The Rev Tess Kuin Lawton, chaplain of Magdalen College School, says God's name was taken in vain by the terrorists in France

IN THE the new year edition of the excellent BBC Radio 4 programme From Our Own Correspondent, Lyse Doucet suggested that God was going to be one of the most influential people in shaping the politics and events of the year ahead.

She could not have known how prophetic her words would turn out to be, when just seven days later, France found itself reeling in the face of terrorist attacks in Paris.

Last week, Tim Bradshaw showed how biblical history has always traced a juxtaposition between the immanence of God and the depths of sin of which humans are capable.

This week, I wonder with Lyse Doucet, where God is in the politics and events of France?

Well, God is not getting a lot of good publicity, it must be said.

The French have been somewhat suspicious of God since the Revolution and are happier saluting a flag than singing Zadok the Priest at a coronation.

That a group of terrorists could commit the atrocities they did in the name of God reinforces the belief that religion is dangerous and the root of all evil.

It is a view which has been raised in debating chambers around this city for some time.

My own response to this is that God’s name was taken in vain by the terrorists and that the blasphemy perpetrated is theirs.

It is the second commandment with good reason.

If we believe in this extraordinary, powerful God who created the heavens and the Earth and shaped each one of us in our mother’s womb, then this is a name we do not take in vain.

For this reason, I flinch when I hear the name of God used as an everyday swear word and I am deeply uncomfortable with the kind of provocative journalism which defined Charlie Hebdo.

Yet there is more to this question of blasphemy and names within this story. Names are what define us. We take such care when we choose the names of our children: invoking grandparents or closest friends, celebrities or saints.

When Moses met God, he had the temerity to ask God’s name. “I am” was the reply.

God just is. Creator of time and space; the ground of our being.

Later in the Old Testament God says to Isaiah, “I have called you by name, you are mine.”

Each one of us is precious, each one of us is known and cherished.

You might notice two secular examples of the importance of names in the midst of the horror in Paris: the appalling fact that each journalist’s name was called out before they were executed and the way that people have identified themselves since then as “Je suis Charlie” on Facebook.

Even today, we recognise the power of a name.

Charlie Hebdo knew it and revelled in pushing the boundaries.

The terrorists knew it and thought they could claim the name as well.

But the truth is that the name of God, the almighty, the merciful, is above all names and is recognised not in blasphemy but in the acts of love and courage and selflessness that occurred last week.