Published: August 16, 2007 11:22 pm         

By any other name

Names are important.

As a newspaperman I am vitally aware of this fact. Misspelling a name or incorrectly identifying someone in the newspaper is a big no-no.

Names are something we are given in infancy that we take with us our entire lives, unless we hate our names so much we petition a court to change them.

Our full names normally are reserved for official documents, or for taking vows or oaths. Of course, when my wife uses all three of my names it is a sure sign she is aggravated with me.

A colleague’s small daughter has taken to referring to all members of her family by their first and last names, bracketing her middle name, including the dog.

When I was small my mother would write my name in my books, including the date the volume was purchased. Thus for a time thereafter I referred to myself as “Jeffrey Ernest Mullin and the date.”

God has many names. The triune God is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He is called Elohim, Jehovah, the Almighty, Yahweh, El Shaddai, Adonai and the Great I Am.

Muslims refer to God as Allah, an idea embraced by a Roman Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands.

Bishop Tiny Muskens (now there is a name) told Dutch television earlier this week that people of all faiths should begin referring to God as Allah to foster greater understanding.

“Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn’t we all say that from now on we will name God Allah? What does God care what we call him? It is our problem.”

If settling on one universal moniker for God would bring about peace and religious understanding, I would say go for it. Sadly, I don’t think it would make a bit of difference.

Muskens might be right, God doesn’t really care what he is called. But he does care in what context his name is used. Exodus 20:7 tells us “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

Too often we use His name as an expression of anger, disgust, surprise or joy. We are supposed to employ the name of God only in respect, supplication, teaching or prayer.

Say everyone of every faith did begin referring to God as Allah, what would change? And what would be the next step, for all faiths to adopt the Koran as their holy Word?

Instead of changing God’s name, fostering religious tolerance and understanding in this troubled world will be a matter of changing the hearts of men.

He can’t be happy with the violence that is being, and has been throughout his history, perpetrated in His name, no matter what name that is.

If we seek Him, He will answer, no matter how He is addressed. What’s important is what we say after we call His name.

So call Him what you like, just call Him.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle.