debts & trespasses

[Brian D. McCary]

Even translating the lords prayer into "standard" english presents 
problems....

Back when my parents still had be brainwashed into attending church,
I went (almost) every sunday to the Dutch Reformed Church.  On those
odd occasions when I visited other churches, I would be blissfully
experiencing a sense of oneness with the rest of the congregation 
during the lp until suddenly, everyone else would be trying to cram
three sylables (trespasses) where only one belonged (debts).  It was
years before I found out that it was I who was non-standard.

The differance is not irrelevant.  Trespasses connotes property values
as being primary, while debts inplies fiscal concerns and a certain
abstract character to sin.  Maybe one of the reasons that I fell so 
hard for Pynchon and his ruminations on money, shit, and the Word
was this early indoctrination.

If someone chooses to translate the lords prayre into ebonics in order
to propogate christian claptrap, I might have a bone to pick with them,
but at least their intentions are honest and they are following a long
tradition of secularization.  But as a joke, I find it no more 
amusing than hearing people say "forgive us our trespasses".

Brian McCary