…and this is a 
Where's Charlton Heston when you need him?
Category: Religion
Posted on: October 29, 2008 9:59 PM, by PZ Myers
Some Christian fanatics are concerned, quite reasonably, about the economy, and have chosen, quite absurdly, to try and correct the problem with prayer. So far, so typical, but then … well, they picked a peculiarly oblivious way to do it. They prayed before a statue of a golden bull on Wall Street.
We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion's Market,' or God's control over the economic systems. While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.
Just a clue: there's this book called "the bible" that these people claim to follow, but I suspect they've never actually read it, or they might have seen Exodus 32.
1And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 5And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. 6And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
They even made a movie of it, if cracking a book is too highbrow.
Trust me, this is one of those things in the Judeo-Christian heritage that never ends well. There's this jealous god who does smitings.
Comments
Posted by: Blake Stacey | October 29, 2008 10:03 PM
Holy fuck.
Posted by: Shaden Freud | October 29, 2008 10:04 PM
Biblical fail.
Posted by: Bardiac | October 29, 2008 10:05 PM
You couldn't make that up, you know?
Posted by: Matthew | October 29, 2008 10:06 PM
I didn't know I was in the Twilight Zone. And I just bought my new irony meter, too. I have no words.
Posted by: 24fps | October 29, 2008 10:06 PM
Luckily there isn't a smiting god actually in existence -- so the worst that's likely to happen to this bunch is that they'll look silly while losing their shirts.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | October 29, 2008 10:06 PM
No statues of Baal were available, y'see...
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 29, 2008 10:08 PM
They should have focused on the south end of the north facing bull. It would be much more appropriate.
Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | October 29, 2008 10:10 PM
No, holy cow.
Posted by: jb | October 29, 2008 10:10 PM
OMG, OT guys had earrings!! Just like today! We're doomed to be smited!! So I expect the stock market to drop 2000 tomorrow, and I'll never be able to retire.
Posted by: Troff | October 29, 2008 10:14 PM
Fantastic. Please, let me be the first to say:
"BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!".
I needed that. I really did. Thank you.
I know it's off-topic, but I wanted to mention I found a method for scaring off JWs from your Saturday mornings (and since I had to close my blog, I couldn't boast there). Just point out God's evil nature as documented in Genesis chapters 2 and 3. They actually walked off saying "well, you have your opinion and we have ours"... as I was saying "wait, please! I want to understand why you still believe the things you do in spite of this new explanation...!"
I'm hoping they didn't hear, as they were leaving, my partner asking me "Tsk, did you break their brains?"
We now return you to tonight's episode of "Financial Idol", the Christian Round...
Posted by: The Chemist | October 29, 2008 10:15 PM
My response as soon as I hit the words "golden bull":
You're shitting me.
You're shitting me.
You're shitting me.
You're shitting me.
No! You're not shitting me! Hole-eee-Crap! That is seriously fucked up. I'm totally sending this to friends.
Wow.
Posted by: Larry | October 29, 2008 10:16 PM
This is simply so unbelievably weird, I can't even think of something really sarcastic to say about it. You just can't make this sillier than it is.
Posted by: Feynmaniac | October 29, 2008 10:17 PM
LMAO!!! I am always amazed about how little Christians actually now about their whole religion.
Posted by: Prillotashekta | October 29, 2008 10:17 PM
Ha-Ha!
Oh, the irony is just too rich!
Posted by: sailor | October 29, 2008 10:17 PM
Do you all remember when they were praying for oil prices to come down?
Well they did along with the economy. I guess you have to be careful what you pray for!
Posted by: Bob Carroll | October 29, 2008 10:22 PM
No other gods before me? Golden calf? Folly to be wise!
Posted by: Carlie | October 29, 2008 10:22 PM
Oh no they didn't.
Seriously, I had one of those kids' illustrated Bibles that specifically illustrated this exact story, and it did not end well. I knew this when I was 10.
Posted by: Dave Lager | October 29, 2008 10:22 PM
The New Testament makes it quite plain how Jesus views those who worship money. Don't these people ever get beyond the bits that bang on about The Gays?
Posted by: H.H. | October 29, 2008 10:23 PM
That's good.
Posted by: S.Scott | October 29, 2008 10:24 PM
LMAO! Oh - it hurts!! LoL!
Posted by: John Morales | October 29, 2008 10:27 PM
Language fails me - I am at a loss for a superlative to express the dramatic irony I find here.
Unbe-fucken-lievable! doesn't come close to it.
Posted by: Monado | October 29, 2008 10:31 PM
As a young person, I never understood why the people made a golden calf. Someone eventually made the point that cows are a fertility symbol and it was probably a reversion to a former religion or a borrowing of their neighbors' religion.
Posted by: Zombie | October 29, 2008 10:34 PM
Man, you just can't make stuff like this up...
Posted by: The Chemist | October 29, 2008 10:35 PM
I had to make the LOL.
Enjoy.
Posted by: Michelle | October 29, 2008 10:35 PM
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... Seems we atheists know the bible better than these pipes for brains do...
They sure love pissing their god off.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | October 29, 2008 10:40 PM
Oh, how quickly they forget.
I can't imagine anyone familiar with the Bible not knowing the story of the Golden Calf. And now these Mooncalf-worshipping interlopers actually think . . .
Boggled. I am truly boggled.
What's next, Xtians promoting Egyptian gods as examples of being in touch with the natural world? I'll wager three quatloos that this happens within the next cycle. Any takers?
Posted by: Wowbagger | October 29, 2008 10:42 PM
Christians who know nothing of the bible? There's a shock. This shows not only ignorance of the OT - with the whole idolatry thing - but also the NT, with what JC said about how we shouldn't hoard wealth.
[Biblical] epic fail!
Posted by: amphiox | October 29, 2008 10:43 PM
I'm a little rusty on my bible, but is there really any substantial part of said book that actually "bangs on the Gays." My understanding was that the strongest prohibition was actually found something like twenty-third on a list of fifty-something proscribed practices that served to distinguish the Hebrew tribe from their neighbours.
In short of list of little things, all ethically on par with "thou shalt not eat shellfish on Tuesdays after 5:00pm"
I should also point out that in this case it is a golden BULL, not a golden CALF. And therein lies the fundamental difference which makes it ok! (It is a subtlety that only an appropriately honed religious mind can ever hope to comprehend. This, in fact, is the fundamental purpose of seminary.)
Posted by: Peter | October 29, 2008 10:43 PM
Thanks. You made me spit soda all over my keyboard.
It came out my nose and everything.
Posted by: Paper Hand | October 29, 2008 10:51 PM
Monado @ 22:
The story of the golden bull was political. In I Kings chapter 12, King Jeroboam of Israel (there were two kingdoms at that point, Israel, in the north, and Judah in the south) set up two golden calves at the northern and southern ends of his kingdom. The probable reason for that was that the Ark of the Covenenant, which was located in Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, had two golden statues on it. Jeroboam wanted to keep his people from worshiping at the rival Jerusalem, and so set up his own temples. So, the Jerusalem priesthood created the story of the Golden Calf to discredit Jeroboam's act. Quoting from my 101 Myths of the Bible:
Posted by: Mammon | October 29, 2008 10:54 PM
From the good people who put "In God We Trust" on the dollar bill. Disgusting yet not surprising.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | October 29, 2008 10:57 PM
The Chemist:
Ooh, ooh, let me play too!
Posted by: Nerdette | October 29, 2008 10:58 PM
Oh, the sweet sweet taste of irony in the evening. This makes me so happy.
Posted by: I am so wise | October 29, 2008 10:59 PM
In few decades, the director of Idiocracy will be hailed as a 21th century Nostradamus.
Posted by: Kel | October 29, 2008 11:02 PM
And Office Space will serve as a documentary...Posted by: noncarborundum | October 29, 2008 11:03 PM
And an opera, in case the Bible is too lowbrow. And a movie of the opera. Something for everyone!
Posted by: sabazinus | October 29, 2008 11:03 PM
Now if there were a god, and he was angry about them praying near this symbol, the correct punishment would be for the statue to spring into life and trample them all.
Now if it were an Elder God...then it would come to life and devour their souls or drive them mad with loud lip smacking noises and perhaps some light flute music. Oh, and numinous ichor, can't forget that. Buckets of it.
Either way, the market will continue to be strange until other economic issues settle down.
Posted by: Doubting Foo | October 29, 2008 11:05 PM
VOTE!!!
Posted by: Cuttlefish, OM | October 29, 2008 11:05 PM
Ya gotta be careful with these Bull statues. Recall that earlier this year (late January), brokers at the Bombay Stock Exchange wanted their own bull statue... turned around.
As I wrote at the time...
[...]
On January 12th this year,
A statue of a bull was placed
Outside the Bombay Stock Exchange--
The steps, behind; the street, it faced.
The sculpture is a work of art
Expressing movement, form, and mass,
But brokers in the building want
To relocate the statue's ass.
The bull's hind end is magic, see,
And has the strange ability
To influence the world, and cause
The market's volatility!
That's right--it's not the sub-prime stuff,
It's not the housing market bubble,
But a bronze bull's butt in Old Bombay
That must have caused the market's trouble.
Don't fret about your stocks and bonds
Investments now are clearly sound;
Just get the Mumbai analysts
To turn their magic bull around.
And once you do, please be assured,
The market will again be steady,
And we can deal with other things--
There's far, far too much bull already.
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/01/now-thats-lot-of-bull.html
Posted by: folk FAce | October 29, 2008 11:07 PM
now THAt is funny shit. wish i had seen it first.
Posted by: Hank Fox | October 29, 2008 11:08 PM
Future sessions of this faith outreach effort will involve praying over a life-sized statue of Colonel Sanders to block future outbreaks of avian flu, and placing prayerful hands on the TV screen during Roadrunner cartoons to prevent falls during summer vacations at the Grand Canyon (and possibly exploding rocket skates).
Posted by: Dale Husband | October 29, 2008 11:15 PM
Maybe it was all meant as a blasphemous joke?
Besides, Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and money." Praying for economic recovery seems so anti-Gospel.
Posted by: Grendels Dad | October 29, 2008 11:20 PM
OK, so we have Mooby, where is "Buddy Christ"?
Posted by: Paul Kuliniewicz | October 29, 2008 11:21 PM
Actually, this has a sort of twisted brilliance to it. If the market goes up, that obviously proves there is a God and that prayer works. If the market goes down, that obviously proves there is a God punishing them for failing to read Exodus. It's a win-win!
Posted by: Dagger | October 29, 2008 11:21 PM
Epic irony.
Posted by: IasonOuabache | October 29, 2008 11:22 PM
Oh.Your.Gods!!! That is the most hilarious thing I have seen all week. I just fell out of my chair laughing.
Posted by: raatrani | October 29, 2008 11:23 PM
@42
But you forget - these are the "name it and claim it" insaneo fundies. Wealth is a right, not something to be earned through hard work.
Posted by: Hairhead | October 29, 2008 11:24 PM
Radical Christians are often the *most* ignorant of their source material, being that they put all of their faith in authoritarian preachers who rant on for hours and who basically put them into suggestible hypnotic states. As just one example: Stephen Baldwin, the youngest and stupidest Baldwin brother became an evangelical Christian after 9/11 and has been going around for several years preaching a gospel of violence (smite the evildoers, etc.). Last year, an interviewer questioned him on his faith and his knowledge of the Bible, that is, asked him to justify his bellicosity and violence with Bible scripture. He couldn't. Then the interviewer asked him to recite the Ten Commandments. He couldn't recite one.
Get that? Prominent Star-Christian. Couldn't. Recite. ONE. Commandment.
So don't expect any of the fundies you may show this to, complete with Bible testimony, to pay any attention, to think, or to reconsider. They minds (such as they have) have been made up for them by their chosen masters.
Pod-people, all of them.
Run! Run! They're coming for you!
Posted by: hje | October 29, 2008 11:32 PM
I think it's really about the bull representing virility and fertility. Part of the 21st century fertility cult of the religious right, epitomized by the sacred commandment of their newly ordained priestess: "Drill, baby, drill!"
Posted by: Patricia | October 29, 2008 11:33 PM
I am stunned.
Really, this almost poleaxed me.
Laying on of hands, on the Golden Calf.
Note PZ's art above. The calf is a bull calf. Notice also the bare breasted maenad dancing wildly. Pure paganism. The heathen sinners!
I need a drink. I never thought I would witness this sort of thing being done by "christians" in my lifetime.
Posted by: Danny Wool | October 29, 2008 11:35 PM
I hate to tell them that it won't help the economy. If they really want to help, they should sacrifice an infant to Moloch as well, just as the Bible warns them not to do.
Posted by: Amanda | October 29, 2008 11:40 PM
Thanks for the biggest LOL I've had in days.
I can't understand how they could be so oblivious to their own Bible stories as to go and worship in front of a golden bull.
Posted by: hje | October 29, 2008 11:51 PM
Caption: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!"
Posted by: ggab | October 29, 2008 11:52 PM
Reading this post was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Have you ever seen something that is so staggeringly funny that you are incapable of laughter?
I'm just sitting here with my mouth hanging open. I think it's been about 4 minutes since I last took a breath.
oxYgggen suppllllllly tto braaaynn getttngg dnngeruussly lowwwjhgyu//////////////////////////////
God? Is that you?
Posted by: BridgeDweller | October 29, 2008 11:57 PM
This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Especially given that the 10 Commandments is played every Easter surely they must have watched that scene at least once.
How can these book worshipers not know one of the most commonly known stories in their own book? It boggles the mind. Especially given that these are the same people who whine about not being allowed to display the 10 Commandments in public. And they don't even know the story?
I think my capacity to enjoy irony has been destroyed. This is just one inanity too many. I mean the crackers, Palin, a multitude of other absurdities and now this...it is just too much.
Posted by: Zeno | October 29, 2008 11:58 PM
This is priceless. I'm going to bed with a smile on my face. I hope I can go to sleep instead of being kept awake by my constant chuckling.
Posted by: Brandon P. | October 30, 2008 12:01 AM
Reminds me of the people a while back who started a group to pray away rising gas prices. When will these people notice that their allegedly omniscient, omnibenevolent god is not paying attention to these crises?
Posted by: Aquaria | October 30, 2008 12:04 AM
I'm fucking speechless.
Posted by: Kel | October 30, 2008 12:10 AM
I always wonder what God could pragmatically do in a situation like this. Don't these people realise that economic systems are wholly in the hands of men? OPEC controls the world oil price, is God going to fudge the numbers on them?
Posted by: Mulder | October 30, 2008 12:15 AM
The real scary thought is that these dumbass jesus-blowing fundie wackadoos will be 'mainstream' if the senile old fart and Caribou Barbie win the election.
Posted by: Corydoras | October 30, 2008 12:18 AM
There sons wore earrings?
Posted by: Zeno | October 30, 2008 12:22 AM
Our bovine,
Who art in bull-pen,
Merrill be thy name.
Thy cash flow come,
IPO done,
On spec or perhaps on margin.
Give us this day our daily dole
And forgive us our overdrafts
As we forgive those who shortchange against us.
And lead us not into Chapter Eleven,
Or worse yet, Chapter Seven.
Amen.
Posted by: ThinkingApe | October 30, 2008 12:23 AM
Oh, Jesus Christ.....
Posted by: Philip P. | October 30, 2008 12:24 AM
1. @ 18, the anti-homosexual verse is in Leviticus, which comes AFTER Exodus, so they SHOULD be familiar with the golden calf story. Not to mention that yes, this is part of one of the most popular stories in the Bible and is a major scene in a classic movie that is run on network television every year.
2. This is why, as a Christian, I put all my faith in God and nothing in other Christians. Yes, I'll talk to other Christians and go to church when I'm in the mood, but I'm careful to avoid the people that see God as a genie or look for religion to justify what they want to be true, what they already believe. (I think the best sign of faith is when a person can list things they believe that they wish weren't so; it shows they're accepting a faith warts and all, and not just tailoring their religion to fit their personal views...but that's a whole 'nother rant)
3. I'm not trying to stir anything up, I just want to ask, do you have to write 'the Bible' in all lowercase? I understand you consider it to be (all? mostly?) fictional, but it's still a book. Any book's title is supposed to be capitalized, it's just the proper way. Seems petty to me that you'd presumably go out of your way to write it all lowercase just to underscore that you're an atheist.
Posted by: Rey Fox | October 30, 2008 12:31 AM
Reality outpaces satire again.
"We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion's Market,' or God's control over the economic systems."
Really? Come on, you never know what that capricious fucker's gonna do! He might just throw a damn tsunami at lower Manhattan to teach you all a lesson in the perils of Mammon worship. He might incinerate all the world's oil fields (spiriting the greenhouse gases away to Neptune) and send permanent gale force winds through all those wind farms by Palm Springs (thus not only increasing renewable energy, but messing up golf games, two things I favor). You might as well have a ferret market. And anyway, it's my understanding that no matter if the market is up or down, someone somewhere is getting fucked.
Posted by: engel306 | October 30, 2008 12:42 AM
I have been there before and I used to think that a secular place. Now my memory is tainted...
Posted by: John Morales | October 30, 2008 12:43 AM
Zeno @62, very very nice. Kudos.
---
Philip P. @64,
Well, obviously not, but you should allow oppressed minorities their little pleasures, petty as they might be - note also there's a mixture in the comments.Now, the "wholy babble", that's probably intended to be offensive, as compared to "the bible", which merely indicates that it's considered no more than a book.
Posted by: ad | October 30, 2008 12:46 AM
I must be thick or something, but aren't they praying to get rid of the bull? In other words, they aren't actually praying to it, but against it. Never let the truth get in the way of a good public flogging though...
Posted by: llewelly | October 30, 2008 12:50 AM
Does CBN hire people with previous experience at The Onion ?
Posted by: Gary Goldwater | October 30, 2008 12:52 AM
I thought this must be a fake story. But read this!
http://www.cbn.com/700club/guests/bios/cindy_jacobs102008.aspx
Yes, this link is from the Christian Broadcasting Network that is so very popular amongst large numbers of fundamentalist Christians.
Wow wow wow!
I can't wrap my mind around this. Ok...I don't expect that a person whose main interest is religion is likely to be any kind of expert in biology. But I do expect him/her to have a knowledge of his/her religion's "fundamentals". This makes the CBN crowd look REALLY stupid in their own area of supposed expertise.
Posted by: llewelly | October 30, 2008 1:01 AM
Praying against nonetheless indicates a belief that the golden calf has power.Posted by: Crudely Wrott | October 30, 2008 1:02 AM
ad, look closely at the picture. Some of them are actually laying hands upon the horns of the bull, er, golden calf.
I was taught that a good child o' god should rather lay hands upon the horns of the altar.
On further reflection, maybe the statue (graven image) is their altar. Their alter altar. Too bad for them that they violate the very first of the commandments. sigh
Posted by: John Morales | October 30, 2008 1:03 AM
ad @68:
1. Look at the images at the top of this post.
2. Read the words in the post:"They prayed before a statue of a golden bull on Wall Street."
"Never let the truth get in the way..."
Well, you practice that, anyway.
Posted by: Lago | October 30, 2008 1:12 AM
You really didn't need to explain the irony of it all PZ. I think it was rather apparent from he get go.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | October 30, 2008 1:12 AM
I should have added, ala the old DoubleMint Gum commercials, "Two, two, two transgressions in one!"
(An actual count by qualified experts may result is a different count.)
Posted by: llewelly | October 30, 2008 1:15 AM
On second reading, this quote from (NSFW) cbn
indicates that ad, #68, is correct.
The Christians are praying for the bull and bear markets to be replaced with an Aslan market.
Posted by: Cimorene | October 30, 2008 1:15 AM
Ok, I almost fell over laughing. That was hilarious.
Thank you so much for the late-night lulz, PZ :)
Posted by: N.B. | October 30, 2008 1:19 AM
I wish I lived in NY so that I could get two large stone tablets with the Ten Commandments engraved on them and walk down the street to where these people were gathered and shout "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Posted by: Wowbagger | October 30, 2008 1:21 AM
I always thought christianity was bull...
Posted by: amphiox | October 30, 2008 1:22 AM
I really liked the original sites comment that this so-called Lion's Market really boils down to socialism from space.
I've always found it amusing/surprising/perplexing how so many of the religious far right are also fanatical market capitalists.
If you consider that natural selection and the invisible hand are essentially the same concept applied to different systems, that Jesus basically preached socialism, and that the early Christians were the original communists (small c communist, as in living in communes, sharing all wealth, etc) the intellectual disconnect here boggles the mind.
Or at least it boggles my mind, which admittedly is small and limited in many ways.
Posted by: Jadehawk | October 30, 2008 1:26 AM
Philip P. @64
"the bible" is not a book title the same as "the lexicon" or "the dictionary" isn't. "Geneva Bible", or "KJV" or the "Skeptic's Annotated Bible" are titles.
that, plus a lot of us are just too lazy to capitalize stuff. :-p
Posted by: natural cynic | October 30, 2008 1:31 AM
@57
Reminds me of the people a while back who started a group to pray away rising gas prices. When will these people notice that their allegedly omniscient, omnibenevolent god is not paying attention to these crises?
Uh, have you noticed that prices of a gallon of regular are now almost $2.00 less than they were at the peak and that the price of a bbl. of oil has dropped ~50%.
@28
My understanding was that the strongest prohibition was actually found something like twenty-third on a list of fifty-something proscribed practices that served to distinguish the Hebrew tribe from their neighbours.
The Halakha [Mosaic Law, talmudic law] contain 613 mitzvot or commandments, including many thou shalts and also many thou shalt nots. A lot of them are behavoirs to be observed and behaviors to abstain from - many of which are to separate the Hebrews from the Canaanites and other -ites that the Hebrews had to mix with. Others are daily habits and legal procedures.
The specific one against homosexuality warrants death. Among the interpretations of that particular commandment [and, of course its translations and mistranslations] have included the idea that this particular one was a strict commandment to not participate in pagan fertility rituals which included female and male ritual prostitution.
Posted by: Susan | October 30, 2008 1:38 AM
This really is amazing. You'd think someone at the Magic Bull organizing committee meeting would have raised their hand and mentioned the probability of some negative PR and the great photo op for the atheists. It was such a bad idea, it seems deliberate.
If god does somehow wrestle control of the economy away from the Golden Calf, though, do you think he and/or she will provide free checking and good rates?
Posted by: llewelly | October 30, 2008 1:42 AM
Look Susan. You were the first Two Kings and Two Queens to decide you were too 'grown up' to play Narnia games anymore. Aslan might treat you rather coldly, you know.
Posted by: scooter | October 30, 2008 1:47 AM
So they are christians, but don't know one of their own all time classic frightwig stories, astonishing.
But you would think that amonst christians, there would be some sort of ....
....instinctual
or sub-conscious mechanism that whispers not to pray to things with horns, and hoofs, and all.
Posted by: Janine ID AKA The Lone Drinker | October 30, 2008 1:54 AM
I cannot add anything to the sheerest irony of this event. Instead, I hall offer up a tribute to Charlton Heston in song.
The Golden Calf had been offended!
Posted by: Raynfala | October 30, 2008 2:00 AM
It'll never work. God told me that He's been heavily shorting small-cap and medium-cap stocks for several months now, and He's not about to let Himself get taken to the cleaners.
When His shorts are covered, I'll let you know.
Posted by: scooter | October 30, 2008 2:15 AM
In the foreground of the photo above is someone holding up an irony meter, wearing a protective glove.
My guess is, the photo was snapped just in time.
Posted by: dave | October 30, 2008 2:56 AM
I really never understood Exodus 32. Moses just gets finished receiving the ten commandments, one of which is "thou shallt not kill." So what's the first thing he does when he comes down from the mountain? He tells everyone to kill their their brothers, friends, and neighbors, saying that God told him to say it (Exodus 32:27):
27 Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
Posted by: octopod | October 30, 2008 3:36 AM
Does anyone here live in New York and have ties with the Orthodox Jewish community?
If so...are you in a mood to start some shit? I would, if I were there...
Posted by: Magnus | October 30, 2008 3:42 AM
Reality will run the Onion out of business any day now.
Posted by: John C. Randolph | October 30, 2008 4:18 AM
Actually, that bull is bronze, so they can avoid being smote on a technicality.
-jcr
Posted by: Clemens | October 30, 2008 4:41 AM
I begin to get an idea of what you do when you study theology.
You consult the Hebrew original of the Bible and try to figure out whether the "golden" in "golden calf" refers to the material of the calf or to its appearance so you can decide whether a bronze calf would be okay.
Posted by: Rey Fox | October 30, 2008 4:44 AM
"I wish I lived in NY so that I could get two large stone tablets with the Ten Commandments engraved on them and walk down the street to where these people were gathered and shout "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?""
They'd probably lay their hands on those tablets then. You can't shame people who have none.
Posted by: Andreas Johansson | October 30, 2008 5:34 AM
In all likelihood, they haven't read the bits about Teh Gays either, just been told by their preacher that the Bible condemns gayitude.Posted by: Anonymous Coward | October 30, 2008 5:47 AM <