| Re: Rev. Wright, "God damn America" ... what he meant |
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Group: alt.philosophy · Group Profile
Author: OmniqueryousOmniqueryous Date: Mar 25, 2008 12:36
On Mar 24, 3:17Â am, "AKA gray asphalt" gmail.com> wrote:> "Wordsmith" rocketmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:746bf181-e26e-4972-96a6-335ad5a2097e@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 23, 3:12 pm, "AKA gray asphalt" gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Would you agree that if Rev. Wright had said this, it would be
>> more accurate ... more what he probably meant:
>
>> "God damn the American government."
>
> Who knows? Lots are put off by the use
> of the profanity in church. I mean, please.
>
> W : )
>
> _____________
>
> "God damn" is not profanity, imo. Using the name of
> the Lord in vain is considered to be a sin but this was
> not in vain. I'm not sure what vain means but I suppose
> they meant to use it lightly or in a cavalier manner. That
> was not the case.
>
> You are 'wordsmith'. What does 'in vain' mean?
I think the sinful "in vain" refers to cursing, as in "God dammit, I
stubbed my toe!!" which is like a false alarm ("in vain" means to no
end or purpose), since in cursing you are not actually asking God to
damn "it" whatever "it" refers to. But if one is actually asking God
to damn someone, as in "God, you ought to damn Carl for his sins,"
that would be actual prayer and not mere cursing. The principle may
be that, God might not like to have his attentions called upon every
time someone stubs a toe, fudges a test, bites his lip, misses a TV
rerun, gets a meagre score on Playstation, etc.
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