Mixed Up

Mixed Up

I’ve been slowly working on my second blog post, a movie review of Les Miserables, but Thursday’s news rattled my cage.  During a visit with my mother, her TV showed Leon Panetta, US Defense Secretary, signing a document lifting the ban on women in combat roles in the military.  This is a ban that has officially been in place since 1994, when President Bill Clinton allowed for women to serve in the military in non-ground combat roles.  As if that was not bad enough, our women will now be sent to the front lines.

The Bible teaches that this is a shameful thing.  Peter teaches us that husbands should treat their wives “as the weaker vessel”.  The lesson is that a woman is like a Ming vase, unique and priceless, worthy of being cherished and protected.  This is not saying that women aren’t strong, nor is it saying that their worth is less than that of men.  Quite the contrary.  This teaching addresses our attitude toward them such that we should esteem them.  Aren’t women and children what men fight for?  Does this mean that the government is now going to want to draft my daughters?  My future granddaughters?  I’d rather protect the women in my life than have them fight for me, just as God as Father protects us.

No matter how one feels about women in combat, though, the US still has its priorities screwed up.  We richly reward men who have been grown and cultivated to be giants, on average over 6 and a half feet tall and 250-300 pounds of muscle, to play games.  We pay them millions to chase and throw a ball, while at the same time, today’s official policy is to send young women into combat.  Our genetically bred warriors fool around, and we send little girls off to fight!  What is wrong with this country?

Butter is Christan

Butter is Christian.

At the breakfast table this morning, one of my kids commented while putting real butter on her fresh, homemade waffles, “I’m so glad that we believe in butter!”  It was interesting that she said "believe in" and not "use".  This led to an excited conversation about butter vs. margarine.  I understand that there are at least two opposing camps on the use of butter in one’s diet.  One camp believes, stated simply, that butter is full of fat which clogs the arteries and leads to heart failure.  Butter is therefore bad.  These folks often choose to eat butter substitutes, like margarine.  The other camp believes that butter comes from the cream of cow's milk and is therefore more natural than margarine.  This camp embraces the idea that natural fats are good for the body, make arteries supple, and are part of a healthy diet.  Butter is good and a far superior choice to any brand of chemically-altered vegetable fat colored with petroleum-based dye.  As I said something to this effect to my family, it dawned on me that not only does our family prefer foods that are closer to the way that God made them because they are healthier, but also our presuppositions come into play in our view of food, processing, the role of science, and man's role in the universe. 

I passionately articulated something to the effect that "one's assumptions about butter reflect one's presuppositions and ultimately one's view of man's abilities and responsibilities.  If you believe that we can produce better food in a laboratory and that modern science has all the answers, you're probably a humanist or at least have modernist tendencies in your worldview.  Therefore, you may believe that margarine is good and healthier than butter.  Or if you believe that milk comes from cows, is a natural substance intended to be consumed, and that when we make butter we are simply "taking dominion", not reinventing food, then one would hold to a worldview closer to Christianity."  For emphasis, I exclaimed, "Butter is Christian!"   My family stared at me in surprise and perhaps disbelief.  "Well, at least butter is evidence of common grace."

"I need a blog," I determined.  So here we are. 

While I do believe the title of this article is a true statement, this article, and more importantly this blog, is not so much about butter or food as it is about worldviews, the Christian worldview in particular.  Worldview is the set of presuppositions through which a person interprets reality and thereby affects his choices and actions.  What one believes about the world and reality must affect what one believes about everything, including butter.  

I hope that this first blog post will get your attention and will entice you to join in conversation.  I have told my wife repeatedly that on my tombstone I want the words: "His life was all about the conversation."  This is true in my home, in my work, in my ministry.  I hope that this will be true of this opportunity to talk with others online.  Let's hope that this will be true and my tombstone won't read: "He died of clogged arteries."