Re: USAGE: 2nd pers. pron. for God

bnathyuw wrote:

> i suspect even many devout christians wouldn't be able
> to give the old second person singular form of the
> verb ( even with a reasonable knowledge of the
> language i can't remember whether the subjunctive
> keeps the -st ending )
>
> what do some of the non-atheists on the list have to
> say on this ?
I know that some denominations of English speaking Protestant
Christianity place huge value on King James English.  I believe this
is a trait of conservative Protestantism in the United States.  My
mother's family was Church of Ireland and in the older prayerbooks
they used King James English - I believe inherited from the Anglican
tradition rather than because of the spiritual value that some
denominations attach to it.

For what it's worth, I'm Irish and converted to the Church of Sweden
and went to an Evangelical Lutheran Church when I lived in America.
In the Evangelical Lutheran Church I have never heard anything other
than "you," and in regards to other pronouns it is discouraged to
refer to God by any gendered pronoun - him, his, her, hers (although
lay people and older clergy still do from habit).  I always heard
"God" and even "God's self" or "Godself" versus "Himself."  The
official Bible translation used by the ELCA in America, however,
still uses "him" or "his" but never "Thou."

The _one_ exception to "Thou" that I can think of is this: in the
Lutheran Book of Worship there are two options given for the Lord's
Prayer, and one of them is the King James Version - I think it's
simply the version that American Christians grew up on and heard
more as part of American Christian culture, even if their particular
denomination doesn't use the KJV Bible.

I couldn't pretend to use King James English in my prayers, but I'm
sure some Protestants are quite familiar with its usage.

Eamon

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