Oh dear G-d...

"Don't they have anything better to do?"

"What could they be thinking?"

Thanks to yesterday's announcement (as reported by CNS) from the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, I received these questions and variations thereof all day. How would I know what they were thinking? I'm thinking, "thanks for the blog fodder."

But I'm also thinking about the Tetragrammaton and, as the statement points out, the opportunities for catechesis, not to mention vocabulary building. Because of the next book I'm writing, I'm also thinking about the timing of their statement. I'll have more to say about that soon.

I especially zoomed in on what the the rep from GIA publications had to say about their editorial policy against the using YHWH/Yahweh in their materials. They established their policy in 1986 because of "sensitivity to concerns among observant Jews about pronouncing the name of God."

"You know," I wrote to someone last evening, "if they want to honor and respect the tradition of observant Jews, they should be writing 'G-d' not God."

Her response was swift and to the point, "That will be hard to get people to do!!"

So was mine, "No s**t."