People forget speeches but remember quotes. Quotations
are so much easier to fit into slogans, bumper stickers,
and memes. And by removing context, you can easily
oversimplify messages and demonize opponents. Quotes
can therefore communicate ideas radically different from a
speaker’s original intention.
Do Not Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand
Is Doing.”
Book Of Matthew
Matthew 6:3 is often held up as example of the Bible being
full of nonsensical commands and advice. It was
lampooned at length in a Peanuts comic strip, where Sally
Brown’s left and right hands argue with each other while
she tries to write something on a piece of paper.
Christopher Hitchens’s best seller God is Not Great singled
the verse out for its “ pseudo-profundity .”
Actual meaning:
This is a simple matter of the quote becoming completely
coherent if you just know the words in front of it. The full,
intended message is: “But when you give to the needy, do
not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”
The point is that you should not be boastful about or feel
the need to draw attention to your charity. That might not
be the deepest point to make, but it’s hardly the pseudo-
profundity that Hitchens and others assert.
No comments:
Post a Comment