Question #1

Yay!  My first question!  The ever wonderful Anne Therese has asked: "Let’s say that you work somewhere with a really nice person.  But they have a habit of once in a while, (a really long while) they use God’s name in vain.  Do you say something, or in Christian charity just say quietly to yourself, “Blessed be his holy name.”  What do you think?  Should we control others in this way?”

In this case, as far as I can tell:  I would wait until the person has calmed down - if they are going to use God’s name in vain they probably aren’t at their calmest - and then approach them asking them to try harder to not use His name in vain.  Also, you must approach them in the right way.  The wrong way would be something like this:  “You horrible person!  You need to stop swearing or else you’ll burn in hell forever!  You disgusting person!”  That way is wrong because A: It puts the person down and makes them feel that they are terrible.  B: It puts them on the defensive.  They might normally feel that swearing is bad, but if they’re being attacked verbally, they might decide to swear just to show you who’s boss.  From the sounds of it, there isn’t much chance of the latter happening as you said that the person is really nice.

The proper way to approach them is in a way that makes them feel that they are better than swearing.  For instance: “I’ve noticed that occasionally you use the Lord’s name in vain.  Would you like me to try to help you stop.”  If you do say that you have to be prepared with helpful ideas on how to stop swearing.  Another option is to just ask them politely to stop like this: “I've noticed that you occasionally use the Lord’s name in vain.  Could you please try to stop.”

If you (the reader) disagree with me in anyway or have another suggestion.  Feel free to leave a comment.


That’s all for now...