The sign in front of the United Church of Christ congregation in Limerick, PA read: "If only thou wilt worship me, then all will be thine" (Luke 4:7).
Sounds pious, eh? Until you notice that the person who speaks those words in the Gospel is SATAN.
Oops. Better change that sign. Blogger Justin Taylor cites this as evidence of biblical illiteracy. I think he's right. I don't think the UCC people in Limerick really want you to worship the devil. Considering that the UCC is one of the most liberal denominations in America, there's a good chance they don't even believe the devil exists.
The latest motto of the United Church of Christ is "God Still Speaks." And as Russell Moore over at Mere Comments notes, whether we believe in him or not, the devil is still talking too.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
United Church of Christ Advocating Devil Worship
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3 comments:
The comments in some of the other blogs noting this curious text are reporting that the sign was the result of the church's web page being hacked (the verse has now been replaced with the church's phone number). Supposedly a statement is pending. If you visit the page now it says, "For those of you who were kind enough to inform us about our previously inaccurate quote... we thank you!"
http://www.stjamesucclimerick.org/
This morning it appears that hackers were not involved after all - but rather it was an issue of illiteracy as you suggest (either illiteracy or laziness in not looking up the text in context).
Here is the statment from their page:
"We were recently made aware that the former quote we had posted in the header on our site was actually not based on the word of Jesus but was a quote posed to him during his temptation. As soon as we were made aware of this we removed the quote from our site. We removed it...not hackers as some ill-informed bloggers would have you believe. This lesson is a demonstration why when using tools online to identify quotes that you think deliver the honest and sincere message you intended you should always view the quotes in their whole context." (Emphasis added)
haha
funny and sad
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