Highly Favored!

I went to Staples yesterday for some office supplies.  When I checked out, I plopped my stuff down on the counter and offered my usual rote greeting to the clerk:  "How are you?"

Her immediate, enthusiastic reply:  "I'm blessed and highly favored!"  OK, good for you.

I'm familiar with the various (and tiresome) "blessings" salutations used by some.  But I'd never before encountered the self-description of "highly favored."   What the heck did that mean?  Top-ranked in the latest AP football poll?  The #1 seed at Wimbledon?  I guessed, correctly, that it was a form of evangelical bragging -- kind of like "I've Got a Golden Ticket" . . . to heaven, rather than a chocolate factory.  The further implication is that you probably don't have that ticket.

With a quick web search I learned that this is a phrase popular with born-again Bible literalists.  Those who say it believe they are so personally good and pious as to be blessed and highly favored by God himself!  Wow.  Holy-hand-picked to be on the Big Boy's short list.  Special!

I also found the derivation of the phrase:  An angel told Mary she was "highly favored" right after God magically inseminated the married virgin.
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"My problem with organized religion is that it makes otherwise intelligent people say stupid things."

Christopher Hitchens

"If Christ were here now, there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."

Mark Twain