The Year of the Dragon (Part 2: The Mushu Invasion)

Chinese dragons and Western dragons are different. Part 1 describes these differences in detail, but the short is this: Western dragons are scaly mean loners, and Chinese dragons are fuzzy inclusive good-luck charms. Opposites really, or are they?

In the last fifty years the differences between Western and Eastern dragons have softened like rotting avocados.  Movies such as How to Tame Your Dragon, Mulan, and Puff the Magic Dragon all challenge the traditional image of the mean Western dragon archetype. These films cast dragons as friendly, helpful, and approachable. They aren't monsters, they're misunderstood.

On the surface, this doesn't seem like a major problem. In fact, it might even seem positive to recast the  people-eater dragon of the Western psyche, at least it gives kids one less thing to fear on campouts. But even though it may seem harmless, don't be fooled.  It's a real problem. Actually, I think it's a conspiracy.

It's no secret that eastern religion is spreading through conservative churches in the West faster than mold  through a box of Yakima Peaches.  Practices such as meditation, thinking, and eating rice as a 'healthy alternative' to cheddar-cheese, are becoming common place in many denominations, and Adventism is no exception. All kinds of literature from people who have travelled to different countries is being published by the Pacific Press and the Review and Herald. There is even a book being passed around Adventist circles called, "The China Study." It's a problem with no easy solution.

At the center of this systematic easternization is none other than the dragon himself. Think about it, the roots of an 'evil dragon' don't stem from some lonely German village in the dark ages. No, they stem back much further, back to "The Apocalypse of John," and even "Genesis" itself. The roots of the 'evil dragon' archetype are tangled in scripture. They are rooted in scripture.

The Western dragon is under attack, because they (the enemy) know if they can make the dragon more approachable, honest everyday people everywhere, will buy more Apple products, just like Eve did. That's right, why do you think the Macintosh symbol has a bite taken out of it? Don't buy in. And if you come across a dragon in the wild, don't, under any circumstance (baring the apocalypse), pet it.

There are no coincidences.