He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh." – Genesis 24:2

Today's Scripture Reading (October 5, 2024): Genesis 24

Soon after Barack Obama was sworn in as President, a picture of the President began to circulate on social media with the accusation that the President had been sworn in by raising his left hand instead of the right. I have to admit that my first reaction was so what? But it drove me to research why right is correct and left is wrong. And I found that the roots of the idea that right is proper runs deep. And it isn't just in English that the word used for right also means correct. It is a punny joke that I have used for years, as in, "Of course, I will turn right; I wouldn't want to take a wrong turn," without realizing that I was reinforcing a cultural stereotype that said that right was proper and left was inappropriate. It is one of the reasons why children in the past were often forced to use their right hand even if they were left-handed.

During the time of Abraham, it wasn't the right hand that was raised but where a hand was placed. Abraham wants his servant to swear an oath, so he tells him to put his hand under his thigh. We aren't really sure what this means, primarily because it is a practice we no longer follow. (Imagine appearing in court and being asked to swear an oath to tell the truth, but to swear that oath, you had to go up to the judge and place your hand under his, or her, thigh. Yeah, that ain't happening.) Placing a hand under someone's thigh might mean exactly what it says, and the oath keeper would put his hand under the upper thigh as a sign of submission to the owner of the thigh. However, some believe that placing a hand under someone's thigh might be a euphemism for something even more personal. It might mean placing the hand on his genitals, the place where children originate, because the loins were seen as the seat of power. Either way, I have to admit that I am glad that culture only requires us to raise our right hands.

Getting back to Barak Obama, who apparently some believed was a Satan worshipper because he raised his left hand, the social media post pointed out that the photo hadn't been manipulated because the President's wedding ring was on the raised hand. I don't know about you, but I wear my wedding ring on my left hand, and I hope that is not a comment on marriage. The fact that the wedding ring was on the President's raised hand proved that he had taken the oath by raising his left hand instead of his right. What I found hilarious about the picture was that all the Generals in the background had gotten up that morning and put their medals on the wrong side of their uniforms. Whoever had altered the picture had painstakingly moved the President's wedding ring but had left the medals of the generals on the wrong side of their uniforms. There was no need to panic. President Obama had raised his right hand, and therefore, everything was still correct in the eyes of the world.     

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis 25