Press: Oh my God! Is it pop culture or blasphemy? - HC

(Houston Chronicle)

"'Oh my God!'

The expression, once considered taboo in polite conversation, has become as commonplace as 'that's cool' or 'see you later' in American parlance. The acronym, OMG, is nearly as ubiquitous. Room-chatters rely on it, so do text-messagers. The search engine Yahoo now uses OMG as the name of a gossip-alert service.

It's a sign of a free-speech society, right? Say what you want when you want. But for many, the omnipresent phrase sounds like a sinful swipe at the Almighty. Or at least another iceberg of disrespect cracking away from the ice cap of civility."