The Lorde dilemma

A comment on Damien Grant’s column ‘‘Our Lorde is taking His name in vain’’ (Focus, December 31).

Just to set the record straight, God’s name is not Lord. Lord is a title. God’s personal name is Jehovah (English spelling), YHWH (Hebrew spelling in English script), Ihowa (Maori spelling).

In most modern English translations of the Bible, God’s name Jehovah (YHWH) has been replaced by ‘LORD’ in capital letters, so you could easily be mistaken that this is his name. But in the original Hebrew scriptures God’s actual name Jehovah (YHWH) appears nearly 7000 times.

Merran Lewis, Wellington Ella Yelich-O’Connor’s choice of the name ‘Lorde’ is a humorous, youthful, cheeky affirmation of her femininity. Are ‘‘landlords’’, ‘‘warlords’’ (possibly!) and all the ‘‘lords’’ of the United Kingdom taking the name of the Lord in vain?

Fe´licien Forgues, Woodend

Pastor Nigel Woodley (Letters, December 31) has registered disappointment that Lorde has decided to cancel her performance in Israel.

He also claims that her decision is based on the ‘‘bigotry and antiSemitism of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions campaign against Israel’’.

The only disappointment we can feel about Woodley’s letter is that a Christian leader could possibly believe that the documented daily abuses of human rights imposed on Palestinians by Zionists in Israel are not clear evidence of an apartheid state.

I suggest that Woodley urgently needs to educate himself by reading The Biggest Prison on Earth by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. In doing so, he will be forced to realise that the Zionist agenda in Israel has always had nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with making the Palestinian population landless, stateless and powerless.

Jenny McNamara, Gore