Through the Flaming Sword

Thou shalt not take the name of Elohim Yahweh in vain.

Taking God’s name in vain means violating an oath in which one has invoked Elohim Yahweh’s judgment as the guarantor of one’s oath. Well, a lot of us, maybe most of us, swear quite a lot. I do myself; not good, I admit. But I have never taken the name Elohim Yahweh in vain. But naturally, we expand and generalize this commandment to include any name of God, hewing to the spirit of the law rather than the letter. 

However, most of our cursing is really a form of expletive; it’s a sharp verbal exclamation point that carries and amplifies our reaction to an experience. I’s not part of a formal oath. This expletive kind of swearing is not technically “covered” by this commandment, which is about formally swearing to something and then breaking your oath.

This exactly describes the actions of Louisiana’s ruling elites with this law. They have sworn an oath to uphold the constitution of the United States, and have invoked God as the guarantor of their oath under penalty of God’s judgment by saying, “so help me God.” And now they have deliberately violated their oath by violating the constitution’s first amendment. They obviously plan to take this to the Supreme Court, where they expect the conservative majority will say that, actually, it’s not a violation of the first amendment, after all. Until then, though, and on its face, they have with their actions taken the Lord’s name in vain as oath-breakers and can expect the judgment of the God whom they have invoked.