Yes, it will take courage, especially if you are to be consistent about it.
 
It depends, but always pray–even if silently–“Blessed be the name of the Lord forever and ever!” in reparation.
 
Pretty hard when its a staple of Hollywood I even heard it in star wars I guess Jesus was on Alderaan. Its also making its way to TV.
 
BT3241 said:
Pretty hard when its a staple of Hollywood I even heard it in star wars I guess Jesus was on Alderaan. Its also making its way to TV.
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He’s on Dantooine! Really! Honest!

Jesus on Alderaan be all:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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Depends on their sense of humour. If they say, “oh, God!” you can say something like, “sorry I’m not God.” Or, “Yesss?” which leads to them laughing and then you saying, “Why do you call Him when you don’t need Him?” If they say, “Oh my God”, it’s harder to correct them, unless they are a minor. For minors, I do explain that you shouldn’t ask for God unless you require Him. Otherwise it’s a false alarm.
 
Montrose said:
For example, if someone trips and bangs their leg and suddenly from their mouth comes oh my God, that is not sinful.
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Who said so? Of course it is a sin to use take the Holy Name of God in vain. It is a divine Commandment.
catholic33 said:
may I ask, why is saying Oh my G-d a mortal sin?
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Because it is one of the ten commandments:
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
 
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AlNg said:
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Montrose:
For example, if someone trips and bangs their leg and suddenly from their mouth comes oh my God, that is not sinful.
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Who said so? Of course it is a sin to use take the Holy Name of God in vain. It is a divine Commandment.
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You are wrong. It depends on the circumstances, e.g. the one I gave.
 
Finish the sentance.if someone says “omg” u say— please save souls etc…if some one says --Jesus Christ you can finish that with have mercy on me etc
 
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First, the Second Commandment is primarily about perjury - false oaths. “I swear on the Name of God that - x” when x is a known untruth.

Second, it is true that using the Name of Jesus as a kind of “filler” or expletive is highly disrespectful to Him if done knowingly and with the intention of belittling Him, but this is not usually what people are thinking. They just have a bad habit. It can be good to help them out of it to fill them with more reverence, but normally it seems to me to be venial sin that is not in major need of correction unless there is some special circumstance, like giving scandal, and this would even usually only be something for a superior to do to an inferior (not your case), almost never the other way around.
 
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catholic33 said:
I will try to correct them, but if I don’t, would that be a mortal sin?
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NO, you chose to fight for the truth and you’ve tried your part as a Christian. It’s not you who’s wrong because that’s their own will and decision. We are all given with the consciousness and free will to decide and we must accept the result.
 
I will stand up for the truth because it is wrong to just stay quiet on a mortal sin. But many people say OMG accidentally so that isn’t a mortal sin.
 
Thank you all so much. I think everyone I heard saying OMG have committed a venial sin because they do it from a habit.
I will try to correct them and help them get over that bad habit. I will use your tips. 🙂
And on Monday I will ask my religion teacher in front of the whole class is it a mortal sin to say OMG on purpose. I know it is a mortal sin, but I hope that will convince them.
 
To be clear :
2146 The second commandment forbids the abuse of God’s name , i.e., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
 
kapp19 said:
First, the Second Commandment is primarily about perjury - false oaths. “I swear on the Name of God that - x” when x is a known untruth.
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I also understood it to be about heresy, false teaching.

The Jews would teach morality and doctrine in the Name of Yahweh, but there were often false prophets who sprang up teaching novelties and falsehoods. They would also take the Name, but in vain. Therefore, to teach error is to take the Name of the Lord in vain. This seems to be a minority interpretation now, and I believe it is even omitted from the Catechism.
 
Insofar as a lying prophet takes the Name in exercising the office, it would indeed violate the Commandment quite directly.
 
catholic33 said:
It is definetly a sin because it mostly uses God’s name in an empty way. Some people say it is mortal so I want to know why it is mortal.
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If you have doubts about the gravity of a sin why not ask your parish priest? Pax
 
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