What if you sincerely want God to damn something?

“God Damn It,” we cry on occasion. (The Angry Man declares it frequently.)  We are taught during religious study, and while we are still in short pants, “Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of The Lord, Thy God, in Vain.” 

And I don’t. When I cry “God Damn It,” I am sincerely asking a boon.

We pray for wealth, for love, for fertility. We pray to find lost heirlooms. We cast our eyes Heaven-ward and ask a boon.  

Sometimes God does damn, else, there would be no Lucifer and Hell (if we believe in it) would be empty of souls. God shuns, else, The Book of Genesis would have ended happily. Instead, it ended with two people who were left to their own devices. Not damned, but not protected, either.

 

Sometimes, as amateur theologians are fond of pointing out, God says “no.” The budget bishops of the online journal “Heartlight”  put it this way: 

     "We do not always know what this purpose is,

     but we can affirm THAT it is;
     and because of what God has revealed to us of Himself,
     we know that His purpose is all-loving and all-wise.”

So it’s up to Him (and he’s a he) whether or not he grants it.

In GB Shaw’s play “Saint Joan,” the French general Dunois declares to Joan of Arc:

     God is no man’s daily drudge, and no maid’s either.

     If you are worthy of it He will sometimes 

     snatch you out of the jaws of death

     and set you on your feet again; but that is all:

     once on your feet you must fight 

     with all your might and all your craft.

     For He has to be fair to your enemy too.”

So, you may cry "God damn you!" and your enemy may cry for salvation. Contradictory, and so God is left with an impossible dilemma; two prayers, one of which must be denied. You may ask God to Damn It (be It what it may), but cannot depend on it. We cannot depend upon deities for much, really. An old Islamic aphorism goes, "Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel."  

Still, there is no harm in asking. 

Perhaps it would be less offensive if it were formed as a prayer. Every hymn or prayer we say seems to have been written by some fusty old German, so I guess The Angry Man is as qualified as them to write one and here’s my attempt:

     “Father, in thy Omniscience and Omnipotence,

     Wouldst thou in Thy wisdom,
     Pass Thy most dread judgment upon [name  item/person].
     I believe that [It/he/she]  is unworthy of Thy most powerful protections, 
     Of the joys of Thy love.
     Of a place by Thy side. 
     The Judgment is Thine,
     But the request is mine own.
     I submit [It/he/she] to thy judgment,
     And await on bended knee, Thy boon.

     Amen.”

And wait to see.