DISCLAIMER....I’m going to use a phrase in this article that will be offensive to many; it is only to convey a message, nothing more, nothing less.
Growing up, I attended church, maybe a few times a year. I remember attending Sunday school a few times too. I believe it was during my 3rd or 4th grade year I can also remember watching the movie the Ten Commandments (1956); Director Cecil B. DeMille. The first time I watched it, I remember it was very boring, compared to the cartoon, Tom and Jerry. I can honestly say, that I watched a few times again with my parents and siblings; it seemed a bit more interesting. Eventually, attending to Church and Sunday school eventually faded away; I do not recall attendance after 5th grade, or any religious worship for that matter.
At some point during the 7th grade, I remember a family coming over to our house for worship; discussing God, Jesus and the Bible. I do remember words like Jehovah, Witness, The Kingdom of God, Kingdom Halls and so fourth. It was not until I became older, I realized that the family that was coming to our house for worship were Jehovah Witnesses; unfortunately, that did not last long. I enjoyed their company, they appeared to be good people; years later in my adulthood, I find out that the husband committed a heartbreaking sin, adultery.
I do remember some scriptures... not verbatim of course. I also remember a few of the Ten Commandments; not in order, but a few that I remember:
- Thou Shall Not Kill
- Thou Shall Not Steal
- Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery
- Thou Shall Not Take the God's Name in Vain
I was not a fan of school (General High School Education), but I did enjoy Political Science, Physics, and Earth Science. As a matter of fact, I did not attend school very much. I felt that it was a waste of my time, my skills of learning were better matched with the learning the Art of Skateboarding; skateboarding was my life during my high school years. In school, they taught you Science, not Religion; so I figured, science was the de facto of life and how we came to be, on this Earth. I believed there was no God; though there were times I remembered praying to him over the toilet bowl puking my brains out due to some alcohol poisoning; see, I attempted to reason that if he assisted in my sobriety, I would never drink again.
Fast forward 25 years; I have a different perspective of life and how to live it. I have been happily married for 14 years; my wife and I have a 10 year old son. I live my life on being a good man, help others that are not capable of helping themselves, be good to ALL people, and to always be happy, no matter what. My long term goal in life, today, is to raise my son to be a good man, and to treat my wife with the up-most respect and build a strong family. Still to this day, I am not a religious man, but there is something to be said about the Bible. Others refer it to the word of God, which is fine, I have no issues with that, for me, science prevails over religion; In my opinion, the bible was written by man. To me, it is a guide, a guide in how to live life! I reference the Bible for great wisdom; a reminder on how to live and respect life, how to treat other people, how to act as a human being, etc.
As I said, I do the best I can to respect other people; I try to caution on error in the things I do and say when I am around other people that I do not know. You just never know, you could end up offending someone by something you did or said; I keep things very general.
For most, the ultimate violation of the third commandment is to say “Oh My God.” or "God Damn"; you can use just about every other word or phrase, no matter how bad it may seem, but when the vulgarity of ones tongue or digital tongue (Texting, online chats, digital words) with the utilization of this phrase, many believe you’ve crossed the line.
With that being said, there was a post on Facebook in regards to the recent shooting in Texas, in that I responded to my Friend's post and commented with OMFG! My friend responded back nicely; "Please do not use the Lord's name in vain, Thank You!" I am a fair person in addition to being respectful; I apologized. Being fair, I also explained that the word God, to me is a term, not a name. It is a word that is used in referring to deities in general! It would be like you saying that your name is “person”. From my understanding, His name is Yahweh; which I believe was given to Moses outlined I think in the book of Exodus. All in all, you do not hear people saying "Oh My Yahweh", or OMFY do you?
Then there is the selective outrage at the use of the word “God”; not just when used with damn, or in "Oh my". Do we only use the word when we really mean it; you sneezed, I responded back with "God Bless You". If that is the case, then as a religious society, we’re pretty inconsistent in the outrage.
In addition, none of the Ten Commandments has nothing to do with what we commonly call cursing. Throwing the F-Bomb (Use of the F-word; Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo) which others may agree is a separate issue. The Bible certainly has a lot to say about speech; but nothing in regards to the word "FUCK" which I believe was first attested to around 1475 way after the Bible was written. Some like to believe that once upon a time, during the decimation of the English population by the black plague, the King ordered his people to reproduce. His proclamation, “Fornicate Under Command of the King”—“F.U.C.K” for short—was the source of our favorite swearword. To some, it may be a sin to use some words, but I think FUCK was not one of them.
I can't recall when it was explained to me, but someone at one point in my life quoted "Jesus said that what comes out of our mouths will fill our heart, and that evil that arrives in our heart comes out through the mouth in curses and swearing." Well, I am definitely not evil, and I have been cursing for the majority of my life.
Well, I just wanted to get that misunderstanding of the third commandment of my chest; it is both sad and tragic. You know, If I were Satan, I couldn’t think of a better way to fool people into thinking it’s focus is on the phrase, “OMFG”