Commandments

Please read this article by Christopher Hitchens:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/04/hitchens-201004

Or, in case you just feel odd about going to Vanity Fair’s website, here’s the accompanying video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_lM61aDyPg

I often disagree with Christopher Hitchens but this article and accompanying video does provoke some thought. It’s funny too. All commandments are touched on and new ones are added. There’s one commandment that has always puzzled me. It’s not that I’m hung up on it or anything but I’ve asked supposedly knowledgeable people, indeed a preacher once, what exactly does the commandment ‘Do not take The Lord's name in vain’ mean (it isn’t worded exactly like that but that’s the verbiage I’ve always heard). I never got a satisfactory answer. The preacher I asked once told me that you can damn Mohammad but don’t damn God. In additional to a notable intolerance, that response really didn’t make sense. The notion that you never should ‘damn God’ seems reasonable but this commandment is usually applied to saying ‘God damn’, not ‘Damn God’ or ‘Damn you God.’ ‘God’ followed by ‘damn’ is a command or request, you’re telling God to damn something, like whatever you’ve just stubbed your toe on. Asking or telling Him to damn something could be a bad thing or at least a serious thing but then again perhaps it’s understandably worth damning. I don’t know. When I was a kid I thought that Charlton Heston cursing out the human race at the end of The Planet of the Apes was harsh and yelling ‘God damn you all to Hell!’ was just asking for trouble - I mean you just don’t say that. Nowadays I think it was justified with the Statue of Liberty sitting there on the beach all banged up. Again, I’ve always heard the commandment phased ‘Do not take The Lord's name in vain.’ ‘In vain’ means to do something no avail, to fail. If during a prayer you ask God to keep Grandma well and she dies, was that taking his name in vain? Perhaps seeking the meaning of the commandment itself is in vain. I don’t know.