A few years back I was working at a factory. There were all sorts of people there. All ethnicities, both men and women.
It was a meat packing place. On the line I was working, one of my female co-workers asked me if I had noticed that this other female co-worker had lost weight.
Told her, "I'm not supposed to."
She said, "What are you talking about? Yes you have."
I repeated, "I'm not supposed to, it's in the Bible."
Her, "You're lying, it IS not!"
I said, "Yes it is, it's one of the 10 Commandments."
Her, "It IS not, you're lying."
Me, "It's in there "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife." That's Joe's wife and I'm not supposed be appraising her like that"
She, "You're making that up!"
Now I'm amazed at this woman because the whole bunch of 'em are always talking about church and what they wear to church and all that. Me, I'm not any of that but was taken to church regularly as a child and some of the fundamentals stuck. Also, the woman we were discussing, in addition to be married was, in my view, unattractive married or not, so I was not going to look at her too closely in any circumstance.
My co-worker called to another guy we worked with and told him what we were talking about and he, too, thought I was lying. Two church goers, neither familiar with the 10 Commandments. That's their top ten! How can they not know their top ten? How does a heathen know, and they don't?
The other guy called home and talked to his mother and asked her. She looked it up! His mother, the church lady, had to look it up. She told him, "yes, it's in the Bible." He told me he thought I was bullshitting, which I was to deflect from the subject of the unattractive co-worker's weight loss, but I thought I was covering myself fairly well. What I uncovered, was some church people who don't know beans about their own book or some it's main fundamental principals.
It is a mark of the mentally unfit that they are ignorant of their own Holy Book.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not their own ignorance." (Sorry, I just could not resist putting out that piece of snark.)
New crappy neighbor from North Carolina, said he would like to punch Governor Inslee in the back of the head and shove his personal parts down AOC's throat.(that's not the word he used) Then he goes on to talk about his belief in "god". I should ask him in front of his wife and ten year old adopted daughter if that is part of religion.
Cute way of commenting and avoiding a negative statement all at once.
Perhaps the word covet in the commandment was the stumbling block for many of your Christian acquaintances. I have a feeling it was not a word they found in their vocabulary.
I was kinda/sorta going by this:
[merriam-webster.com]
Seems they’re all Hypocrites … where so often, those with true morals eventually turn out to be Atheists!
My Mother, and Atheist, has multiple stories of ‘church-goers’ describing her as ‘holy.’ Couldn’t believe she's ‘not religious,’ due to how honest, kind, and disciplined she is. I’ve experienced the same; had a comment from a Fundementalist coworker who couldn’t understand why I didn’t cuss constantly..
And yes, even I’ve honored the one about not coveting another guys wife … to the point my sex drive was likely doubted. So, there’s a ‘church guy’ where I currently work, filthiest shit imaginable out of his mouth! ...and wonders why I don’t reciprocate..
We’re good - they’re not ~
...wow.. I generally post before reading ..keeps from responding to ‘a response.’ It appears you’re taking a raft of shit! Glad I got it - good post
This story is troubling on so many levels, whether directly stated or implied. First, that one's faith is supposed to blind one to a fact. Second, that recognition of a fact, in this case weight loss, dooms one to violating the 10th commandment. Third, that weight loss for women is only to make them more attractive to men. Fourth, the admission that if the woman who lost weight were more attractive to you, she'd garner a closer look, perhaps tempting you to violate the 7th commandment, if only in your heart [Matthew 5:28.] Please reread your post, while putting yourself in your co-worker's shoes--the one whom you've simply called, Joe's wife--and perhaps I won't be the only man to sense a tone of sexism in this story.
Wow, you misunderstand the term "covet" and/or you think that noticing that a woman has lost weight means she is presumed to be suddenly sexier. Perhaps we need to write a new bible on how not to show disrespect to women, married or otherwise.
Men seem to absorb an unhealthy view of women by still seeing women in biblical terms, even if they now question the bible and don't realize how disrespectful their comments are.
Nothing wrong with noticing a person has lost weight - could be because she is ill or because she is focusing on her health. It's wrong to comment in such a way that devalues her as a person, and judges her only on her sex appeal.
A more appropriate response to your co-worker's comment about another co-worker's sudden weight loss might be "Yes, I hope she isn't ill and that her weight loss is intentional." Unless your co-worker said "Did you notice how much sexier (Joe's wife) is?"
"Appraising" her? Did your co-worker ask you to "appraise" Joe's wife regarding her sex appeal? Or just ask if you thought she had lost weight, out of concern for her health - or as a kudo to her for working successfully toward her health goals.
You consider Joe's wife to be "unnattractive" so that's why you didn't notice her sudden weight loss? Maybe next time a question like that comes up, you should just stick to "No, I didn't notice."
So the Torah had 611 laws which nobody seemed to be able to remember very well so they consolidated it down to the 10 Commandments so dumb fucks could do a better job of keeping things straight but even that was not enough so apparently Jesus got it down to just 2 fundamental laws - love each other and love god. Now basically Jesus's laws are just one law if you consider that we are expressions of god according to 'The Book' - people still can't get that shit right, dumber than sticks.