Oh the places a typo can take you

Spell check: it’s a great thing when it works. However, it has one massive handicap. I speak, of course, of the English language.

English has roughly a bazillion words in its vocabulary. Maybe more. And like any langauge, it morphs and changes over time. Now, our poor spell checkers try to stay on top of that mess, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. The only word processor component I have greater sympathy for is the grammar checker. That thing doesn’t have a chance. I mostly ignore it.

Anyway, back to spell check. There’s only so much room in its little electronic brain. Archaic words have to go. Quirky, specialized, out-of-the way words never make it in. And this leads to amusing things.

In MS Word, I’ve noticed that it understandably has some trouble with certain biblical and theological terms. Obscure Bible names confuse it. Certain terms referring to ancient Christological heresies confuse it. The words “egalitarianism” and “complementarian” confuse it.

It also has trouble with some words that, growing up in a Christian environment, I never knew were so obscure. Spell check didn’t know the word “servanthood”, and was offering to correct it with the two words “servant hood”.

Now, if you’re a word nerd like me, you roll your eyes at the sad spell checker that can’t keep up with the times, and either ignore it, or add the troublesome word to its dictionary. However, if you’re not a word nerd, you probably assume the spell checker is right, and you’re not. It’s been programmed to do this, after all. So naturally, you accept its suggestion.

I was reading some material today where I believe the non-word-nerdiness applies. I gather this from when it was speaking of Jesus reigning over the earth; it did not say “rulership”, but rather, “ruler ship”. This may have been the author’s own doing, but I suspect a very confused spell checker was involved.

That typo was simply too good to pass up.

So without further ado, I present to you, dear reader, the RULER SHIP.

Please note the compass landing gear, useful for making crop circles.