{"id":576,"date":"2009-04-16T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/disasters-often-bring-people-closer-to-god\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T14:56:38","slug":"disasters-often-bring-people-closer-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/04\/disasters-often-bring-people-closer-to-god\/","title":{"rendered":"“Disasters … often bring people closer to God.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard this four days ago on a History Channel<\/a> television program.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nI frequently hear “bring” when the speaker means “take” instead.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nI was watching a History Channel program when I heard, “Disasters … often bring people closer to God.”<\/p>\n

The verb “bring” in the common expression “bring people closer to God” finally caught my ear — as wrong!<\/p>\n

You see, one should use “bring” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location where one currently resides, or when the subject of the sentence is telling another party in the sentence to transport something to the subject’s location.<\/p>\n

“Bring”<\/em> Examples:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Please bring the package to me.<\/li>\n
  2. Jim, who lives in Denver, asked Mary to bring the package to him from his friend in London.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In contrast, one should use “take” when one is telling the listener to transport something to a location other than where one currently resides, or when the subject of the sentence is telling another party in the sentence to transport something to a location other than the subject’s location.<\/p>\n

    “Take”<\/em> Examples:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Please take this package to my friend in London.<\/li>\n
    2. Jim, who today is in Houston on business, asked Mary to take the package to his friend in London.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So, if someone says, “X brings Y closer to God.”, then “X” currently resides with God and is drawing or attracting “Y” to the location shared by “X” and God.<\/p>\n

      In contrast, if someone says, “X takes Y closer to God.”, then the current location of “X” is different than the current location of God, and “X” is transporting “Y” to God’s location.<\/p>\n

      Some — such as insurance-company policy writers! — might argue that disasters reside exactly<\/em> where God resides, in which case “bring” is the correct verb.<\/p>\n

      However, I strongly suspect that most speakers of “Disasters … often bring people closer to God.” either assume that God resides somewhere other than where disasters reside or give no thought to it.<\/p>\n

      For fun, I searched Google for each of the following expressions (with the quotation marks) and got the indicated numbers of matches:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • “bring people closer to God” — about 11,600 matches<\/li>\n
      • “take people closer to God” — exactly 6 matches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        This tells me that Web authors have used the incorrect<\/em> vs. correct<\/em> expression by a ratio of 1933-to-1, which is dreadful on a Biblical scale.<\/p>\n

        Solution:<\/strong>
        \n“Disasters … often take people closer to God.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        I heard this four days ago on a History Channel television program. Problem: I frequently hear “bring” when the speaker means “take” instead. Explanation: I was watching a History Channel program when I heard, “Disasters … often bring people closer to God.” The verb “bring” in the common expression “bring people closer to God” finally…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-common-english-blunders","category-verbs"],"yoast_head":"\n"Disasters ... often bring people closer to God." - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/04\/disasters-often-bring-people-closer-to-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Disasters ... often bring people closer to God." - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I heard this four days ago on a History Channel television program. 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