Is somebody trying to tell me something?

[Magrittes Pipe]

On the way to work this morning (no shit), I saw a truck driving up the highway. The company name on the side of the truck was (no shit) "Cumming Power, Inc."

Also on the side of the truck, in big block letters, no shit, was the word "ONAN."

:o

[JanMichael]

1. You should immediately petition Skinner

to change your name to ONAN.

Or WhoisAH?ONAN.

[Magrittes Pipe]

2. No shit.

The mind reels. :D

[radfringe]

3. ummmmm

http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt67.html

THE SIN OF ONAN REVISITED

by Brian W. Harrison


"Onanism", the term derived from Genesis 38: 9-10 which in traditional Christian usage has designated both masturbation and unnatural intercourse between a man and woman, is not exactly a pleasant theme to write about. And in a sense, that fact itself is the short answer to those who claim that these sorts of acts are ethically indifferent or innocent. In other words, the spontaneous negative emotional reaction of ordinary, decent people to such practices is really a 'message' from the God who speaks to us in the still, small voice of our moral conscience.

Most readers will recall that the subject of masturbation made headlines not long ago when U.S. President Bill Clinton dismissed Dr. Joycelyn Elders as Surgeon-General of the United States because of her public statement that in the present AIDS crisis, solitary sex acts might well be discussed sympathetically in school classrooms, as a part of health education. The controversy quickly spread to Puerto Rico, where the present writer resides. While the island's Health Secretary, Dr. Carmen Feliciano, expressed support for Elders' viewpoint, she did not lose her job for this statement, in spite of several calls for her dismissal on the part of Puerto Rican Church spokesmen.

Although much media attention was thus focused on the question of whether or not Elders and Feliciano merited dismissal for their 'liberal' statements about masturbation, the substantive issue was of course whether or not this practice should be discussed as a 'safe-sex option' in schools. And on this issue Puerto Rico's Governor, Pedro Rosselló, was very quick to adopt the same stance as President Clinton, assuring the island's electorate that any such discussion was "definitely not on the agenda" for Puerto Rican public schools.

--snip--

It is Scripture, however, which I wish to dwell upon in this essay - returning in particular to the case of Onan related in Gen. 38: 7-10. I will argue that those biblical scholars upon whose works commentators like Echevarría depend are far from reliable in their exegesis of this passage. The text (in the Douay-Rheims version) reads as follows:


(7) And Her, the firstborn of Juda, was wicked in the sight of the Lord: and was slain by him.

(8) Juda therefore said to Onan his son: Go in to thy brother's wife and marry her, that thou mayst raise seed to thy brother.

(9) He, knowing that the children should not be his, when he went in to his brother's wife, spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in his brother's name.

(10) And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing.

[JanMichael]

4. Exactly.

nt