Katie’s Beer

Despite the world’s claims that Americans do not care about the horrible happenings in the Indian Ocean and surrounding countries, everyone I know has been talking about it all week long. I am amazed at the enormity of this tragedy, yet I don’t think that it is spectacular when viewed within the history of mankind. This event has reminded me of a pastor’s teachings on a sinful earth. My daughter first shared this teaching with in her confirmation class. The teaching is quite simple: not only are we fallen from the Garden of Eden, but the entire world is fallen. That includes the very earth itself and all the creatures. It would even apply to cars hitting and killing squirrels or rabbits just searching for food - God never intended that in his perfect creation, but in a fallen world that is what happens. This teaching, at first, took me by surprise and I shook my head at it, thinking that it was taking things too far. However, it certainly would be contrived to think that only man was fallen and not all of creation. The implications of a fallen, sinful earth and creation are immense. It puts earthquakes, tsunamis and tornados into a completely different light for me. Has any one heard a pastor refer to a sinful earth? I’m very mentally tired from our move this week and probably have not explained myself well here. (The tsunami’s devasting effects have kept me from complaining about this tortuous move; I know millions are suffering much more than I can imagine. I’m just mindlessly packing and carrying hundreds of boxes!.)

I will be interested to hear if this biblical concept is referred to this Sunday in church. In the meantime, Rob at Beggars All has an interesting post related to this concept. Daniel Sellers, who takes his vocation seriously, has been my source for a Christian geologist’s perspective. Early on, I actually printed up his posts and read them to people in my office! He writes, “If anyone has anymore questions about what happened near Indonesia, I shall do my best to answer them. I’m not sure I can say much more about what happened from a purely scientific perspective. I’m actually avoiding the human element of this story and discussing the science because you can find the human element all over the place and on the blogsphere, but the science is difficult if not impossible to find. Not only that, I think the science brings some answers to the question of how could this kill so many people. When you recognize the scale of the earthquake and the magnitude of the movement, it is easier to understand how so many people died in this disaster.” I know others have written and I just haven’t had time to get to you yet. I plan to spend New Years Day reading! Happy New Year to all!!!

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