Alternative Culture: Elizabeth Warren and genetics

After being taunted by American President Donald Trump about her alleged Native American heritage, American senator Elizabeth Warren showed the world her DNA results. She had expected praise and support from the public based on being 1/64 to 1/1024 Native American), but only received more ridicule.

In this post, I will briefly talk about why people play up their heritage. If you are looking for Democratic or Republican support, you came to the wrong blog.

Why is it important?
Knowing one's heritage can be a matter of life and death for many people. After all, claiming to be part of a powerful family may lead to great wealth, control and other privileges down the line. Even in today's day and age when we allegedly removed the nobility and caste, many still feel ancestry claims are important.


Adoption
Yet in Christianity, our past claims are not important. What is important is the offer that Christ extends to us by virtue of his mercy to to claim to be part of his family.


As in Hebrews 12: 22-24,

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 

And what is beautiful about this is that this offer is open to everyone.

Alternative Culture: Fire Emblem: Fates

Fire Emblem Fates

One of the best game series I played is the Fire Emblem series. Not only does it is a turn-based strategy game (just think of it as a glorified version of chess), it also has the mechanic of permadeath (permanent death), in which if your teammate dies, they are permanently out of the storyline.

This forces the player to think strategically about placement and equipment of his team, lest they fall victim to the enemy. This would result in a downward spiral of having even less team members to bring to the next chapter.

In this post I want to focus on Fire Emblem Fates, in which the the player has to choose to side with Hoshido (fantasy medieval Japan) or Nohr (fantasty medieval Europe).

Birthright or Conquest?
The player character (whose default name is Corrin) was born to Hoshido royal family. Corrin was then kidnapped by the Nohr king and raised by Nohr royalty. Early in the game, Corrin has to choose between following his birth or his adopted family.

What did I choose?
After thinking about it, I realised there are similar implications in Christianity. Although born in Hoshido, the Nohr royal family chose to treat Corrin like Nohr royalty.

Similarly, being a Christian and hence part of God's family is an adoption, rather than a birthright (Hebrews 12: 22-24).

This practice extends to government policy of Nohr. For instance, the retainers of Nohr come from different backgrounds. Some of them like Peri are nobles, while others like Arthur are commoners. Hoshido retainers on the other hand follow the traditions of their ancestors by inheriting their jobs. The most telling is Kaze and Saizo who inhertied their jobs (protecting the royal family) from their fathers.

Reflections
In a time where culture clashes, we can thank God that he made Himself cross-boundary.