Holy cow!
So a bunch of Christians recognized that our economy is in bad shape, which is true. They decided to pray about this, as is their custom. In the spirit of solidarity, community togetherness, and teamwork, they decided to meet up and pray all together. They wanted to do this at an appropriate place, and so picked the throbbing heart of our economy, Wall Street - and fair enough, at that. So they all got together in front of the headquarters of that economic titan, Merrill Lynch.
Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a bunch of Christians pray, but one thing they like to do is to lay on hands. The laying on of hands is an important tradition, it serves as a focus for them to concentrate their magic. Unable to actually touch the economy itself, as it's not a physical thing per se, they looked around for the nearest symbol they could find.
Which was, of course, a great bronze bull.
Clearly, someone needs to go back to Sunday School.
I told this story to one of my coworkers. I had been practicing that little speech above ever since reading the story, and I was telling anyone who I thought would be receptive. Well, my coworker (let's call him "M") just kind of looks at me funny. I then added, "Well, they clearly never read the book of Exodus, or at least don't remember it." He then said something that's still ringing in my ears.
"Oh, I wouldn't know about that. I'm an atheist."
I wanted to give him a big hug. But that probably would have been inappropriate, so I just said, "Hey, so am I!" I then explained the story of when Moses went up Mount Sinai and Aaron & the Hebrews got so antsy waiting that they melted down all their gold into a golden calf, which they worshipped until God saw this and got so pissed off that he would have killed them all, had Moses not immediately changed God's mind. His response? "Yeah, see, that's the kind of stuff that I just don't get. Why go around smiting when you could just sit 'em down and talk to them? It just doesn't make any sense."
I had to bite my tongue in order not to say, "I love you."
Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a bunch of Christians pray, but one thing they like to do is to lay on hands. The laying on of hands is an important tradition, it serves as a focus for them to concentrate their magic. Unable to actually touch the economy itself, as it's not a physical thing per se, they looked around for the nearest symbol they could find.
Which was, of course, a great bronze bull.
Clearly, someone needs to go back to Sunday School.
I told this story to one of my coworkers. I had been practicing that little speech above ever since reading the story, and I was telling anyone who I thought would be receptive. Well, my coworker (let's call him "M") just kind of looks at me funny. I then added, "Well, they clearly never read the book of Exodus, or at least don't remember it." He then said something that's still ringing in my ears.
"Oh, I wouldn't know about that. I'm an atheist."
I wanted to give him a big hug. But that probably would have been inappropriate, so I just said, "Hey, so am I!" I then explained the story of when Moses went up Mount Sinai and Aaron & the Hebrews got so antsy waiting that they melted down all their gold into a golden calf, which they worshipped until God saw this and got so pissed off that he would have killed them all, had Moses not immediately changed God's mind. His response? "Yeah, see, that's the kind of stuff that I just don't get. Why go around smiting when you could just sit 'em down and talk to them? It just doesn't make any sense."
I had to bite my tongue in order not to say, "I love you."