Taking the 'name' in vain

On Saturdays the section of the Knoxville News Sentinel (I'm visiting my father) that has the comics, puzzles, advice columns, tv and movies, and fluff news is called "Faith and Family". Today, it had a nice pair of articles (for a certain ironic value of "nice" that is). On the front page of the section was a big article called OMG! By gosh, oft-uttered phrase offends some people's sensibilities, written by Linton Weeks of the Washington Post. And on the back of the section was an article by Terry Mattingly called "Mainstream news often benches athletes who talk faith", which they also attribute to the WaPo (not that I can find it there, but I did find it at the Scripps Howard News Service, where it has a different name ("The slippery slope of athletes and their religion"). The article's new name is not only more provocative and victim-y, but it's a different angle than the one the article is actually written on. (Plus, it's inaccurate; the examples don't show reporters or papers "benching" these athletes, merely not reporting their "I give all the credit to Jesus" lines.)

So, why "nice"? Well, let's take a look. First, in the OMG! article, we have quotes from several people who are against it:

Rosie Brecevic catches herself midsentence and says, instead, "Oh my gosh!"

The kindergarten teacher from Colorado Springs is taking a break from shopping at the Pentagon City mall. "You try to pick a better way to say it," she says, especially this time of year and "in front of the little children."

Working at Sophisticat Boutique on Kenilworth Avenue, Vera Abel, in red shawl and long gold skirt, says she can't imagine anyone ever uttering the phrase. As she moves merchandise from spot to spot, she invokes one of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not call the name of your Lord God in vain."

The Rev. Patrick Gray agrees with Brecevic and Abel. Curate of the Church of the Advent in Boston, Gray preached a sermon on the subject earlier this year. He exhorted his flock: "There's one thing, or type of thing, that you'll never hear me say. And for some reason, it still makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable when I hear someone else do it. If I learned anything in my Baptist upbringing, it's that you never, ever say, 'Oh my God!,' in casual conversation." He finds other words.

The article also quotes some Yahoo! users who are upset that the company uses OMG as the name of their gossip service (wonder if any of them stay away from it because gossip is irreligious? No, I digress):

A user writes: "This is taking the Lord's name in vain, and while I'm fairly certain you couldn't care less about that, I can no longer support Yahoo if they insist on keeping this OMG product. It shows the height of insensitivity to people of faith."

And then someone makes the point: "There is no doubt what the OMG stands for. Every Christian should be outraged that the name of the Lord is used with such disrespect. The point is that people use his name as an insignificant figure of speech."

And on the KnoxNews website, a commenter says:

If you hear yourself saying "Oh My G_d!", the only rightful thing to do is to cut out your tongue to honor Yahweh.

(granted, it's not easy to tell if that's a joke or not)

Not on the website, but in the paper, are 'reactions' from local clergy (first, a male Baptist, and then a female Presbyterian):

"Everyone's offended by everything now, but the phrase is offensive. ... It lessens the Deity."

"I use the phrase myself, but not in the sense of 'Oh my God, what a cute dress!' I use it almost as a prayer or a cry to God... It calls God into the moment; it doesn't feel like it's taking his name in vain. If you look through the Psalms, 'My God, My God' as supplication is used all the time. I'm not sure God is worried about it either; I think he's more worried about our actions in the world."

And a rather interesting one from a rabbi, who makes two interesting points. One,

the prevalence of religion in American life has become trivialized. Religion is part of the political dialog, part of the international dialog; people are reacting to that by trivializing it.

I argued last week that the 'commercialization' of Christmas was in part due to Christians who dragged it out of the churches into the public square; this analysis of the prevalence of OMG! is similar (and kind of encouraging). In much the same way, I suppose, In God We Trust on the money mostly leads to profanity and bad jokes ("... all others pay cash") rather than reverence. The rabbi also says it

doesn't bother me in the slightest because I don't think it's calling on God's name in vain. It's not calling on God's name, because God is not God's name ... It's calling on God's job description.

(This calls to mind Malaysia's decision to restrict the word "Allah" to the god of Islam, though Arabic-speaking Christians have always used the word (which, after all, means god) for theirs as well.)

Okay, so that's the first article: all these people - in DC, Colorado Springs (now there's a surprise), Yahoo-land (my, wouldn't Swift chuckle?), and Knoxville - insist that saying "OMG", let alone the full "Oh my God!", is taking the Lord's name in vain, and should never ever be done.

The second article is a discussion by Terry Mattingly - the man who runs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, writes a column called "On Religion", and works at GetReligion.org - on why it is that

Sportswriters never know quite what to do when athletes and coaches turn into preachers and evangelists...

Take, for example, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow of Florida. The first words he uttered in his nervous acceptance speech was: "I'd just like to first start off by thanking my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who gave me the ability to play football."

This quotation didn't appear in any mainstream news reports, wrote sportswriter Kathy Orton at WashingtonPost.com. Her "On Faith" column ran with this blunt headline: "Tebow Talks God, Media Ignores Him."

Mattingly has some interesting things to say about reporting God-talking athletes, including this provocative comment (a paraphrase of Orton) that reporters

need to realize that faith is a crucial element in many dramas and, thus, it's wrong to edit that out of the new. It's appropriate to ask an athlete like Tebow hard questions and then quote his answers.

I think this has promise. For instance, the lede for this article is a little story:

Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears would make it to the final game.

It was the stuff of headlines. After all, it would make history if two African-American head coaches reached the Super Bowl. However, both men went out of their way to stress that it was also symbolic that two devout Christians were poised to compete, as friends, on their sport's biggest stage.

"I'm so happy for Lovie, who does things the right way, without cursing and shows that things can be done differently," said Dungy, in a pre-game report by Baptist Press. "We give God all the credit."

Dungy and Smith talked the talk and tried to walk the walk, while armies of mainstream journalists responded by ignoring most of the God talk.

I think it might have been very appropriate to ask Dungy how he justified his salary if God gets all the credit. It would have been appropriate to see sports pages wondering about Jesus' desertion of his (allegedly) beloved Colorado Rockies in the last World Series.

And - to tie these two articles together - it might be appropriate to ask these athletes why giving God credit for their athletic triumphs isn't calling his name in vain. (Not just athletes, of course. How about the lottery winner who said, "I just want to thank God for letting me pick the right numbers, or letting the machine pick the right numbers for me"? God doesn't play dice, but he does play the lottery? Or American Idol last year?)

"I just want to thank God for blessing me and allowing me to go out and perform," said LeBron.

Or 2006 MVP, Dwyane Wade.

Congratulations. What's going through your mind?

DWYANE WADE: I mean, first of all, I just want to thank God for giving us the strength, the courage, the tenacity to fight through Dallas all year and come out on top. I just want to give God all the praise for this.

(What? No praise for Pat Riley or your teammates? What are they, chopped liver?)

NCAA 2006 Men's Pole Vault Champion Thomas Skipper, Jr., Oregon

"First of all I just want to thank God for giving me the strength to compete."

NCAA 2006 Women's Long Jump Champion Marshevet Hooker, junior, Texas

"It feels great. It was really important I get points for the team. I did what I needed to do. It was a blessing (I won). It wasn't anyone but God that helped me. I got on the runway and just did it."

Boxer Peter Quillen:

"I just want to thank God for all He has done for me"

wow, God likes young men beating other young men into brain damage and other injuries? that might explain much...

Bodybuilder Darrell Terrell:

I just want to thank God first of all for giving me the ability to do what I'm doing.

Ack, enough. Next time an athlete or performer trots out this tired old trope, I'd love to hear a reporter ask, "What is it about (football/boxing/basketball/track and field/gambling/American Idol) that makes it so important to God?" and "So, are you giving God the money as well as the credit?"

And, "Isn't invoking God in public like this against the guidelines on prayer laid down by Jesus, if not actually calling God's name in vain? What are your thoughts on that?"