Stupid But Still Loved

"Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed." - From The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

One of the newsletters to which I subscribe recently listed some of the stupid things public figures have been caught saying. Curious, I thought there must be a website listing that kind of stuff. There is, no there are thousands. Samples:

"The people in the Navy look on motherhood as being compatible with being a woman."
-Rear Admiral James R. Hogg

"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."
-- Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D, Calif.)

"You can't just let nature run wild."
-- Wally Hickel, former governor of Alaska

And of course there are whole sites with President Bushisms, like:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

The same for former VP Al Gore: "When my sister and I were growing up," Mr. Gore told a small audience made up mostly of women, "there was never any doubt in our minds that men and women were equal, if not more so." (Source: NY Times, 08/12/00)

And so it goes.

Then I listened to a Lutheran Hour sermon podcast about this misquote from the Bible: "The love of money is the root of all evil." That got me thinking about how many sayings supposedly in the Bible there are. Here's a short list:

*Pride goes before a fall.
*Cleanliness is next to godliness.
*Adam and Eve ate from an apple.
*All things work out for the best
*God helps them who help themselves.
*Do unto others before they do it unto you.
*Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

It gets worse when people start using the Bible to try be funny. Samples:

Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.

Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible?
A. Pharaoh's daughter. She went down to the bank of the Nile and drew out a little prophet.

Q. What kind of man was Boaz before he got married?
A. Ruth-less.

Q. Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible?
A. Samson. He brought the house down.

Q. Where is the first baseball game in the Bible?
A. In the big inning, Eve stole first, Adam stole second. Cain struck out Abel, and the Prodigal Son came home. The Giants and the Angels were rained out.

Q. What is one of the first things that Adam and Eve did after they were kicked out?
A. They really raised Cain.

Q. The ark was built in 3 stories, and the top story had a window to let light in, but how did they get light to the bottom 2 stories?
A. They used floodlights.

If you're still reading, please forgive me. I'm only trying to make a point. We all do stupid things, say stupid things, sometimes misquote the Bible and talk out of turn. What does that make us? Human.

Here's what the Bible says about stupid humans:

"Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1

"So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly." Ecclesiastes 7:25

"Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is." Ecclesiastes 10:3

"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." 2 Timothy 2:23

The wonder of Christmas is that our eternal, all-knowing, perfect God chose to become human with us. We join shepherds to worship the Child, Jesus, the God-Man. Here's another real quote from the Bible:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth," John 1:14.