World View

What are your words and story?

I was born in Duarte to a middle class family living in an upper class part of Sierra Madre.  My parents were both born to lower class families.  My family is Christian, and more specifically Lutheran.  I also am a Lutheran.  It wasn’t until my early 20’s that I identified myself as a Lutheran as well.  I was introduced to computers at an early age at the local public library.  Additionally that same year my school got their first Apple ][.  I went to college to study to be a Computer Programmer.  Currently I hold a position at Southern California Edison working as a IT Technical Specialist.  

What are your customs and practices that make you unique?

Baptism Birthdays – My family celebrates the day we were baptized

Christmas Eve – We open presents on the night before Christmas day

Epiphany – The Christmas tree stays up until Epiphany to celebrate the arrival of the gentile astrologers who came to worship Jesus.  

Catechism and Confirmation – The most important training in Religion can be found in the small catechism that Martin Luther put together about Christianity.  This book will answer almost all the questions people have about the Christian Faith.

Confession – I feel that I should daily confess my sins in prayer.  Sometimes I do this the moment I am made aware of my sins, instead of carrying around a list of things I need to tell a confessor as someone who is a member of the Roman Catholic Church tends to do.  

What symbols would you use to represent each of these customs and stories?

My Name – Theodore Joseph.  Theodore means Gift of God.  Joseph means The Lord Increases.  I have been called to be a gift to others.  I have been called to be a blessing to others.  

My Family Crest – This represents my Family.  We have been recognized as members in good and honorable standing with both the government and the Church.  I am to carry on this tradition.  

The Cross – This represents my spiritual family.  I am a member, as an adopted son, of the royal family who rules the universe.  

The Lutheran Rose – This represents the branch of the Christian family I am a member of.  

And finally regarding the groups you most identify with:

Tschopp family member:

Who are we?

I am a member of the Tschopp family.  We are an old European family that can trace it’s roots back over 1,000 years.  The family crest indicates that we had governmental authority to condemn people to death.  The crest also indicates that the church also gave the family this authority.  

Where are we?

I am in Southern California; one of the top cultural hubs of the world.  Most of my extended family lives in Iowa.  Some live here in Southern California.  I have no connection to the Tschopp families living abroad.  

What time is it?

I am in my 30’s.  The world is growing smaller.  Technology is growing at astonishing rates.  

What is wrong?

I am not connected to my extended family.  Additionally I do not have a family of my own.  

What is the solution?

I need to spend time to connect to my extended family.  This will need to take at least 2 parts.  One part is to communicate with the family I have in Iowa.  The other part will be to learn German and seek out connections to my family in Switzerland.  

Additionally I need to start my own family.  

Lutheran:

Who are we?

I am a human, made in the image of the creator.  I have responsibilities that come with this status.  I am not fundamentally determined by race, gender, social class, geographical locations; nor am I simply a pawn in a determinist game.  

I am a Lutheran.  We are a splinter group that separated from the Church over issues related to how a person is saved.  Initially the family was reformed, but when they came to the United States, there were no German speaking reformed churches, so the family became members of the Lutheran Church.  

Where are we?

We are on Earth.  We are in a good and beautiful, though transient, world, the creation of the God in whose image we are made.  We are not in an alien world, as the Gnostic imagines; nor in a cosmos to which we owe allegiances, as to a god or gods, as the pantheist would suggest.  

What time is it?

We are in a time of tension between the world that will be and the world that is now.  We are nearing the end of the story.  Before the Christ left this earth, he said we were in the last days.  We are in a time when all, as opposed to just the Jews, are called to be children of God.  

What is wrong?

Humanity has rebelled against the creator.  I have participated in this rebellion.  This rebellion reflects a cosmic dislocation between the creator and the creation, and the world is consequently out of tune with its created intention.  I reject dualisms which associate evil with createdness or physicality; equally, I reject monoisms that analyze evil simply in terms of some humans not being fully in tune with their environment.  My analysis of evil in more subtle and far-reaching;it, likewise, rejects as the whole truth all partial analysis such as those of Marx or Freud, which elevate half-truths to the status of the whole truth.  

What is the solution?

The Creator has acted, is acting, and will act within His Creation to deal with the weight of evil set up by my human rebellion, and to bring his world to the end for which it was made, namely that it should resonate fully with His own presence and glory.  This action, of course is the focused upon Jesus and the spirit of the Creator.  I reject solutions to the human plight which only address one part of the problem.  

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