Lasto beth Lammen - Is your religion nuts?

[Ghân-buri-Ghân]

Plank, beam or log... any one of them is going to make a grizzly mess of an eye socket and everything attached to it if insertion is attempted. The imagery is alarming enough to distract me from the meaning of the metaphor every time I see it.

Maria, I think that might even make it more helpful to understand the nuances, that the judge's eyesight, and hence capacity for judgement, is ruined by the mess the beam makes to their own eye. Jesus is proposing that those who judge are afflicted, and have neither the capacity nor capability to make sound judgement. It was for these very revolutionary preachings that Jesus became such a threat to the establishment (if the myth is to be believed).

[Túrin Turambar]

Yes, it is significant that the offending object is in the eye. The quote wouldn't have been the same had it been 'wash the mud off your own shirt before brushing the dust off your neighbour's' or something to that effect.

[Lalaith]

The mental image of people walking around with planks in their eye did always make me chuckle.

Ah, well, then you would've appreciated the recent skit I was part of but not privy to the prop-making beforehand. Therefore, when the lady with the "plank" in her eye came out I was quite proud of myself that I did not burst into hysterical laughter.

She fashioned her own "plank" out of a long, round tube of styrofoam. She covered it with light brown duct tape (rather than dark brown). She attached it to an old pair of glasses.

It looked, for all the world, like a giant penis sticking out of her eye.

And log, beam, or plank, I don't think "penis" was ever in the running for a possible translation of the word.

<--Um, not going there.

ETA: Oh wait! I found a picture!

[Ghân-buri-Ghân]

Lalaith.....

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Oh my.

[Frelga]

Oh dear.

[WampusCat]

Well, that'll get the churchgoers talking!

[vison]

Holy cats.

[yovargas]

[Lalaith]

Aaaaand I think I have just won the "Is your religion nuts?" contest.

Thank you very much.


(For the record, neither of those ladies in that picture is me.)

[River]

Wow.

I'm not sure I'd've seen a penis right away, but I can guarantee I would have cracked up just because the alternative would be cowering in terror. Seriously. That's completely absurd.

[vison]

River, do you remember the Sasquatch?

[River]

[RoseMorninStar]

I think the log/plank metaphor was purposely something that could NOT fit in one's eye.. inviting greater introspection on one's own failings (rather than the faults/failings of others.) If, for example.. a splinter and a twig comparison would have been used.. I think people would find it too easy to quibble about the POINT of the parable in the first place.

[Rowanberry]

ROFL Lali!

Well, my two cents in a nutshell:

Having faith in a deity = not nuts.

Blindly believing just anything and everything you're told in the name of a deity = nuts.

[WampusCat]

Those two cents are worth a million, Rowan! Well said.

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh My Goodness.. I wonder what kind of metaphor we could come up with for a penis in the eye? Is worth two in the bush?


I'll stop now..


Well said Rowanberry!

[Lalaith]

Oh My Goodness.. I wonder what kind of metaphor we could come up with for a penis in the eye? Is worth two in the bush?


I'll stop now..

Rowan, I think those are wise words.

[River]

[Primula Baggins]