Confection or witchery?

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Alright, this time I have a question. The subject matter is fortune cookies. Yes, really.

I like Chinese food (the stuff we eat here in the USA that’s called “Chinese food”, not what they actually eat in China, which is surely quite different). Customarily, as everyone knows, you are rewarded with a “fortune cookie” along with your check at the establishment. I like to eat the fortune cookie.

The fortune cookie also contains a “fortune” on a slip of paper. Sometimes it contains an aphorism, sometimes a gnomic pronouncement, sometimes a prediction of the future. No doubt this stems from the particularly pagan expression of Chinese folk Taoism (we’re not up in the rarified stratosphere with Master Lao, contemplating the Te or anything… the folk expression is basically magical).

So, what is on the slip might be a divinatory prediction. Obviously I should just ignore it and discard it. But I want to read it! I can’t really say why. Curiosity I suppose. I don’t want to have the future divined for me. I just wonder what the cookie’s doubtless uninformed opinion actually is.

Thoughts?
 
There is nothing wrong with reading the content of a fortune cookie.
 
I went for Chinese with two friends this past Thursday. The cheque and the cookies came, I was last to pick a cookie, and was pleasantly surprised it was empty…just like the statement it would have made…

😃

God Bless
 
I think it would only be bad if there was an intent contrary to our beliefs. For example, if a person for some reasons thinks that fortune cookies are actually meant for divination, and gets Chinese food regularly for the purpose of getting a fortune cookie and then taking it seriously, then that is a problem. Or if you read it aloud and add “in bed” to the end, then that’s immature. But if you just read it for fun there’s no harm in that. Sometimes they are insightful, sometimes they are funny or entertaining, sometimes have bad grammar, sometimes are stupid. My opinion is allow yourself to have fun with them.
 
Adeodatus said:
Alright, this time I have a question. The subject matter is fortune cookies. Yes, really.

I like Chinese food (the stuff we eat here in the USA that’s called “Chinese food”, not what they actually eat in China, which is surely quite different). Customarily, as everyone knows, you are rewarded with a “fortune cookie” along with your check at the establishment. I like to eat the fortune cookie.

The fortune cookie also contains a “fortune” on a slip of paper. Sometimes it contains an aphorism, sometimes a gnomic pronouncement, sometimes a prediction of the future. No doubt this stems from the particularly pagan expression of Chinese folk Taoism (we’re not up in the rarified stratosphere with Master Lao, contemplating the Te or anything… the folk expression is basically magical).

So, what is on the slip might be a divinatory prediction. Obviously I should just ignore it and discard it. But I want to read it! I can’t really say why. Curiosity I suppose. I don’t want to have the future divined for me. I just wonder what the cookie’s doubtless uninformed opinion actually is.

Thoughts?
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They’re mostly just stuff, nonsense, and sayings.
 
To be honest, I actually do believe fortune cookies can in some cases, tell the future, especially if the reader is open to it, and spiritually gifted.

Could this be dangerous to your Christian life?? quite possibly.
 
I used to write the equivalent of fortune cookes. So, no. Not at all.
 
😃 I occasionally have “chinese food”…such that it is, and usually end up getting a “fortune cookie”…frankly they’re more entertaining than anything…and whats really interesting is some of them offer “winning lottery numbers”…I did a check on the numbers for the fun of it, and the results were rather “dismaying”… I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading them…as they are good for laughs…putting credence in them might be the real problem.
 
While I’m not sure about fortunes, fortune cookies are entirely American. When they were introduced to Chinese eateries (as in, in China) they were billed as “The Real American Fortune Cookie”
 
I think if you were to take a fortune cookie’s fortune seriously, you’d have bigger issues than whether or not it is in line with Catholic teaching. Much like people that read their daily horoscopes and believe that they now know what the future holds for them. :rolleyes:
It’s pure entertainment, and that’s what it’s meant to be. Read your fortune, have a laugh at the silly grammatical mistakes and enjoy the cookie itself (some of which are admittedly really, really good!). There is really no reason to deny yourself that little pleasure. 🙂
 
Adeodatus said:
The fortune cookie also contains a “fortune” on a slip of paper. Sometimes it contains an aphorism, sometimes a gnomic pronouncement, sometimes a prediction of the future. No doubt this stems from the particularly pagan expression of Chinese folk Taoism (w?
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do you really think the hourly workers in the fortune cookie factory who print the “fortunes” get them from Taoism or any other pagan religion? do you really think there is any patron of any Chinese restaurant, in the US, China or elsewhere who really consults a cookie for an occult or supernatural answer?
 
I read fortune cookies and smile; I see people cringe at Friday the 13th and smile; I hear people say, “good luck”, and smile.

St Paul used the beliefs of the locals wherever he preached as an inroad to launch discussions and proclamation of the Kingdom Christ established to them. See in Acts how he spoke to the philosophers in Athens.

And a fortune cookie at a table with friends can be an ice-breaker to share your Christ with the others at the table: “My cookie reads this way: ’ … blah blah blah … ’ But do you know where I really think all good for my future comes from? I am Catholic, and I find that union with Christ in his Church gives me confidence in the face of anything that comes my way…, etc.”

We live in the world, seeing everything, but we are not of the world; we see things differently, hope things differently, than those who see ‘only’ the world. And everything we do see with them can be a stepping stone to opening their eyes to what they have not yet seen or believed.
 
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