For many Christians, the world is going to hell, both metaphorically and literally. Their own scriptures predict as much, but it doesn’t stop them from complaining. Every minor inconvenience becomes a prophetic harbinger of the Apocalypse.

Take sourdough bread, for example.

A wannabe Christian health "influencer" posted this on Substack. Let's call him "Pepper". He's a bit new to the game with only a handful of posts ranging from wide-toed shoes to, well, sourdough bread.

I'm betting he thought he caught the "modern food industry" in a demonic lie.

But I don't think his win is as win-ny as he thought.

In case you didn't know, the only requirement to create sourdough starter is flour, water, and time. The ACE Bakery bread shows all the necessary physical ingredients. Using enriched flour is completely normal. Mixing that with flour varieties is interesting but not remarkably so. They didn't include the time it took for the culture to mature because that's not required by law.

So in truth, we can't say ACE Bakery is lying. I have in the past seen other brands' packaging which read "Sourdough flavored" bread, and I was suspicious. But there's nothing obviously wrong with ACE Bakery's packaging or ingredient list.

The other package Pepper showed had the following ingredients: Wheat Flour, Sourdough Culture (Wheat Flour, Water), Water, Sea Salt, Enzymes.

Simple enough.

I like simplicity in my food, but there's nothing sinister about the ACE Bakery ingredients:

The problem for Pepper seems to be that ACE Bakery did not specifically say the words "sourdough culture" or "sourdough starter". This even though all the ingredients were there with nothing unnatural. No chemicals were added that would impart that distinctive sourdough taste we all love (in case you didn't know, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, and folic acid are variations of vitamin B; and ascorbic acid has another name: vitamin C). The obvious answer is that ACE Bakery created a sourdough culture using these ingredients instead of simply listing "sourdough culture" in their ingredient list.

Sadly for Pepper, this is not the sinister demonic sign of the Apocalypse he would prefer.

But keep looking, Pepper!

What this comes down to for me is the way we look at the present times as something less pure, more broken, than what we remember in our youth. I'm down with that viewpoint because there are lot of problems we face today that if not dealt with will certainly destroy what we've accomplished in the West (if they haven't already).

But looking for signs of the Apocalypse in bread ingredients seems ridiculous when real problems are right in front of us swinging sledgehammers at society's marvelous achievements of the last few centuries.

(edited to add:)

I wrote this yesterday while hopped up on cold medicine and forgot the main point:

People with agendas tend to be very myopic and prone to see everything through that lens. This happens with every religion, whether it's Christianity, Islam, Environmentalism, Feminism, Socialism… whatever.

Pointing out how everything you don't like is because we A) reject Christ, B) offend Allah, C) use a plastic straw, D) open doors for women, or E) object to big government, reveals a lot about your intelligence, obsessions and/or need to manipulate others.