How do you cook, denominations?

 

How do you cook, denominations?

No! I'm not saying we should cook denominations. I want to look at how cooking and denominations are the same. Indulge the chief if you will.

There are people who will claim that their denomination is right and everyone else is wrong. They may even say that others are of the devil. It sounds crazy sometimes but consider cooks or if you prefer chefs. Ask one what makes spaghetti and you may get meat, sauce, and pasta. Another may say you only need pasta and a sauce. Another may claim it's only pasta and marinara if there isn't meat, or if the sauce isn't made a specific way. In fact, you might get some die-hard foodies into a fight over the matter and this isn't even touching what makes a pizza. 

I think you get an idea. Chefs, cooks, and foodies often have criteria of what makes a specific dish that dish. The problem comes when different people want a perfect definition or when people think they have a perfect definition. What sometimes happens is our preference becomes our perfect definition. If someone wants to add red pepper flakes to our spaghetti, some may claim it's false, or pasta heresy. (It's neither, but it is strange) 

Is there food heresy? YES. If someone claims it's an all-beef burger made with turkey. It's not an all-beef burger, it's a turkey burger perhaps with beef flavor, but it is not beef. I'm not saying turkey burgers are bad, they usually aren't but they aren't beef.  

 I don't think anyone would say raw pasta is spaghetti, or a pound of cooked ground beef is spaghetti sauce, but then again we all know some people who would want to, if only so they can argue. We have to decide what is real and what may be a preference.

People can really get heated up on this issue, but then ask them about changes in the rules of their favorite sports and I bet the debate will get even more heated. The disagreement doesn't make them bad people just perhaps a little immature, but we all have areas we need to grow so give grace.

HOWEVER? 

What if someone claimed only McDonald's was real food? or only food created by Julia Childs? We would say they are crazy. 

On the other hand, I think that we could all agree that pasta with a tomato-meat sauce laced with cyanide isn't food, it's poison. 

This is where denominations come in. Some, I might say, most denominations are variations on a recipe in the Bible. Some emphasize some points others don't. It doesn't make them wrong only different. The problem comes in when an entire vital doctrine/s are left out or if poison is put in. You may think red pepper flakes are poison but they aren't, hemlock is. 

If something is wrong there is a time and a place to point it out. People's spiritual, eternal, lives are on the line. On the other hand, let's give grace to a change in the recipe. 

Perhaps, also give grace to those who only see grandma's secret recipe as the only right way. Because ultimately, the great creator chef will teach them when the time is right. 

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash