Thursday, June 5, 2008

ATTENTION: Guilt-ridden Consumers!

Are you feeling guilty for driving your Hummer?  Does it gnaw at your conscience when you commute an hour to work each day?  Do you wish you could continue to enjoy your consumerist lifestyle and still feel good about your greenhouse gas emissions?

Look no further!  Carbon offsets and credits are a great way to maintain your high quality of life while reducing the effects on your conscience.  Pioneered by such climate gurus as the former vice-president Al Gore, you can pay someone else to live the simple life for you!  

We are a young family with two young children.  We live a simple life, save money, and recycle.  We are also on a single income, so there are minimal commuter costs--there are some days when we don't drive our cars at all!  In fact, our life is so simple that our carbon footprint is only 1/3 of the average American family with four children.

For a low, low rate of only $500 per month we will offset all or most of your carbon footprint--granting you the piece of mind of having a zero net effect on the environment!  Go ahead--live your dreams!  Drive your Hummer!  Take round-the-world vacations!  You don't even have to recycle!  Contact me with your carbon footprint information and we will arrange for deposits into our off-shore banking accounts.

Celebrate yourself and go for a drive!

P.S.  Contact us today and you will receive your entire winter, high-utility seasons for the low, low cost of an extra $300/month (normally $400/month).

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A Theology of Hunting

Showing my kids the movie Bambi yesterday, for the first time, I found myself trying to explain why people hunt.  To make everything clear, I am from a very pro-hunting family, and have hunted myself.  I hope that both my boys grow up to do so also.

I didn't want my boys to get the wrong idea about the hunters in the movie, so I explained that only really bad hunters would kill a Mama Deer who had a baby.  Good hunters only kill Papa Deer or old mamas who don't have babies.

That seemed to do it for them, but I was struck by something else.  When the hunters start approaching the forest all of the animals start freaking out; screaming, running, and hiding.  Realistically, that happens when humans go into the woods anyway, so why did God make it that way?  Hunting wouldn't be part of the original creation--man wasn't commanded to eat meat until after Noah--so is it good, or bad?

I realized that the way the animals behave toward humans is exactly the way that Adam behaved toward God after he had sinned.  He heard God approaching in the garden and he ran and hid, afraid of God's judgment.  Even in a fallen world, man still has dominion over creation and creation has sinned.  When the fuzzy little forest creatures hear their lord coming, they run and hide, just like we did.

I also got to thinking about God's sovereignty, even with animals.  God rightly judged Adam for something he really did wrong.  God still rightly judges humans for their wrong-doing.  So as those who have dominion over creation, does God use man's judgment to judge His animals?  Some fun thoughts could be had along this thread...