Does My Argument in Authorized Apply to Old Hymns?
A pastor friend in urban Chicago asked a great question: How does the case you make in your book regarding [unintelligible language in] the KJV apply to our hymnody? I'm editing our Sunday slide presentation and am finding that the “thees” and “thous,” while beautiful and transcendent, may not be clear to an outsider attending our fellowship. In some cases, the old English is updatable without ruining the message or meter. But, in other cases a small tweak would ruin a rhyme. I replied that...
“Grandfathered In,” Racism, and a Copy-Editor’s True Calling
It seems that the phrase “grandfathered in”—as in, “Smokers who were already working at the company were grandfathered into the new health plan, but new hires won’t be able to get on if they smoke”—has its origins in overtly unjust, racist practices. This was sent to me by an editor from a website for copy-editors. And those unjust and racist practices, by the way, were truly terrible. Hateful. But I’m left wondering why a copy-editor thought a bunch of other copy-editors should know all this....
A Book Review, Or, What Bothers Me About Self-Help Books
By page 3 of most self-help books, I start hearing a cheery person intoning in the background, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough. By page 10: And, doggone it, people like me! Without denying that I should Win Friends and Influence People, go from Good to Great, and work harder at Getting Things Done—indeed, without denying that there is a lot of practical wisdom in these books that I ought to heed—I get a little frustrated with their vapidity quotient. Could anything be more clichéd than...
A Funny False Friend
The ESV (2000s) of 1 Thessalonians 5:22: Abstain from every form of evil. Wycliffe’s translation (1380s) of the same verse: Absteyne you fro al yuel spice. Why did Wycliffe take a very general command—the most general command possible—and focus it on a very specific sin that, I would say, is no longer a temptation? I personally, at least, have never been drawn toward yule spice, which I presume is some kind of mixed drink consumed at Christmas. Actually, we’re dealing with “false friends”...
Papple
True story I just have to share somewhere: I recently asked a precious and generous and godly and intelligent family friend if she had “Apple Pay,” the iPhone-based payment system, so I could quickly remunerate her for something she'd just given my wife. She just stared at me. She thought I was using Pig Latin—applepay—and she didn't know what “Papple” was, or why she would be expected to have it. This error that only a clever person could make has brought me no end of delight. (It turns out...