I Don't Know How to Love Him

So I spent a couple of hours this afternoon reading the Chicago Manual of Style! I needed a minute to catch my breath, so I thought I'd do an extra blog post. Yes, I set the standard for the high life.

Anyway, the riveting reading today was the accepted practices for capitalization. And, truthfully, it's the first time in a very long time I read something that shocked me.

Now, I'm not an overtly religious person. There are some strong religious convictions in my family background. I was told by my grandmother that the world would probably end in my lifetime; that I probably wouldn't even reach adulthood. To this day, I look at things like Hurricane Katrina and hear my grandmother predicting The End. However, I had a rebel mother who did what she could to shelter me from that kind of indoctrination, so I'm not really expecting the Rapture tomorrow.

Still, today's reading had a profound effect on me. I read that the Chicago Manual of Style prefers that the pronoun used in reference to either Christ or God not be capitalized. Have you ever heard such blasphemy? The correct reference is not 'Him," but simply, 'him." This flies in the face of all the teachings and readings I've ever done. The CMS states that the reference is not capitalized in the Bible.

Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But I do know that I felt a little twinge when I read that.

When I was a little boy (maybe six years old), I don't remember who it was, but someone told me that boys could not kiss boys. I'm sure it was in response to my question of what would happen if such an occurence took place. At first my question was just me being a smart aleck, but I thought the answer was silly. Of course boys could kiss boys. There were no physical barriers to stop them. But I also believed what I was told; that if a boy kissed another boy he would be damned to hell. And there was something inside of me that wanted to try it to find out. I couldn't wait to be old enough to kiss another boy. I don't remember my first male kiss, but I do remember the feeling that it was all over by the sizzling.

That's the feeling I had when I read this misguided advice on capitalizing a pronounal reference to our Lord. Whoever wrote that will be in a circle of hell closer to the center than the one reserved for boys who kiss boys.