The Church is a Fake

Many people are surprised when they heard what is being preached in Christian churches operating under an atheistic totalitarian regime. They are surprised that they couldn’t find anything wrong with it.  Their Bible seems the same as the ones used in a “normal” Christian church.  The preaching seems to make reference to familiar passages in the Bible: faith, suffering, joy, prayer, perseverance, walk in the way of God, love one another, do not get angry, submit to authority, personal conduct, spiritual training, …  The interpretations seem proper.  Churches seem free to gather, worship and preach the Bible.  Why do people say there is no religious freedom under the totalitarian regime? 

Little do they know that what is wrong is not in what is there.  It is in what is not there.  There is no teaching to put God above everything - truly everything, including all earthly powers.  There is no willingness to suffer for righteousness - God’s righteousness, not righteousness as defined by man.  There is no condemnation of injustice, exploitation, inequality, oppression, even though there is plenty of condemnation of people who are angry at perceived injustice.  Preachers are perfectly happy to preach personal spirituality.  But are silent when faced with the pervasive injustice in society.  No so in the Bible.  This is what is wrong.  

Come to think of it, it is happening in many churches in Hong Kong already, while we presumably still enjoy freedom of belief. Some of us are giving up our freedom voluntary.  Amazing.  Pathetically amazing.  While some preachers chastise those who get angry in the face of injustice, why is it that they say nothing about those who commit and allude with those who commit such injustice?  If some of these people are not Christians, hence out of their reach, how about those who claim to be Christians but yet serve their earthly masters?  It would seem that some of these preachers claim a higher level of noble standards than is actually the case.  Looking up a dictionary, it turns out to be the definition of hypocrisy.  It is laughable if it is not so sad. 

 

Foul Mood

Right now, Saturday, 23rd October, 2021, evening, I am in a foul mood.  I should be excited, anxious for the night to pass quickly, to get up early to run in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.  I succeeded in getting into the full marathon, and had been training hard for it until a month ago.  I knew I would suffer terribly in the running.  I might not even be able to finish in the allowed time.  But I had been running 20-30 kilometres each week for many weeks.  I should have a chance to complete it in good time, according to my standards. 

But almost 5 weeks ago, on a training run, I twisted my foot while running down a slight slope near the M+ museum, and broke the fifth metatarsal in my right foot.  Now my right foot is in an air-cast.  I was forced to withdraw from the race.  

Now I hate it whenever I hear anything about the marathon.  I can wait for the night, and the next morning, to pass, so that it is over.  I wish I have someone to blame, to be angry at.  But I have no one to blame but myself.  Why couldn’t I have been more careful, knowing I was running downhill, and stepping from the sidewalk onto the road at the same time?  

My head tells me that - in the bigger picture - not being able to run is no big deal. My life continues.  It could even be a blessing in disguise.  I could really suffer in the race.  By pushing myself too hard, I could end up taking a bigger fall, hurting myself even more than what I have done to myself already.  

On the other hand, I could also finish the race in good shape, in good time. Who knows?

Somehow, I am feeling better already.  Thank you. 

Challenge to Faith

Many Christians in Hong Kong are worried about the perceived-to-be-impending restrictions on religious freedom.  There is a saying which seems to be going around a lot: “When a gun is pointed at your head (or that of someone you love, such as your wife/husband/son/daughter/etc.), will you have the courage to confess you are a Christian?”

People have faced that kind of threat in the past, continue to face them in the present, and certainly will continue to do so in the future. It has happened in Europe, Middle East, Japan, China, and so many other places.  Will that happen in Hong Kong soon?  Many believe it may yet happen.  Many have failed that kind of challenge, and it is hard to say how we will fare until it happens. 

Before it happens, however, there is another challenge that is less extreme, but may yet prove to be much more difficult to defend against. Before one is compelled to deny one’s faith wholesale, one can be tempted to sell out our faith piece by piece.  It happens when people are tempted to collude with the godless in oppressing the faithful, actively support the tyrant against the oppressed, slander those who stand up against the tyrant, close our eyes and keep our silence when injustice is committed by the powerful. In exchange for power, status, wealth, advantage or comfort, or simply to hold on to what is presently at hand, the status quo.  

People claim to believe in the everlasting creator God.  Yet by our actions, they demonstrate how much we love those worldly riches.  It is pitiful when one realises that sometimes those “riches” are so pitifully small and don’t even last very long.  

The challenge is not so much the wholesale denial of our faith.  It is the selling of our soul little by little, piece by piece.  It is not some hypothetical threat that may or may not come.  It is happening in front of our eyes, right now.  For many, it may not seem that they are selling a lot of themselves at any one time.  But for many, there may not be a lot of faith to start with.  Bit by bit, sooner or later, there is neither any faith, nor humanity left. 

Ethnicity - for the World?

I have been trying to find a suitable categorisation scheme for ethnicity for an international academic community.  

In the USA, surveys on ethnicity may ask, for example, whether you are American Indian, Asian, Black or African descent, Pacific Islander, White, Hispanic, etc.  It is, naturally, very American-centric.

In the UK, a similar survey may ask whether you are white, Caribbean, African, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladesh, Chinese, Arab, etc., evidently matching the ethnic mix over there. 

In India, one might be asked whether someone belongs to Upper Castes, Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc., quite uniquely Indian.   

In Germany, it might be German, Turk, Pole, Russian, etc., reflecting the immigration situation over there.  

In Spain, it might be Basque, Galician, Castilian, and Catalan, reflecting the cultural history of the country.  

I thought the United Nations may provide an answer.  But no luck so far.   They have a lot of studies on how different countries understand and deal with the ethnic question.  But so far I have not found a categorisation that can be applied across the world. 

Amazing!  It seems we are very far from understanding the situation across the world.

A Glimpse of the Education Industry

Overheard from the next table in an eatery:

“… proposal to the foundation …”

“… anti-gambling … what the fxck …”

“… environmental … recycling …”

“… sports, including field hockey, basketball …”

“… QEF … there is a powerpoint presentation … fxck …”

“… Innovation and Technology Fund …”

“… Social innovation Fund … fxck …”

“… Mr. Wong, from our side, was a graduate of PolyU from the 90s …”

“… from your side …”

“… when you go to a nursing home …”

“… make a video … I don’t know … I can imagine …”

“… to organize an event …”

“… out of the 10 million dollars …”

From the conversation coming from the 3 men at the table, I surmised that two of them are teachers from a secondary school.  The third is from some company working with the school on a proposal to some foundation for funding on some education development project.  

The conversation covered several aspects of the proposal.  Such as presenting the track record of the company (and the school) in education development projects, how to address the concerns of the funding agency/foundation, how to put together a budget for the proposal, …

I was struck by the wide range of projects that the company claims to have done.  For an organization to be good in some area, it has to invest a significant amount of manpower, time, and money in the area.  A university has many departments that specialise in specific disciplines, such as computer science, electrical engineering, social work, etc., but a university is huge with thousands of staff.  It is difficult to imagine a company that provides educational services to secondary schools to have such a wide range of expertise and be good at them all. What kind of service does the school think it is getting?  To extrapolate a little further, what level of quality can one expect from a project provided by companies such as these?

I was also struck by the amount of foul language that this man used.  Not from the teachers, I must add - their speech were civil.  The context does not require the man to use such language.  Why does he have to do it.  It has been said that sometimes people use foul language because they do not have the language to express the strength and subtlety of the emotion that they wish to express.  Or are just too lazy to make the effort to find the right language.  Is that what it is?  In any case it does not inspire a lot of confidence. 

Perspective from a wheelchair

My broken foot put me in a wheelchair for one morning on Saturday.  For just a few hours, I looked at the world from a different level.  I am quite amazed that the world looks so different when you are just one and half foot shorter.  

First of all, my view is blocked most of the time.  I cannot see beyond the person directly in front of me.  Normally, even if I were not taller than the person in front of me, I could still see a lot, from the big gaps between their heads.  Now I am staring at people’s mid-sections, which are much broader, effectively blocking out the whole world.   

I found myself staring at people’s mid-sections: their bellies, lower back, and bottoms - involuntarily.  I have no choice because these are the parts of their bodies at my eye level.  I am much more aware of the size (usually quite big) of these body parts.  I am also much more aware of the bags that people carry, and the way they carry them - big, small, expensive looking (or not), on right or left shoulder, across their backs, in their hands, on their arms, etc.  

It is hard to see their faces.  Normally I wold be much more aware of who they are, and how they look, because I would be looking at their faces.  Now I have to make an effort to look up to see their faces. And it can be quite tiring to look up - the closer they are to me, the more tiring it is.  

It is, of course, much harder to move around.  Even when I can push my own wheelchair, it is so much harder, it takes much longer to move even a short distance, you cannot go up or down a curb, you cannot easily pass something walking slowly in front of you, …

It is hard not to feel a little intimated. and perhaps even a little inferior, when you are shorter, cannot see people’s faces, when your view is always blocked, …  The world looks so much gloomier from the wheelchair.