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Bible Drama at Work

  • Mar. 28th, 2008 at 11:24 AM
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Thought I'd share this little email exchange we had at work...

Step 1, an announcement goes out from K that L has become engaged. The announcement includes a bible verse (in largish purple font, but I've spared you that):

LOVE is patient and kind;
LOVE is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude.
LOVE does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.
LOVE bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
LOVE never ends...
So faith, hope, love abide, these three,
but the greatest of these
is LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13

A few folks return generic congratulations. Step 2, S returns another bible quote:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

I note, aloud, as S sits within earshot of me, "Ahh, S, I'm not sure that's thematically appropriate." He replies, "Well, as long as we're exchanging bible quotes...". Several more generic congratulations trickle in.

Step 3, one of the team leads adds:

Team – While I’m happy that we congratulate and celebrate our individual successes (personal and work-related), let’s please remember that we are a diverse group of people with many different beliefs (religious, ethic, etc.). Please keep your work e-mails professional and neutral.

Thanks… and Congratulations to L.

S is kind of an ass, really.

  • Mood: cold
  • Music:Holly Cole - Allison

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[info]wyvernfree wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 03:51 pm (UTC)
*reads*

*rereads*

No, I still don't get it. Is this some sort of cryptic attack on K's management style? Does he think somebody's in for a smiting? Or did he just pick some random verse to confuse everybody?
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[info]sarudy wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 03:57 pm (UTC)
Essentially, S was annoyed at the bible quote, because he's kind of knee-jerk like that. So he picked something either at random or that was deliberately inappropriate in order to be obnoxious about it.
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[info]yolen wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 04:21 pm (UTC)
It's a quote from "Pulp Fiction". It's what Samuel L. Jackson's character recites before killing people in the movie. It's either a fake Bible quote, or a mishmash of a couple of biblical quotes, something like that.

I think it was pretty funny of S to use that as a reply. But I guess I'm assy when it comes to stuff like that :D.
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[info]sarudy wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 04:24 pm (UTC)
If it had been a random 'uplifting' quote, then I would have thought a comeback was called for. In an engagement announcement, though, I think that particular bible verse just counts as thematically appropriate poetry and responding with anything other than congratulations is kind of unnecessary.
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[info]trixtah wrote:
Mar. 29th, 2008 12:02 am (UTC)
I tend to agree, but I think sending out a poetic screed in a professional context is unnecessary as well. It was a stupid response by your colleague, but announcing your engagement in such a smarmy fashion via email - presumably to people you aren't formally inviting to the wedding - would have irritated me as well. The team lead definitely did the right thing there.
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[info]sarudy wrote:
Mar. 29th, 2008 01:40 am (UTC)
They also announce birthdays and impending births, so the engagement thing struck me mostly as social gossip. The announcement was also sent out by a friend of the girl who got engaged, rather than the girl herself. Personally, I generally ignore the mass emails, sign birthday cards, and make polite congratulations in passing as appropriate.
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[info]spoondave wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 06:20 pm (UTC)
It's real enough--it's one of the Psalms, though I can't recall which one offhand.
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[info]sarudy wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 06:21 pm (UTC)
Ezekiel 25:17, perchance?
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[info]spoondave wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 06:27 pm (UTC)
Yeah...I was thinking of Psalm 23. I confused the images of the "path of the righteous man set upon on all sides by the tyranny of evil men" and "walking through the valley of the shadow of death, yet fearing no evil."
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[info]spoondave wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 06:21 pm (UTC)
Oh, nope. My bad. It really is Ezekiel. Could have sworn it was a Psalm. Glad my mom doesn't read LJ...
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[info]yolen wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 08:16 pm (UTC)
Ah, I guess I was misinformed. Too bad, I liked it better when I thought it was something Tarantino slapped together for the movie. Oh well.
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[info]stori_lundi wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 08:56 pm (UTC)
Nope, it was the real verse. Nice touch that. (S might be an ass, but he's funny. ;) One of the Songs of Solomon would have been good too.

My favorite Psalm is the one about dashing the heads of enemy children against the rocks. They aren't all "fear no evil" and "god is really cool".
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[info]yolen wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 09:45 pm (UTC)
Ok, glad I'm not along in thinking S is an ass, but a funny one :P.

Wow, there's a Psalm about viscous infanticide!? Um, yeah, nice. How do people justify things like that when they are doing Bible study and such? I'm skeered.
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[info]stori_lundi wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 09:58 pm (UTC)
Psalm 137, specifically verse 9:

8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

9. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

The first part was used in Godspell for the lyrics of "On the willows there, we hung up our lyres." Pretty lyrics during an especially moving part of the show depicting the Last Supper. The song stops short of the dashing children against the rocks tho'. ;)
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[info]yolen wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 09:45 pm (UTC)
Love the dancing Aquaman icon!
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[info]catwithbell wrote:
Mar. 28th, 2008 05:31 pm (UTC)
Ah, the magic of Reply All!
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[info]the_malum wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2008 10:57 pm (UTC)
Hmmm... I could have sworn that Corinthians verse went like this:

but the greatest of these is CASH.
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