Not to be that guy, but “using the Lord’s name in vain” has been misinterpreted and misapplied by Christianity as a whole for a very, very long time. “Using the Lord name in vain” is not saying “goddamit”, or “Jesus Christ, thats Jason Bourne”, but instead by saying you are Christian, or a follower of Christ’s teachings, and being indistinguishable from non-christians in the way one acts, speaks, thinks, dresses, etc,.
Does this mean that cursing as described above is bad? Maybe, and maybe not–it depends on your convictions.
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. -Romans 14:5-6
Back when the Torah and minor prophets were written, taking someone’s name was to become their relative or kin. Even by the time Jesus came into the picture, it was still a common thing to take the name of a family to were adopted into, or to a land you moved to. Therefore, taking the Lord’s name in vain" should be more accurately described as calling oneself a Christian, and then not living as one. This is endemic in Christianity–our divorce rates are practically indistinguishable for secular society, premarital sex, cheating–not to mention, we have a huge problem with covering up pedophiles, spousal abuse, child abuse, the list goes on. I believe God knows this, and Jesus even spoke to it when he was on earth.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. -Matthew 7:21
So, basically, I think God cares about the important stuff, like not acting like a hypocrite while labeling oneself one of his believers–not the inane stuff like saying “goddamnit”. But, if someone believes firmly that saying swearwords containing God’s name in it is also a sin, then by all means, that is treated and will be judged as a sin for that person.
And if we want to get technical, Lord, Jesus Christ, and God are not his names. Even names the Christian god is known by, such as El, El Shaddai, Yeshua, Messiah, Jah, Jahova, and possibly Yahweh (YHWH, but we don’t know for sure because Jewish scholars never recorded his name to prevent anyone from uttering it) are actually descriptors of who he is. El “The Lord”, El Shaddai “The Lord will cover”, Yeshua (actual name of Jesus, but not the name of God), Jah (first letter of the tetragrammaton “YHWH” ), Jahovah “The Lord will provide”. Technically, it is impossible to use the Lord’s name in vain if using his name in vain is defined as simply using it as a swear word or part of a curse because his name has been lost to history.
Sorry, that’s way more information than I intended.
EDIT: And I also want to make sure I make it abundantly clear that this is simply my interpretation of things, based upon my own experience growing up in a Baptist church, and seeing all the hypocrisy there and in my own parents lives (where both were abusive in their own ways). I’m not really what anyone would call a practicing Christian because I don’t attend church, tithe, or vote “prolife”. Organized religion in its current form, is in my opinion, a perversion of what God intended. But this is just my opinion.