And Darbyite Dispensationalism mixed with the trauma of World War One shifted the Second Coming from Post-Mil (which implies building the Millenium as God’s hands in the world) to Pre-Mil Pre-Trib (“Twinkle twinkle coming Christ/Beam ME up to Paradise”). And when Fundamentalism coalesced into a separate movement (with the usual church schisms), it reacted to the Post-Mils Social Gospel without personal salvation with a Gospel of Personal Salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation — Say the Magic Words and Wait for Christ to Beam You Up.

When The World Ends Tomorrow (at the latest) and It’s All Gonna Burn, you’re NOT going to make long-range plans or attempt great things.

When your only goal is Keeping Your Nose Squeeky-Clean so you’ll pass God’s Litmus Test and get Beamed Up, you’re NOT going to take any risks.

Earthly stewardship becomes a presupposition.

It puzzles me as to why church people all claim they are leaving.

Man was given dominion, but dominion is not license for abuse. I have no issues with killing problem animals or food animals. But factory farms are not the most humane managers of food animals, and some are downright despicable.

As Rod Dreher showed in his book Crunchy Cons, the people who lose big when agricultural oversight boards crop up are the small guys, usually the ones who are doing things right in the first place. Often, smaller farmers are unable to meet the requirements of such boards simply because they don’t have the finances to meet the crushing demands, which are often ludicrously applied. Dreher cites the case of a small organic poultry farmer who was told he had to have a full-time, FDA-certified inspector on his grounds at all time, even though the guy only had a few hundred chickens. When such an inspector makes $60,000+ per year, you can see how the little guy is destroyed by this kind of bureaucratic nonsense.