I was driving by a local church, and saw this message on their sign:
True love sees through a telescope, not a microscope.
I thought to myself, “SELF!!!! That sounds like **Slogan Christianity at its finest!.” So I came home and whipped out the trusty dictionary to see if I could ascertain the actual meaning of the phrase.
tel搪新cope
n.
An arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gathers visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects.
Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by their emission, transmission, reflection, or other interaction with invisible radiation.v. tel搪新coped, tel搪新cop搏ng, tel搪新copes
v. tr.
To cause to slide inward or outward in overlapping sections, as the cylindrical sections of a small hand telescope do.
To make more compact or concise; condense.v. intr.
To slide inward or outward in or as if in overlapping cylindrical sections: a camp bucket that telescopes into a disk.
SO! According to that definition:
True love sees through [ (n) an arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gather visible light, permitting direct observation of distant objects]
OR
True love sees through [ (v) to make more compact or concise; condense.]
Right. I am guessing from the general tone of the Slogan that they wish to use telescope in it’s verb form. Unfortunately, that makes for horrible grammar. ONWARD!
mi搾ro新cope
n.
An optical instrument that uses a lens or a combination of lenses to produce magnified images of small objects, especially of objects too small to be seen by the unaided eye.
An instrument, such as an electron microscope, that uses electronic or other processes to magnify objects.
In summary:
True love sees through [to make more compact or concise;condense] not a(n) [optical instrument that...produce magnified images of small objects...]
To conclude:
Wouldn’t it be easier and make more sense if they said “True love minimizes, not magnifies”? That way, the verb form is being used on both sides of the statement. However, using the verb form cries out for a qualifier. Specifically, WHAT is true love minimizing not magnifying?
**Slogan Christianity: a phrase I use in reference to Christians who have an affinity for slogans and use them in excess to the detriment of their message.
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My favorite one was “A kingdom without a king is just ‘dom’”. Given that ‘dom’ in Latin roughly translates to ‘god’ (I think), it kind of invalidates the message they were trying to put across.