What Are You...?

This is my all-time favorite question...next to "who are your parents?" :)

Are you Amish? ... No.
You must be Mennonite then, right? ... No.

I am a Conservative Christian. I do not associate myself with a denomination, but if someone really presses I will acknowledge that I find many of my beliefs are similar to the Conservative Mennonite's beliefs.

I do not feel convicted in naming a denomination just so people know what my beliefs are because I feel no matter the denomination, I will not agree with everything they stand for. It was that way when I attended a Lutheran church, when I attended a Baptist church (both Southern Baptist and IFB), when I attended a Beachy Amish Mennonite church and now as I attend a Conservative Mennonite church.

I have been told that I have to associate with a denomination so that others know my beliefs. They will know if I am against certain things or agree with them. But as I said, I don't agree with everything that any denomination stands for and even in a denomination, there are so many different churches, all which take each point in their doctrine to a different level.

I also feel that we should not label with denominations in regards to Matthew 12:25 "And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:". I have read the surrounding context, and I do struggle to understand the parable, but I feel that this can apply to denominations within the Christian religion. Some could take the house as to mean each individual church house, which I can agree with, but I take it in a broader sense as well in which the Christian house will fall if we divide ourselves.

I understand I am probably in the minority on this feeling and that is okay. But being asked nearly everyday at work "what are you?", I have been thinking about this quite a bit.

Blessings in Christ,

Chicken Parmesan

Okay, so this is by no means anything like Olive Garden's or any other restaurant's :) My roommate thinks it's better than Olive Garden's (but she doesn't like their pasta sauce...).

It's a fairly simple recipe that will take approx. an hour (including the bake time) to make.

What you need:
A baking pan (either an 8" X 8" - 4 servings - or a bread pan works - 2 servings - well)
Breaded chicken patties (either store bought or homemade)
Pasta Sauce (I use Prego but any brand will do)
Italian mix cheese
Spaghetti noodles

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
...If you are going to make your chicken patties homemade, I would do that now...if you are using frozen patties pull them out of the freezer now so that they can thaw a bit...
2. Cook the spaghetti noodles (I use 1/2 box for 4 servings) al-dente, just short of being soft
3. Drain noodles
4. Put noodles in your baking pan, mix in half the jar of sauce (you want to make sure there is enough sauce so that the noodles will not burn while in the oven)
5. Place your chicken patties on top of the noodles, add more sauce (I end up using nearly a whole jar for 4 servings) and sprinkle the cheese on top -- use as much or as little cheese as you like.
6. Put in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted (usually about 20 minutes)

Enjoy!

Blessings in Christ,

Safety vs. Worldly

I enjoy reading the Amish America blog every once in a while. Today when I opened up the website, there was an article on the "low" (Swartzentrubber and Troyer) Amish in Kentucky in courts with the state over the SMV triangle. (You can find the article here.)

Living in a large Amish community with all types of Amish (Swartzentrubber to New New Order) I find that the buggies with reflective SMV triangles are easier to spot at night. The buggies of New New, New and some Old Order Amish also tend to have blinking lights attached to them and some even put reflective ankle bands on their horses' legs. I appreciate what they do to try to keep the buggy's occupants safe as well as me. I do not want to get into an accident with a buggy, but living where I do, I don't suppose it would be that hard to. I've had several close calls at night (despite my use of extreme caution at each turn in the road and crest of the hill), all of them with the buggies in the lower groups unfortunately.

I try to understand where the lower Amish are coming from in their beliefs that the SMV is too worldly (both in color and size) as well as "altering God's Will", but I struggle with why safety of others on the road appears to not be important.

I have some Old Order Amish friends and although they maintain they do not want to judge the lower Amish's beliefs, they agree with most of the locals that it is a safety issue and it would help them to be seen and reduce the number of buggy accidents.

I wonder where Romans 13:1-7 would come into consideration in this matter. The Bible tells us that we need to obey the rulers (the government) because they are put into position by God and that those of us who resist the rulers also resist God. I know our country is founded on the principle of religious freedom, but where does safety for all involved come in? Our government not only has the challenge of making sure appropriate safety measures are put into place as well as respecting each religous group's beliefs. I would imagine this is an extremely difficult task.

That being said, I do my very best to not judge the decisions made by these groups and I pray that their leaders have sought out God's help in their decisions on matters like these that not only affect their group of people, but also everyone else on the road.

What are your thougths on the safety versus worldly topic? Where should the line be drawn?

Blessings in Christ,

Religion in Schools

When I was growing up, I remember Christianity not being allowed in schools. So we would automatically think that Judaism and all other relgions would not be allowed in the schools either, right? Wrong... At Christmas time, we were not allowed to say "Christmas" we had to either say "holiday" or "x-mas" in order to not offend our non-Christian classmates. We could not sing Christmas carols (except for the ones that had nothing to do with Christ). However, we were required to sing Channukah songs as well as Kwanza songs! Does this seem odd to you?

Obviously neither my sister nor myself had said anything to my mom at the time because when we told her a few years later she said if she had known that she would have asked that Christmas songs be sung as well or that we did not sing Channukah and Kwanza songs in order to be fair to all relgions. That's my mom for you. It does not have to be "equal", but it must be "fair" :)

If your children go to public schools is this still the case? How would you have handled it if it were the case?

Blessings in Christ,

Slowly but Surely...

As soon as I got on the internet this morning, I saw an article about a San Antonio judge who has banned formal prayers at graduations tomorrow. The valedictorian is currently fighting this ruling, but no word as to if it has been overturned or not.

If our right to pray with a group of classmates (in this instance) was taken away, what would we do? How would we respond? From the article it seems that the area is still heavily following it's French Catholic roots which were established in the 1850s, although there are some agnostics at the school who say if there was a prayer involved they would not attend the graduation ceremony. How sad is that?

Here is the full article if you wish to read it.

Blessings in Christ,