The CHURCH FINGER!

[song_of_serenity]

You know what people do...they raise their pointer finger when going up the aisles to "excuse themselves" I always giggle to myself because if they just got up and walked out/to the bathroom or what have you, you wouldn't notice them but as SOON AS THE FINGER GOES UP, peoples eyes, mine included, follow them down that seemingly looong walk.

So I googled "the church finger" and came to Snopes. I LOVE snopes.
The Claim:

Have you ever attended a church service and saw someone hold up a finger as they are exiting the sanctuary during the service? What does it mean?

During the slavery days when the masters took their slaves with them to public gatherings, the slaves would always sit in the balcony. When the slave had to go to the bathroom or wanted to be excused for any other reason, they would hold their hand up and keep it up until their master acknowledged that they saw their hand and gave them permission to leave or in other words "excused them to leave". After the slave was given permission to leave, they would hold up one finger as they were leaving to inform anyone that saw them leave that they had been excused. So it means "My Master has excused me".

That is where the "holding up one finger while leaving the Sanctuary" carried over from. Which goes to show that you should investigate rituals before you follow them.

The next time you see someone holding up their finger, just tell them: "It's okay to leave the plantation, you've been freed"

They list it as "undetermined"
http://www.snopes.com/religion/finger.asp

Snope goes on to give reasons why this WOULDN'T be plausible. One of them:

There are problems with this supposed origin. First, if a master had brought some of his slaves to a public event and seated them in that building's balcony, he wouldn't have been keeping an eye on them throughout whatever it was he'd come to see. Given that his attention would have been directed towards the figures enacting whatever public affairs drama was underway (e.g., political speech, criminal trial), he wouldn't have seen upraised hands among his servants, ensconced as they were on a higher level and probably to the back of him. Also, it would have bordered on unthinkable for slaves to risk disrupting public functions with their comings and goings, yet the premise of this origin has it that this practice was so commonplace as to have inspired a widely understood ritual of their raising their hands to seek permission to leave, getting it by way of a nod from their masters, then holding up a finger to signify to others that permission for the act underway had been duly sought and granted.

It's a good read!

 

[Jenibo]

Oh that dreaded baptist finger!!! Interesting info you provided

 

[MelodicVessel]

I think it is hilarious and in some churches, they hold up TWO fingers... lol...
Interesting info, OP!

 

[GodsPromises]

I truly hate "the finger". It is one of those things that was passed down from generation to generation and no one knew the history behind it. It was just done. If more people knew why it was done as stated in the OP then maybe they would stop doing it.

 

[JustKiya]

I've heard another explanation, saying that it was a form of avoiding the evil eye, since you were leaving/disrupting a religious event...... which makes more sense to me. It was also passed down from slavery time, though.

 

[Love Always]

I never knew the logic behind the church finger, I never do it to excuse myself when I exit the santuary.