"Omigawd!"

Walt is sick, sore and tired of hearing young female airheads exclaiming "Oh my God" in every second sentence. "OMG, I'm all like, y'know, rilly bummed out!" Walt is rilly bummed out too.

"Oh my God," is an expression that should only be used in a sincere prayer, for instance "Oh my God, be merciful to me, a sinner." What I tell people who say or write "Oh my God!" to me is, "You really shouldn't say that unless you're praying. It would offend a believer...namely me."

There's one good thing about Islam that we seem to lack in our so-called Christian society. You don't hear Muslims saying "Oh my Allah!" or "By the beard of the Prophet!" all the time. Unlike us "Christians", they show great reverence for the names of God and the Prophet Mohammed. A devout Muslim will not say or write the name of the latter without adding "Peace be unto him", or "PBUH" in writing.

At one time, many Catholic parishes had a branch of the Holy Name Society. Its principal goal is "to promote reverence for the Sacred Names of God and Jesus Christ, obedience and loyalty to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and the personal sanctification and holiness of its members."

Sadly, membership in the Holy Name Society has declined since the hippy-dippy `60s, when secular humanism became the new religion. One of the many symptoms of our social sickness is this flippant secularism that tolerates or even encourages blasphemy.

Time was when, in moments of crisis, our leaders would not hesitate to invoke the Name of God, imploring His assistance to defeat the godless Nazis or Communists or the heathen Muslims. Times have changed. We don't need God's help anymore, because we "Christians" are smart enough and powerful enough to sort out any problem, even a natural disaster, on our own.

Walt suspects that we don't know...or care...if God is really on our side. If He's not -- if He's on the Muslims' side for instance -- we can hardly blame Him. A little more reverence, or at least respect for the beliefs of others, would not be out of order.