Nov 04 2008
THIS is why I stopped going to church…
One of the higher-ups at my workplace emailed us the following today:
Subject: What God says about our elections— Read before you vote
Body: Read Ecclesiastes 10:2 in the NIV. It is very instructive.
So I went online and looked up various translations of the verse in question.
- NIV: The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
- King James: A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left.
- Contemporary English: Sensible thoughts lead you to do right; foolish thoughts lead you to do wrong.
- New Living Translation: A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one.
(translations courtesy of BibleGateway.com)
And now I am so, so pissed off… And dammit, I was in a good mood today before that little gem arrived in my inbox.
P.S. For those of us unencumbered by religious teachings, the right/left thing is referring to the belief that an angel sits on our right shoulder, and a devil on our left, so our decisions should be pleasing to god (on the right side), and not the devil (on the left side). That is also why in Russia we spit over our left shoulder (into the devil’s face) when we don’t want something bad to happen. That is also why the priest got so mad at Dad at my baptism, when Dad accidentally crossed himself left-to-right instead of right-to-left. It has NOTHING to do with politics.
6 Responses to “THIS is why I stopped going to church…”
But you must admit… it IS a convenient interpretation, is it not? :) One of the Oh-so-many reasons we don’t go to church anymore…..
One of many reasons I don’t go either. I’m soooooo glad I will not be getting any more messages on my machine from the republican party, especially the religious and anti-abortion ones telling me to respect the “sanctity” of human life by voting republican. So tired of them mixing religion with politics… whatever happened to separation of church and state?
You should have done what I just did to my brother-in-law’s e mail for this election morning. I deleted it. Get your good mood back, vote left.
And you’re not even ALLOWED to vote anyway….
She can vote, she just gets deported
ohmigod…i am just beyond words…people should really not forward their relgious – political belief emails. tell ‘em to write in and vote for “Jesus for President”. lol