Hang On Tight...

Money makes the world go 'round.

Round and round like a merry-go-wheel, ever spinning faster, and we must all hang on tight to keep from being thrown to the wolves.

And it appears that that is where my job is heading. Sacramento County decided that they could save County employee jobs by reducing their contracts with outside providers. I happen to be in one such position. We dont know for sure until September 10th, but it certainly seems likely that our services will kindly be no longer requested. Unemployed by October.

It is pretty much a bummer. It was a good job with good pay, good hours, and a good boss. What is next?

The Antichrist, et. al.

I ran across a quote today when reading "Three Musketeers" (Alexander Dumas, 1844) regarding the antichrist. It is always interesting, to me, to see through these windows into historical theology that we may not be aware of today. The quote is spoken by the Cardinal, where he is suggesting the use of religious fanatics for a plot against England (represented by Buckingham). First the quote, then my commentary:

"In all times and all countries, especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who would be well contented to be regarded as martyrs. And here, at this very moment, it occurs to me that the Puritans are furious against the Duke of Buckingham and that their preachers speak of him as the antichrist."

Many people in a large section of the evangelical Christian church regard the antichrist to be a specific person who gains power in the end times. This idea comes from a Christian system of belief called dispensationalism (which has a section or dispensation of End Times, and tends to read the Bible in terms of a very literal description of future events). The idea of the antichrist comes from the Bible in Thessalonians, 1 John, and Revelation (maybe other places too, but those are the places that stand out in my mind). One thing that dispensationalism seems to often do when discussing points of theology is to take seperate passages in the bible and decide that they are discussing the same theological issue. So, all of these references to the antichrist must reference the theological concept that they determine from the book of revelation. For a simplistic characterization (and sensationalization) of dispensational eschatology (end times theology) consider the series Left Behind.

Three things deter me from such ideas in Christianity, and they are, in turn, theological, hermeneutical, and historical. For one, in hearing the whole rationalization for their system of thought, it really isnt too convincing. They have everything tied up in a neat little bow, except that it isnt. There are several things that need to be swept under the rug, so to speak. For one, the Church is considered a thousands of years gap between Jesus and the end of times that is minimally explained in scripture, and kind of makes the salvation of the gentiles seem like an afterthought rather than like one of God's primary motivations. I think Paul considered the salvation of the Gentiles a very big idea in God's missional plan. Many of the dispensationalist's interpretations seem superimposed onto the text. Which brings me to my hermeneutical (biblical interpretation) concern. If you read 1 John where he talks about the antichrist, it seems to him that the antichrist already existed in his day, that there were many of them, and that the antichrist was anyone who opposed God. To me that seems a little more broad than identifying a single person at some point in the future who is involved in the end of time. Thirdly, and this is where the quote from the Three Musketeers comes in, it is interesting to me that throughout history preachers have been identifying End Times evidence in the world around them. Apparently, in his story, some preachers thought the Duke of Buckingham was the antichrist. Interesting. My history teacher in my first year of college suggested that the motivation for the funding of Columbo to voyage to the far east was to set up an alternate spice trade route because the mouslims had overtaken the route through the Black Sea, and if they were able to find an alternate route, they could amass great wealth to overcome the mouslims before Christ returned in the year 1500. Well. We all know how that turned out. If a slice of the Christian preachers in any time in history seem to think that theirs will be the last years known on earth, then one might assume that none of them are right (or, since none have been right so far, the safest bet is that none of them are right today). In my opinion, they are mistaking what i call personal eschatology (the end of our lives) with global eschatology (the end of the world). It is the Christian way to have an existential crisis without knowing it.

All of this, to me, adds a little discredit to the account of those who prefer to think that the end of times are upon us, and that they will begin with the political uprising of the antichrist. It just doesnt add up. Not in Christianity anyway.

Ever Want to Make A Paper Domo?

Who hasnt wanted to make a paper domo at some point in their life, honestly?

Now you can! Thanks to the discovery and subsequent gift of a coworker, here is how you do it:

And this is what the finished product looks like:

I Love Mexican Food

Through the graciousness of friends and family making us meals while we are busy with our little one, we have discovered another mexican dish to add to our repertoire. Tostadas.

Mexican food (at least the way I make it) is pretty much an excuse to use the same ingredients in as many ways as possible. And calling it different things enables you to suggest it for dinner more often. For example, if we ate tacos last night, and when the conversation about dinner comes around, and I say "Tacos!", it might not work out because we had them last night. But, if I say "howabout Tostadas!", we might get to have more mexican food, because at least it isnt the same thing we ate last night (except that it is).

I love tacos, burritos, nachos, taco salad, and now, tostadas. Delish.

Three Things

1. My new favorite thing: Daddy—daughter tummy time. It melts my heart.

2. My new least favorite thing: 3am….almost anything. Anything at 3am is not fun.

3. The new most amazing thing: Projectile Poop. I had never seen anything like this, but for some reason our darling daughter loves to wait until she is bare naked to let it all out. The other day while changing her diaper, she decided to poop, pee, and poop again. While I was hustling around trying to mop up all the extras, she geared up and exploded with unprecedented force. The mustard feces came flying at me, as I dodged in slow motion. I was able to avoid a direct hit, but that stuff flew about four feet! Pretty amazing! It isn’t often in your life when you can accomplish something like that. It will be a record difficult to beat.