Wave Good-Bye to the Elderly Woman with the Bun

I know she's been around a long time. I applaud her for her auto insurance company endorsement deal and I certainly think she's sweet. But, let's face it, Mrs. Butterworth is full of garbage. Her ingredients list reads as follows: high fructose syrup, corn syrup (seriously?), water, salt, cellulose gum, molasses, sodium hexametaphosphate (what the . . . ??), natural and artificial flavor (caramel color [caramel color is a flavor?], corn syrup [more????]), preservatives (as if this concoction can't preserve itself) (potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate), artificial flavor (shocker!), caramel color [repeat: more???], citric acid (I love parentheticals).

All that trash in my pantry (yes, I own a bottle) can go one of two places: my body or my trash can. Hmmmmm. Let's weigh the pros and cons of eating this syrup-they-can't-legally-call-maple. In the pros column we can write "tastes good." Good. We're off to a great start. Then let's add . . . um. OK, let's try the cons column then we'll get back to the pros. We can write that "it contains high fructose corn syrup," which we know has been genetically modified. It also "contains chemicals, not foods, which have been linked to various ailments including diabetes and certain cancers." Need we go on?

If the ingredients isn't enough to scare anyone away from ingesting this goo-that-technically-shouldn't-be-categorized-as-food, the fact that the real deal (I mean maple syrup, folks) is readily available should give you pause before continuing in this damaging relationship.

So, in my quest to cleanse my refrigerator and pantry of artificial additives and nasty things like high fructose corn syrup Mrs. Butterworth is going down the drain and her bottle will head to the recycling bin, soon to be followed by her partner in crime, Kraft mayonnaise. And with her passing goes every last bit of surreptitious corn syrup from my food supply. I know I have no reason to be eating this trash, so why even keep it around?

I'm done!

Psalm 24: 1 states, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein." In light of the recent oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this verse resonates strongly with me today. As a born again Christian I know that God created the earth just as it is recorded in Genesis 1. It is no less true today that it was then and it is no less true in the Gulf of Mexico than it is while sitting in church, Sunday School or seminars on creation, and yet there are flocks of Christians bending over backwards to avoid saying that the BP oil spill is a terrible thing. If you ask them directly they will say it is bad, but . . . And there's always that "but." And what follows the "but" is typically something straight from Sean Hannity or Tea Party bullet points. The "but" is always political. Why isn't the "but" biblical?

Yes, this blog post is going to read like a rant today, because that is what it is. A raw, passionate rant against Christians who respond to current American life more like Republicans or Tea Partiers or whatever else they want to call themselves and less like biblical Christians. I realize that I am being harsh, but it makes me angry to see God's precious creation desecrated and His children responding with, "The planet has seen worse." Is that true? Undoubtedly, but the planet also saw worse than the Holocaust, Hiroshima and 9/11.

Imagine, if you will, that you have built a home from scratch with your own two hands. It is beautiful. It is exactly how you wanted it. And you turn it over to someone else to take care of; someone you love and who you trust. Then imagine this person uses your house to earn some money. No sweat. Everyone has to make a living, right? Then imagine this person's quest for money results in the destruction of part of your house, not totally beyond repair, but it will take a great deal of effort and time to restore it to what it had been. And then imagine the person who caused the destruction, when confronted with their actions, responds to you with, "I know it's bad, but I've seen worse." I sincerely hope that none of us would behave in that way, and yet . . .

At what point did popular American Christianity,  however subconsciously, start putting politics first? We like to congratulate ourselves that we are bringing biblical Christianity to politics when we support bans on partial-birth abortion and homosexual marriage, and yet for some reason when it comes to protecting something that God touched with His own hands we leave it to the Sierra Club? If God sees when a sparrow falls can we believe He doesn't see the flocks of brown pelicans covered with oil, the thousands of sea turtles staring extinction in the face, and countless other creatures, not the least of which are the 11 men who were killed in man's quest for more, more money, more convenience, more more more. When does it end?

When my nephew was just learning to speak he would respond to things he didn't like, such as dinner, with "I'm done!" And that's how I feel today. I've had it up to my eyeballs, and I hope other Christians will join me in speaking out against man's continued wholesale pillaging of God's earth. I've had enough. Yes, I'm a vegetarian environmentalist and it is because I love the things that God has created, the trees, the animals, and the Gulf of Mexico. If that makes me a liberal then a liberal be I, but I'll be a biblical liberal who puts God's creation before anything that has to do with politics.

Bible Study Part 3: Noah and the Flood (Gen. 5-10)

This portion of Scripture contains a great deal about animals, of course. Most people know the story of Noah's ark and I have certainly read it many, many times. However, I had never read it for the sole purpose of gleaning insight about man's relationship with animals especially in the context of eating. This passage contains a great turning point in that relationship as we will see.

In Genesis 6:7 God announces that he will "blot out" men, animals, creeping things, and birds because He is "sorry that [He had] made them."  Noah, however, finds favor in God's sight, and he is chosen to be the human vehicle by which mankind will be preserved along with animals. God commands him to build a great ark for his family (his wife, three sons and their wives) and several of each animal. Genesis 6:19-21states, "And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall com in to you to keep them alive." Then the passage continues, "Also [emphasis mine] take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them." It would appear, then, that the animals that made it on to the ark were not a part of the food stores. The pairs of unclean animals could not be eaten, obviously because there would be no way to continue the species with only one male or one female, however, in Genesis 7:2 God commands Noah to take "seven pairs of all clean animals." And yet Scripture makes no mention of Noah using them for food, and for good reason.

After the flood subsides Noah and his family emerge and he makes an enormous offering of some of every clean animal and bird. This is the second recorded instance in Scripture of man killing animals (Abel's offering in Genesis 4 being the first). After the offering God charges Noah and his family to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen. 9:1). Then Scripture continues, "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." And there we have it. God clearly states at this point that animals are given to man for food. Man's relationship with animals was forever changed after the flood.

I think it is important to note that, at least to this point in the history of mankind, God has given animals to man for food, for clothing, and for giving back to God in the form of offerings. There is no mention of man killing animals for sport, for the fun of it.

Surrounded by Barbecue

For new vegetarians summer holidays can pose unique dilemmas. Invariably, unless gathering with other vegetarians, you'll be surrounded by piles of barbecue and grilled meats. (For those of you in the South, barbecue is its own dish, for those of use who grew up in anywhere else, barbecuing is a technique. I use the southern definition here, since I live in the South.) Fortunately, barbecues usually indicate massive quantities of any kind of food and I entertained this hope last Saturday as I made my pasta salad, knowing there would be at least one or two edible things for me.

The pasta salad I made was largely edible (I've posted the recipe on the Recipes page), though I made far more than necessary. And I certainly didn't go hungry. There was potato salad next to my pasta salad, fresh vegetables, strawberries and blueberries, mango salsa and tortilla chips. I know I ate too much, but that is the fault of my sister's sister-in-law who made two beautiful pound cakes, which she served with berries. I did my duty as an honorary member of my sister's extended family by trying both the plain and lemon pound cakes.

Again, no big deal. It turns out that all my concern about how people would potentially react to my new eating choices were unfounded. No one said a word to me. Either everyone knew and didn't care or they didn't even notice I didn't have a hamburger or grilled sausage amidst my other piles of food. It was a wonderful evening. I think I can finally put my fears to rest. I know that I will run into people who will get defensive at the mere uttering of the word "Vegetarian," but the positive experiences I have had so far have, I think, equipped me to stay calm and then quietly tell them that I'm sure they have more important things to worry about than what I'm eating. All in a spirit of love, of course . . . .

Taking a step back in time, the big challenge of the weekend came in the form of the local barbecue cook-off. I, of course, participated because the rest of the family was. My chief concern was not being tempted to eat the barbecue (though it lingered in the back of my mind). In my carnivorous days I wasn't a fan of the dish anyway. My concern was how I would feel by being surrounded by large quantities of dead animal flesh. I think I masked my feelings fairly well, but in all honesty, I found the whole thing rather disgusting, though I realize I'm still in the newly converted vegetarian how-can-you-eat-the-rotting-flesh-of-dead-animals? stage. I needn't have worried one moment.

Prior to the cook-off I fortified myself against any potential hunger by eating breakfast a little later than normal and then eating a snack right before leaving the house. It worked like a charm. I not only wasn't hungry, but my stomach was full. Another crisis averted. So far as I know I have clear sailing until my church's Fourth of July shindig. Perhaps I'll be brave enough to bring a quinoa salad and introduce everyone to my new world of food.