Acts 2:13

In typically lo-sensitive fashion, that's how I shot off a message to a listserv I have frequented since 1997, a forum that had recently begun discussing faith based federal funding, and in an attempt to be funny I blasphemed the lord, and lo, there was offense and I was e-smoted and burned by flame.

I honestly don't intend to offend, and every time someone publicly points out my faults, I'm the loudest with the Amens from the peanut gallery, cause my faults they are fruitful and multiplied. But nowadays, turning the other cheek leads to accusations of demagoguery. I'm no victim. I've worked hard for all my criticisms.

Instead, I decided I would make a reasoned appeal that a little harmless humor can often be the bread broken between friend and foe, and my faith, while fractured and roadburned, remains almost superstitious in its determination. So I chose to reference a biblical passage that might make my point for me, in the words of elders, inspired from above.

/logs on to biblegateway.com

/performs search for 'humor'

"Sorry. No results found for "humor" in Keyword Search."

Fuck.

/performs search for 'joke'

"Sorry. No results found for "joke" in Keyword Search."

Good God, I thought. Do the characters in the Bible never laugh?

/Job 5:22: "You will laugh at destruction and famine."

I could do famine jokes. And destruction, well, there's endless material there. My dad always said the world was a funny place, right before he destroyed our lives. I didn't know he was quoting the Good Book.

In the end, however, I decided against carrying on with the discussion, and allowed the complaint to stand. After all, the Bible's a big book, and I would no doubt fall victim to an even more appropriate counterargument, that might, perhaps, hit a little too close to home.

/Acts 2:13: Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."