Cayden Playing Peek-A-Boo

Praying in God's Language

Last week our youth group ended the discipleship time with a circle communal prayer. As each person prayed, there were four languages present. We had one youth pray in German; one youth prayed in French; two youth pray in Spanish, and the rest of us prayed in English. Even though we did not know exactly what some of the youth were saying, we know God heard our prayers. For many people, they need to travel to another country to hear prayers and praises to God in a different language; we are fortunate and blessed to hear other languages in our own community of faith on Wednesday night. While the use of language is one aspect of diversity, we try to embrace diversity within its difficulty; our prayer time is but one simple example.
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Cayden Rolling Over

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Biblical Canonization and Inspiration

When addressing the issues that pertain to interpreting the biblical texts, one must ask questions about inspiration, canonicity and revelation. Depending on how you answers these questions will lead you to how you interpret the biblical passages, especially the more difficult ones. In her article “The Bible and Feminism,” Sandra M. Schneiders addresses the thinking of the special status of the Bible in the church. She states, “Many people are under the erroneous impression that these two categories are related as cause and effect, [that the inspiration of the biblical texts caused these texts to be considered canonical.] In fact, the situation is virtually the reverse. The church holds that the biblical text is inspired because it has accepted this text as canonical.”[1] Thinking that the inspiration of the biblical text came first before it has been authorized as canonical diminishes the human aspect of the writing of the texts and the process of canonization.

Within the first few centuries of the church, there became a common census about what texts were regarded as authoritative, like the letters written by Paul and the four canonical gospels initially. Then the church councils meet to make an official list of these authoritative texts in the fifth century CE. The church community did not regard the texts as authoritative because the church thought they were inspired by God, these texts were authoritative because of their practical implications in the varying church communities. These tests also became authoritative because of who was considered the author, like an apostle. The apostolic authority led to many texts being canonical. Then once there was a common understanding of what texts were composed of the authoritative texts for the early church, it was a natural assumption that God inspired the writers when they were written. This process of canonization and then inspiration demonstrates how there was a development and process of the church’s approach to canonization and inspiration. The church’s understanding of the biblical cannon and inspiration took centuries to develop, but many Christians today take this for granted. This assumption about how the Bible was put together shapes people’s approach to biblical interpretation and application.

Many uses of the Bible in the church today leads to the thinking that the biblical texts were always regarded as authoritative, inspired and canonical, but that is not simply an accurate understanding of church history. When inspiration is applied first before the canonization, a person assumes that God separated a series of writings to be regarded as canonical, so humanity was passive in receiving what texts were to be regarded as “The Bible.” Then with this understanding of the texts, it is easy to take scriptural passages literal and not question if them as it could be seen as questioning God. This approach of interpretation removes the context of the author and recipients of the writing as all texts have a strict universal application. By understanding that canonization came before inspiration, the theologian is able to ask questions about the contexts of the first century.

[1] Sandra M. Schneiders, “The Bible and Feminism,” in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, ed. Catherine Mowry Lacugna (1993), 40-1.
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Cayden's Cleft Lip Surgery

Before:

1 Day After:

As you can tell; Cayden had a very successful surgery. We will feed him with the syringe for 9 more days, and he will wear the arm braces during that time to prevent him from touching his lip. On the fifth day, his stiches will be removed. He is doing very well and has adapted greatly in learning how to eat in a new way.

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Cayden's First Easter

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Dream Capture Photography

Tammy and I took Cayden to get some pictures taken of him. We went to Dream Capture Photography of Lexington, Kentucky. Here is a link to flickr to see the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannywaynerussell/

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we are.
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Generational Differences

Earlier this month, my wife and I went to visit my family, so they could see Cayden for the first time. After talking to my grandparents, I was informed that my grandfather has never changed a diaper with two children, several grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Now one could argue that my grandmother exaggerated his lack of involvement in the diaper changing, but that seems doubtful. During most of my grandparents lives, especially when they were taking care of a family, he worked in the local factory and his own farm, while she stayed at home to take care of the children. Because my grandfather provided for the family financially, it was assumed that my grandmother would be the primarily caregiver. Now this is no way a bad reflection on my grandfather's role as a father or grandfather. Within his generation, he was not expected to do that type of caregiving after a long day of hard work.

Now, we come to this generation. It is interesting to see that as a father, I am expected to change diapers. If I assume that it is the 'woman's' job to do the diaper changing, I am considered a bad father and bad husband. Even if my wife is able to stay at home with our son, I will still be expected to change his diaper when I am home. Oh, how times as changed. While I am not upset that being a good father and husband may require some diaper changing, I am merely making an observation between the differences of my grandfather's generation and my generation. Also, since my father is caught in the middle of this juxtaposition, some fathers of his time were more involved in this specific type of child caregiving, while others were not. This has been translated to me as something expected; I wonder what fatherhood will look like for my son or his son (if he has one), once their generations embrace fatherhood.
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Our Baby Announcement

(Done by: Dream Capture Photography -- Lexington, Kentucky)

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Our Family with Cayden at 1 Week Old

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Cayden's Beautiful Face

Here is a minute clip of Cayden in my lap:


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