One Wrong Letter Changes Everything

It’s amazing how much a message changes when we alter just one letter. And this seems to be happening more and more often, thanks to Spellcheck and to some of us who fail to check our own spelling.

For example, James Kushiner, who is probably the best editor anywhere, let a funny blooper slip through in his blog. He wrote, “The Passover and the later scene in Exodus 24 both involve scared meals.”

Yikes! In another blog, one of my besteducated friends wrote about “the iron first of Rome.”

I didn’t realize the Romans pioneered the use of iron.

Just a single letter is all it takes to make us laugh instead of cry, or scratch our heads instead of nodding. A church bulletin last year told us about a man who was “scheduled for heart value surgery.” I wonder what it’s worth now.

About the same time, while reporting a house fire, Fox News said: “The roof collapsed shortly after the family existed the house.” At least, they kept existing after the house didn’t.

Fox stuttered again, telling us, “A team of detectives had reexamined the original case file and have since pursed ‘new lines of inquiry.’” Pursed?

Are those cops being bribed?

Not really. But cops themselves distorted the intended message when they reported the theft of “an Army uniform with metals.” Aluminum? Copper? Really?

And it’s not just police who are Spellcheck victims. Firefighting crews can be, too.

When forty gallons of gasoline spilled at a local station, the newspaper told us, “Fire crews damned up the driveways.” I’m sure some of them did.

One obituary told us about a now-dead lady who “has formally lived in” our town. I suspect they meant “formerly,” but who knows? If the editing program swaps more than a single letter, only God knows what may be the resulting message or what it’s really supposed to mean.

Out of the blue, one of my more capable colleagues recently burst out with praise for the scribes who, through the centuries, so accurately handcopied the Scripture texts. Amazingly few letters got changed, few words were omitted, few errors slipped by undetected. Today we have accurate, trustworthy Bibles at least partly because God equipped those copyists with quills instead of e-tablets. And he taught them to painstakingly check the accuracy of every letter they wrote. You and I can trust our Bibles because they did it right.

Gene Shelburne may be addressed at 3516 Carlton Dr., Amarillo, TX 79109 or at GeneShel@aol.com.