Thursday, April 3, 2008

Holding Hands... In Church

I found this on a blog that lists things that Christians do or don't do, like or dislike.  This was #108.  I thought it was hilarious 

"Every now and then, a minister will feel inspired to have everyone in the crowd hold hands. Which of course is awesome. But all too often, I find that Christians violate the three simple rules of hand holding. So as a service to the greater Christian population, I'm like the Billy Graham of sarcasm, I thought I would quickly review the three things you should never do when holding hands with strangers:


1. Interlink your fingers
This is way, way, way too intimate to do if you don't know me and happened to be married to me. But some people do it. Instead of doing the "hey pal I know we're holding hands which is weird but oh well" palm in palm grip, they weave their sweaty fingers between yours. As soon as someone does that to me, the 13-year old in me automatically thinks, "this person is trying to make out with me." Don't do this ever.

2. The "you're great squeeze"
For some reason lots of Christians feel the need to punctuate a good hand hold with a tiny gesture. They want closure. But please, avoid the temptation to end the hand holding session with a "Jesus loves you" squeeze. It's nowhere near as intimate as interlinking, but it still feels a little creepy coming from a man in his mid-50s that up to 30 seconds ago I had never seen in my entire life.

3. The linger
When it becomes clear that the hand holding is over, I expect you to let go of my hand like a bank robber fleeing the scene of the crime. Seriously, let's not be the last people pressed together with our hands awkwardly connected. Think of letting go as a race. I want us to win. I want you and I to set new land speed record in letting go. Come on, we can do it. Eye of the tiger. Eye of the freaking tiger.

-Kyle-


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol this is hilarious.

though i can't say i've experienced any of these akward situations, i have experienced the "Jesus loves you hand squeeze" but only from older ladies, like Lois, which instead of being akward is actually sweet and comforting.

Jenn Romanski said...

best post ever.

what's the link to the whole original post?

Anonymous said...

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/

Here is the link jenn

GraceFullMom said...

I was wondering if you wrote that or not- that was hilarious, Kyle! I love the bald worship leader, too- did you send that to Seth? :) Ben used to think he looks like Mr. Edwards when he was little(er)... the only similarity is the shiny spot and Seth did not think that was funny! LOL

Good stuff-
Allie O

Anonymous said...

I have to say I have been a victem of all these...in particular I dislike the #3. "The linger."