But if we truly understood what the use of "profanity," "blasphemy" and "expletives" represented, we would instantly react against it. We would clean up our speech! In an article in The Times (of London) entitled "When the laws of man meet the laws of God," David Cowan reports that the British Parliament is reassessing the 300-year old law against blasphemy. But this national law does not interfere with the practice of scattering the name of God, Jesus Christ, the crucifixion or many euphemisms in daily speech. In 1676 the Lord Chief Justice, Matthew Hale, sentenced John Taylor for blaspheming Christianity. He stated: "To reproach the Christian religion is to speak in subversion of the law." This statement was used as the legal basis for convicting anyone who would deny the divine origin of Christianity or the Scriptures. But today the daily degrading or profaning of God's name shows we just do not understand our relationship with Him or with Jesus Christ—who gave His life for us. Cowan, a lecturer at Westfield College, Cambridge, mentions that the committee considering a change in the law has some awkward questions to answer. Does the legal system wish to continue to state that Christianity is the religion of the nation? To deny it could suggest that after 1,500 years there is no longer an established Church in Britain, and the position of the monarch as head of the Church of England would also become questionable. Should the same law protect other religions as well? How about protection from anyone inciting others to religious hatred? As with other Western nations, a veneer of Christianity is spread over British society. Principles that underpin national laws may have been taken from the Bible, but our daily practises show we know little of the biblical laws many of our ancestors normally respected. In our age of relative humanism, we agree it is a good idea to love and honor parents, avoid murdering people, be faithful in marriage, respect property rights, be generally honest and have realistic aspirations rather than greedily accumulate all we can. After all, we've experienced several decades of seeing the tragic results of not doing these things! We may even agree that having a day off in the week is a good stress-management practice, and that being true to life-guiding principles is important. In fact, a humanistic version of all of the Ten Commandments may be seen as "good principles"! Only when we acknowledge God's position as Creator and Author of our temporary life, as well as giver of eternal life, will we begin to respect His name and listen to His laws, which He designed for our well-being. Read about respecting His name in our free publications Who Is God? and The Ten Commandments. To appreciate who God is, who Jesus Christ is and what They are doing now should give anyone a strong added impetus to resist sprinkling their sentences with profanity.