The most important things about food are the companions, seated around the table. The second most important thing is the table itself, the fact of the gathering. The third most important thing would be the quality of the food consumed. We learn all of this from the First Table, the Lord’s Table, and we are …
The Constitution and Character of Rasputin
I need to continue a bit more on “how we know things about food.” In this post I am going to wax a bit autobiographical, and I hope that’s all right with everybody. This is not so that I can talk about me, but rather because I can’t talk about how I figure things without …
Deep Affection for America
Today is the 4th of July, and we have been free of the tyrannies and predations of the House of Hanover for 232 years now. Tyrants and predators have not disappeared from the earth however, and so this evening I would urge everyone to set off a firecracker or squib as a kind of taunt …
Hippie Mama Free-Range Macaroni
Okay, what causes what, and how can we know? Let’s talk a bit about stewardship, epistemology and food. One of the central problems in food debates is the conflicting nature of multiple claims made about food. And in order to sort through all of it, we have to address the question of knowledge. In a …
A Besetting Sin of Ours
“Fringe groups in American Christianity have for almost two centuries advocated dietary and hygienic practices designed to curb sin, and this is part of the mileu in which the current discussion must take place. It seems reasonable to many Americans to assume that God intended to teach Israel about diet, because diet and health are …
Manstealing
The word andrapodistes is rendered as manstealer by the King James Version. Its one occurrence is in 1 Tim. 1:10, clustered in with a number of other sins. It would of course have reference to kidnapping, whether for ransom or any other purpose. Kidnapping someone to sell him was a grievous sin and crime in …
Lie A-Soak in the Text
“I always find I can preach best when I can manage to lie a-soak in my text. I like to get a text, and find out its meaning and bearings, and so on; and then, after I have bathed in it, I delight to lie down in it, and let it soak into me. It …
Cultures Are Always Loyal
“Culture always comes from religion . . . Culture always becomes a servant of the birthing religion, and its very raison d’etre is to protect, further explicate, and expand the influence and control of the mother religion . . . If you understand the relationship between religious belief and culture, you’ll understand clearly what’s happening …
Let’s Fry Them Up in Crisco
Many years ago, when I was in a band, I came home one evening after a practice or a gig or something. I say this because I remember this incident vividly, and I was carrying my guitar. The kids were in bed, and Nancy met me at the door very worried about something. Our duplex …
For He Is Small/Amos 8
INTRODUCTION: When we come to chapter seven of Amos, we shift from poetry to prose, from woe-oracles to narrative. The theme and the message are the same as throughout the rest of the book, but the form in which it comes is quite different. In the first six chapters, Yahweh has been the main speaker; …