[Ads-l] profanity in music lyrics (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

I'm not up enough on the Talmud to know.  But I was raised to believe it meant to not say His name casually.  

As Bill Cosby explained it on an album, God it too busy to look up every time someone says His name, so don't do it unless it's important.

And I believe that the way so many euphemisms to avoid doing so support that explanation (or at least, support the idea that lots of people believe that explanation).

Heck for "hell", darn for "damn", tarnation for "damnation", Zounds! for "God's wounds", etc., Jeez, Judas H. Priest, etc.


> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: profanity in music lyrics 

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> 
> Doesn't the decalogic prohibition of "taking the Lord's name in vain" actually refer not to an idle exclamation like "Goddamn!" but rather
> to false swearing (upon God's name) in a legalistic sense?
> 
> --Charlie
> 
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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