Fortune cookies?

[Neal]

So I was just eating some delicous General Tso’s Chicken and got to the fortune cookie. I bit into it first, and took out the fortune and read it before eating the rest, as per the custom I learned; so that the furtune would come true.

Here’s my question, however innocent, would fortune cookies be considered a sin, consulting a medium or fortune teller (Deut 18:10)? Of course I don’t believe in any sort of divination sans Joseph and other Biblical prophiesis, but is it wrong to look and laugh at these fortunes?

Just curious what the opinion of others is.

 

[SacredHeartFan]

So I was just eating some delicous General Tso’s Chicken and got to the fortune cookie. I bit into it first, and took out the fortune and read it before eating the rest, as per the custom I learned; so that the furtune would come true.

Here’s my question, however innocent, would fortune cookies be considered a sin, consulting a medium or fortune teller (Deut 18:10)? Of course I don’t believe in any sort of divination sans Joseph and other Biblical prophiesis, but is it wrong to look and laugh at these fortunes?

Just curious what the opinion of others is.

Believeing and trusting them is the sin not reading them!

 

[Neal]

Believeing and trusting them is the sin not reading them!

Agreed, thats what I was thinking, but I know some, esp. those who have flitered with new age might not think so.

p.s. I am also a future priest

I enter semenary for pre-theology in the fall

 

[Caesar517]

…I bit into it first, and took out the fortune and read it before eating the rest, as per the custom I learned; so that the furtune would come true.

I’ve never heard of that. You’re supposed to read it before eating it?

Believeing and trusting them is the sin not reading them!

I agree with this as well. I personally have fun comparing them and laughing about them.

 

[SacredHeartFan]

Agreed, thats what I was thinking, but I know some, esp. those who have flitered with new age might not think so.

p.s. I am also a future priest

I enter semenary for pre-theology in the fall

YEAH!!! :extrahappy:
We can always use more priest.

 

[PePPaR]

They’re just a bit of fun. Hardly anyone even believes in them.

 

[Red_Meg]

I’ve never heard of that. You’re supposed to read it before eating it?

Okay, this is really funny. The first time I read that sentence, I parsed it as meaning you’re supposed to actually EAT the paper with the fortune on it.

Margaret

 

[Christy_Beth]

Neal.

A future priest? :extrahappy: :extrahappy: Hang in there when it gets tough.

 

[Newbie2]

I agree with this as well. I personally have fun comparing them and laughing about them.

Especially if you add, “…in bed” to the sage advice given on the paper.

 

[royal_archer]

Especially if you add, “…in bed” to the sage advice given on the paper.

My wife and I read them out loud, sans “in bed”, and some can be hillarious … at least until the little ones start asking what is so funny.

 

[Joe_5859]

How can eating a cookie ever be considered sinful? Unless maybe they’re oatmeal raisin cookies. But even then, the sin would fall upon the one who makes it, not the one who eats it.

 

[bugz2007]

Especially if you add, “…in bed” to the sage advice given on the paper.

I wonder if there may be an issue with this if you are not prudent in the company you are sharing the joke with. Perhaps this is being scrupulous, but I often hear crude/sexual humor rebuked by members of the church, and I wonder if this sort of humor could be, at least, an occasion to sin in this way if indulged in with the wrong company.

But just reading them, minus actually believing them…nah, that gets my thumbs up.

 

[onetimeposter]

So I was just eating some delicous General Tso’s Chicken and got to the fortune cookie. I bit into it first, and took out the fortune and read it before eating the rest, as per the custom I learned; so that the furtune would come true.

Here’s my question, however innocent, would fortune cookies be considered a sin, consulting a medium or fortune teller (Deut 18:10)? Of course I don’t believe in any sort of divination sans Joseph and other Biblical prophiesis, but is it wrong to look and laugh at these fortunes?

Just curious what the opinion of others is.

Fortune Cookies are harmless fun, like reading a Harry Potter Novel.

 

[Cari]

Ug. People actually EAT those things? That’s the real sin- that something so bland, gummy, and nutritionally void could be passed off as food.

 

[Ghoti]

Fortune cookies were actually invented by an American missionary. The original “fortunes” were Scripture verses.

 

[StCsDavid]

You can also tack on “for the glory of God” at the end of the message.

 

[eponymic]

Fortune cookies were actually invented by an American missionary. The original “fortunes” were Scripture verses.

I find it very hard to believe this, especially when consulting academic sources on the topic. Most places I’ve seen include some version of what’s on the Wikipedia entry, which includes no mention of missionaries or scripture. They were made popular in America, but not by American hands.

When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (Catholic school), my teacher told our class that during the “first” Halloween, kids dressed up as their favorite saints and people passed out doughnuts. Doughnuts are actually religious symbols as well, since they are a wreath like shape and therefore have similar significance. It may be a cute story, like yours, but it’s not true and it falls apart pretty fast when you do any research on the subject.

 

[Ghoti]

I find it very hard to believe this, especially when consulting academic sources on the topic. Most places I’ve seen include some version of what’s on the Wikipedia entry, which includes no mention of missionaries or scripture. They were made popular in America, but not by American hands.

When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade (Catholic school), my teacher told our class that during the “first” Halloween, kids dressed up as their favorite saints and people passed out doughnuts. Doughnuts are actually religious symbols as well, since they are a wreath like shape and therefore have similar significance. It may be a cute story, like yours, but it’s not true and it falls apart pretty fast when you do any research on the subject.

You’re probably right. I’m trying to track down where I read that – maybe one of the “Impoderables” books? Anyway, I had read something on the “true stories” behind Chinese food – like chop suey and fortune cookies. The story, IIRC, was that a Protestant missionary among the Chinese immigrants in the West made the little cookies with a slip of paper with bible quotes, and passed them among the Chinese workers. It eventually got added to the menu of “American Chinese cuisine”.

I guess I got sucked in by an urban legend that didn’t really have any feet on it – Wikipedia didn’t even so much as hint at an American missionary origin, or biblical quotes.

Next you’ll be telling me there wasn’t a Pope Joan.

 

[Newbie2]

I wonder if there may be an issue with this if you are not prudent in the company you are sharing the joke with. Perhaps this is being scrupulous, but I often hear crude/sexual humor rebuked by members of the church, and I wonder if this sort of humor could be, at least, an occasion to sin in this way if indulged in with the wrong company.

Sure it could, if taken to an extreme.

My experience has been with the fortunes in the cookies such as:

“A thrilling time is in your immediate future.”

“Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later.”

(Both from Chinese-fortune-cookie.com where else? )

…neither of which I’d say were problematic when shared with my spouse and another married couple at dinner.

 

[Jennifer_G]

They’re just a bit of fun. Hardly anyone even believes in them.

I had a blank one once. I told my Japanese language teacher about it since I knew he’d get it. (I think I heard about that on TV or read about it somewhere a long time ago) Although, I care more about the cookie than the paper.