Mary Mary at the BET Awards

A respectful way to excuse yourself from the service

Respectful? I guess. It's one of those things that I do because I see it done, but I don't get it.

In meetings at church (and elsewhere), if someone has a question, they may also raise that same one finger to draw attention to themselves. To me, that's what the one finger, does. It says "look at me, I'm leaving." :spinning:
 
This is what I've learned about the practice. Don't know how true it is:

"During slavery, blacks have limited opportunities to worship. When they could, even then the masters would still interrupt service and send for certain people. Those people, out of respect for the service, would hold up a finger (usually the pointer- NOT THE MIDDLE ONE) to symbolize two things:

1) They were sorry for interrupting the service and wanted to show respect.

2) They hoped to return in "1" moment (symbolizing the finger)- even though that "moment" usually outlasted the service."

Whether that's true or not, I *Personally* think it's unnecessary, and all you do is draw more attn. (plus crazy looks) to yourself, b/c in reality, who walks around w/ their pointer finger up? But to each his own!

Aw Man! Did I just participate in the hi-jacking of this thread? :ninja:
 
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AMEN TO THAT Savvy!

I was a little disappointed in Mary Mary too. And I am a fan of their music. We were just talking today about the comment Tina made about them not being "ministers" but "entertainers". Now I understand that once you leave the church and start doing paid events for fans, that you are considered entertainers. But if you take the "ministry" out of Gospel music (which is the good news) then all you have secular music.
Look at who they surround themselves with and look at the guest artist that are featured on their songs. I look for them to either cross over to secular music or just retire.
 
This is what I've learned about the practice. Don't know how true it is:

"During slavery, blacks have limited opportunities to worship. When they could, even then the masters would still interrupt service and send for certain people. Those people, out of respect for the service, would hold up a finger (usually the pointer- NOT THE MIDDLE ONE) to symbolize two things:

1) They were sorry for interrupting the service and wanted to show respect.

2) They hoped to return in "1" moment (symbolizing the finger)- even though that "moment" usually outlasted the service."

Whether that's true or not, I *Personally* think it's unnecessary, and all you do is draw more attn. (plus crazy looks) to yourself, b/c in reality, who walks around w/ their pointer finger up? But to each his own!

Aw Man! Did I just participate in the hi-jacking of this thread? :ninja:


Interesting! I had never ever heard that before! Are we the only ones who do this? Thanks for posting.

Aw Man! Did I just participate in the hi-jacking of this thread? :ninja:

Sorry. I thought Momi and N&W had already proclaimed it dead, so...
 
Interesting! I had never ever heard that before! Are we the only ones who do this? Thanks for posting.



Sorry. I thought Momi and N&W had already proclaimed it dead, so...
No, my post was a jokey-joke. I never proclaimed the thread dead at all.

Thank you Royalty 84 for sharing about what I meant in my post. You were right-on!
 
Interesting, I've always wondered about the origin of that... that doesn't happen in my current church, but back in the day I ALWAYS noticed the person slipping out. It was distracting, to say the least... sometimes it was entertaining, esp. when the pastor noticed and let it be known to the whole congregation... :lachen:

This is what I've learned about the practice. Don't know how true it is:

"During slavery, blacks have limited opportunities to worship. When they could, even then the masters would still interrupt service and send for certain people. Those people, out of respect for the service, would hold up a finger (usually the pointer- NOT THE MIDDLE ONE) to symbolize two things:

1) They were sorry for interrupting the service and wanted to show respect.

2) They hoped to return in "1" moment (symbolizing the finger)- even though that "moment" usually outlasted the service."

Whether that's true or not, I *Personally* think it's unnecessary, and all you do is draw more attn. (plus crazy looks) to yourself, b/c in reality, who walks around w/ their pointer finger up? But to each his own!

Aw Man! Did I just participate in the hi-jacking of this thread? :ninja:
 
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