You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God

In a recent blog I quoted a letter to the Boston Globe by James Yeaton of Malden. He wrote:

"FOR YEARS I have been a paramedic and emergency nurse in Medford. As such, I felt attacked by a sign I saw outside the New England Baptist Church on a recent drive through Medford Square. It read, 'Homosexuality is sinful behavior by choice. Trust the Bible.' “

There is much ancient wisdom in the Bible, the trouble is that the people who quote it generally do not understand it. For example: Deuteronomy 5.11 reads (in an English translation) “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”

This is interpreted by many true believersas meaning that we cannot write the word GOD, but must, instead, try to trick God by writing G_D as though God would be tricked by this childish evasion – as though GOD might possibly give a damn about how one spells His name (in a language that didn’t exist when Deuteronomy was written. Such an interpretation trivializes God. Anybody who worships such a trivial God should be ashamed of himself and of the God he/she claims to worship.

The meaning of the commandment is clearly “Do not use the name of God to justify ungodly acts, such as the Crusades or the sign: 'Homosexuality is sinful behavior by choice. Trust the Bible.'

Gus