Urban Legend "if it's good enough for Jesus"

Tue Mar 4 03:15:13 UTC 2008

The quote below may be urban legend, but the idea behind it is not. Having
grown up in a very conservative church in a rural area it was not uncommon
to hear this sentiment articulated with regard to the King James Version of
the Bible - if it was good enough for the Apostle Paul it's good enough for
us. That was the main argument against using newer translations that started
showing up in the 1970s.

Having said that, for my dissertation I did a critical analysis of 15 years
worth of speeches made to support the "official English movement" in
Congress. I never saw this particular quote in any of those speeches. Lots
of other ridiculous claims, but not that one. 

Carl

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of L Pierce
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:22 AM
To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: Urban Legend "if it's good enough for Jesus"

I don't know with certainty that this is an Urban
legend, but I suspect it is.  I searched for it after
receiving your email and could only find things that
lead me to think it is an urban legend. Below are two
sources along with some good advice when considering
quotes.  However, if any of those who mentioned the
quote and/or ascribed it to a person have a reliable
source that might rebut the urban legend idea. 

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=print_topic;f=32;t=000
448
Posted by GenYus on 09 June, 2006 06:14 PM: 

Hint #1 of UL status: If a quote is attributed to
multiple people, it is pretty likely that it isn't
true. It is also attributed to Gov. Miriam Amanda
Wallace "Ma" Ferguson (Texas)

Hint #2 of UL status: When a funny, stupid quote by a
politician cannot be found in any mainstream news
source of the day it is pretty likely that it isn't
true. Recall how often the Sen Trent Lott quote
regarding Strom Thrumond's Presidential race was
reported. 

Here's an alternative:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/if_english_was_good_enough_f
or_jesus_its_good_enough_for_texas/

In the interest of truth,

Lisa
--- Christina Paulston <paulston+ at pitt.edu> wrote:

> Just for the record  "if it was good enough for
> Jesus etc" is a quote  
> from Menchen.  (Did I misspell his name - my
> spelling checker thinks  
> so ?)  C B Paulston
> On Mar 1, 2008, at 8:21 PM, Siegel, Jason F. wrote:
> 
> >
> > In an effort to redirect the discussion back to
> language policy and  
> > away from a topic that could easily be argued
> about with no end in  
> > sight, I would like to take the opportunity to
> pose a question to  
> > the list (and this is the genuine inquiry of a
> relative newcomer to  
> > the field): How often is religion invoked in
> discussions of language  
> > policy across the world? I've heard the old quote
> in support of  
> > Official English in the U.S. "If it's good enough
> for Jesus, it's  
> > good enough for me." (attributed to various
> people). In the research  
> > I've done on French policy, however, religion
> seems to be completely  
> > absent from the public discourse on language
> policy. So again, how  
> > frequently do religious concerns form a part of
> the discussion of  
> > language policy? Do we see it more often in
> certain types of  
> > language policy (e.g. feminization) than in others
> (e.g. acquisition  
> > planning)?
> >
> > --Jason
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jason F. Siegel
> > Ph.D. Student, Linguistics & French Linguistics
> > Department of French & Italian
> > Ballantine Hall 642
> > 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue
> > Indiana University
> > Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
> > USA
> > siegeljf at indiana.edu
> >
> >
> > Quoting L Pierce <ldpierce at yahoo.com>:
> >
> >> It's recorded in the BIble.  You can read the
> history
> >> for yourself, as you can read the histories of
> the
> >> previously quoted men (quoted by an earlier
> >> contributor) in other recorded histories; I
> gather
> >> that is the empirical evidence you have for them.
>  I
> >> don't really know why you want to change the
> issue,
> >> but I am happy to answer your question.
> >>
> >> Lisa
> >>
> >> --- Ronald Kephart <rkephart at unf.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 2/29/08 7:13 PM, "L Pierce"
> <ldpierce at yahoo.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> > What some ignorant men wrote hundreds of years
> ago
> >>> did
> >>> > not create the order, God did...
> >>>
> >>> We have empirical evidence that men wrote those
> >>> rules. Do you have the same
> >>> quality evidence for your assertion?
> >>>
> >>> Ron
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
________
> >> Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
> >> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> 
> 

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