What do you think of when you hear the word “sinister?”
I usually think of someone evil. Here is one dictionary definition I found:
“prompted by malice or ill-will; false, dishonest, intending to mislead”
Ok. that isn’t quite “evil,” but it is certainly negative. Here is a quote from Willa Cather’s novel My Antonia that makes good use of the term:
He wore a sombrero hat, with a wide leather band and a bright buckle, and the ends of his moustache were twisted up stiffly, like little horns. He looked lively and ferocious, I thought, and as if he had a history. A long scar ran across one cheek and drew the corner of his mouth up in a sinister curl.
Everything about this man is bad news, but the sinister curl for a “mustache” takes it to the next level.
Would it surprise you to learn where this word came from, and to learn what it means in Latin?
“Left, on the left side”
That’s it. That is what sinister really meant. Isn’t that interesting? This word began as a direction, and now it means something terribly negative. What does history have against the left side of things?
Exodus 15:6
Your right hand, Lord,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
shattered the enemy.
Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my lord:[a]
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
Does anyone ever talk about God’s left hand? Wouldn’t the left side of God be just as awe-inspiring? Instead we get a lot of talk about the “right hand,” and the “right side.” In one passage God’s left side is shown to be where Jesus will put the “goats.”
Matthew 35:31-32
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Even when you examine the artwork of Adam and Eve you see a right bias. Some people took a look at Garden of Eden artwork throughout the years and they found that about 70 percent of the time Eve was shown to Adam’s left. Maybe this had to do with the belief that the fall was all Eve’s fault. After all she was the temptress that gave the forbidden fruit to the first man (nevermind that Adam ended up making the same choice as Eve).
What’s going on here? About 10 percent of the population is left handed. So the vast majority of us favor our right hand and foot. Have you ever tried to write with your non-dominant hand? Try it out. You’ll find it to be pretty tough to do. Most of the populace would think that doing things with your left hand would just feel wrong. But there may have been another reason against lefties: sun worship. There was a lot of sun worship in the early days. Almost every culture did it in some fashion. Most people were in the northern hemisphere so they saw the sun go toward the right when facing it (south). If you worship something that travels right all the time you might tend to think the right is better than the left.
All this right biasing has traditionally been bad on the lefties. In Medieval times (and beyond) people were executed for being left handed. It was a “sign” of the devil, so they said. Some children even last century who grew up left handed would have their left hands tied to a chair of their belts at school to prevent them from being used.
If anyone were to tell you they were left handed now you wouldn’t think twice about it would you? What if a minister told you they were left handed? Would it matter? It used to. What is the history of the church with things like this? For the most part it has been pretty poor. Left handed people, females, non-whites, etc. have been marginalized or told something was wrong with them. Basically anyone not like the people in power in the church (and out of the church) have been targets throughout history. This files in the face of what Jesus was all about.
Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
So let’s stop being so sinister about the treatment of others not like us, for God’s sake.
God Bless