Wednesday, April 09, 2008

G-d?

I'm trying to avoid stepping completely out of the boundaries of this blog, but something in several comments another blog jolted me a little, though it's by no means the first time I'd seen it.
This is the use of 'G-d'. For starters, I've no idea how you'd pronounce this, unless you do something akin to a glottal stop in the middle of the normal word.
Thus we have sentences (from several different commenters) like:
G-d certainly has proven his patience with us...all 2000+ years of it.
The only identifier is a sticker on the inside of my car that states "G-d is not a Republican. Or a Democrat." (Sojourners) The only think I think about on a regular basis is "Am I on G-D'S side?" not "Is G-d on MY side?"
As Phyllis Tickle put it so beautifully, "A nation is in the business of doing Caesar's work, not G-d's...

When I queried this usage, by saying, "Are we suddenly afraid to use the word God, or isn't it allowed in these comments? "I received this response:

I find this interesting...apparently the editors of Ur are curious too if they allowed this question to be posted.
No, I use it because I talked to Jews who found my usage of "G o d" to be...hmm, disrespectful to both the deity and to them. The alternate address is G-d, so I have grown use to using the address of G-d to show both my respect for both parties.

Is it me, or this is some kind of Christian PCism gone mad? I can vaguely understand its usage if its offending Jews, but why use it amongst Christians?

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