Many times lately I've seen the word God (on Free Republic) where some have forgotten how to spell it, like some aversion to it, as if they would be skewered by the Devil's pitchfork for spelling it out....I received this in e-mail and myself thought it was profound....Three points:
1) Many if not most of the people who write "G-d" do so for religious reasons of their own. They feel there is a religious proscription against spelling out the word "God".
2) Discussion of religion is not proscribed in the school or workplace, at least not by the Supreme Court. The courts only maintain that all religious beliefs must be treated equally. A public school may legally have a Christian Club that meets after school...they had just better be willing to allow the Wiccan Club or Atheist Club to meet too.
3) When people in this nation are reticent about discussing religion with those whose beliefs are unknown, that's not embarrasment about their own faith, but respect for that of others. Many if not most of us tend to recognize religion as a matter of personal conscience. Indeed, unsolicited religious commentaries rarely lead to discussion, nor, I suspect, are they intended to. Dave Barry once said "People who want to share their religious beliefs with you never seem to want you to share yours with them.". He had a point.
-Eric
Why do we write "G-d" instead of spelling it out?
| We're concerned that a document containing G-d's Name might not be treated respectfully, so we don't spell out the Name in full. Using an abbreviation isn't disrespectful; it's like using "Dr." for "Doctor". Furthermore, we're using the abbreviation for a respectful reason: to avoid putting the Name in a position where it might be treated disrespectfully. Using substitutes for Divine Names is an old Jewish tradition; the Tetragrammaton is never pronounced nowadays (it was pronouced by the priests when the Temple existed), but is replaced by "My L-rd", and even the replacement is used only for sacred purposes. ar@torah.org |
World War 2, for example.
The ancient Pharisees and Sadducees atomized God's law, to the point where Yeshua of Nazareth warned them of "straining at a gnat, but swallowing a camel." In the New Testament, Christians were encouraged to refer to the Lord as "Abba" (GALATIANS 4:6), which is almost akin to "Daddy." Further, this highlights the differences in the beliefs of modern Judaism and Christianity--that because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, we have the gift and right to be called the "children of God." Consider this from Luke 23:44-
That curtain seperated the Holy of Holies in the temple where God Himself dwelled with the rest of the holy temple. Read in the Old Testament what happened to those of went in there without permission? It wasn't something to be fooled with. Why was it torn completely at the very moment Chrst died? I believe is was symbolic of the fact that the separation between man and God had been removed because of the sacrifice of Christ...and God the Father wanted to make it known. Can you imagine what the keepers of the temple thought when that curtain was split?
The separation we have with God is healed through Christ, but I still cringe when I hear people get too Pal-sy Wal-sy with the Almighty. They can make the relationship with God sound frivolous "My buddy pal the Big JC told me!" Show a little respect for the Creator and King of the Universe. He is God after all, you know.
How can you expect a God to create beings with free will, then expect Him to intervene every time those beings make bad decisions?
Secondly, why is it every time there's a disaster, either natural or man-made, someone cries out that God has abandoned us? Yet when times are great, nobody is standing on streetcorners praising God for all the bounty He has bestowed. God gets all the criticism, but none of the gratitude. If we're going to blame Him, then we have to credit Him too.
People that forward anything that comes across their e-mail, from ramblings about God and Jesus to those tired old (insert famous politician's name here) jokes, are idiots to begin with.
As many have already informed you, the use of G-d in lieu of God comes from the Jewish custom of not including the vowels of God's name in the text when the scribes transcribed the Scriptures. In fact, the name Jehova was spelled (as transliterated) the equivalent of Yhwh (pronounced Yah-weh) in the Hebrew Scriptures. So spelling it out as G-d is an act of reverence, not an act of aversion.
That said, there are many around here who have an aversion to seeing items posted in the "News" forum that don't belong there -- items such as vanities, emails, hoaxes, urban legends, etc. Your post -- an item you received via email, and an item which is a borderline urban legend since it is not at all an accurate quote of Billy Graham's daughter as it purports to be -- is an example of something that DOESN'T belong in the News forum. It could reasonably be posted in the General Interest forum or the Religion forum, but it isn't News.
Just my $0.02 worth.