These three days made me seriously wonder what on earth are the real values in people, yes, even religious leaders! The fact is I’m not surprised by blatant racism and in your face greed . we are sinners after all. But somehow, it’s still disappointing. Ok I confess, I was downright fuming inside.
The question remains, should I have spoken up and corrected the individual? What made me stop from doing that? Didn’t want to make a fuss? Fear? Shy? Now I’ll leave that debate for another time. I need to have some new default reaction. The old one won’t suffice!
Blackmail . threats . all in the name of religion, God’s call, ministry . especially when it comes to money is totally distasteful. Reasoned conversation is thrown out the window, we slip into aggressor and victim talk, when it started just as an innocent request. But then, we are not that innocent are we?
If there’s anything I feel we Chinese need to seriously confront is our blatant or latent racism. This is so evident in our side remarks on other people, whether it’s the USA presidential elections just because they might have a “black” president to how we despise anyone with slightly darker skin than us. We glory in our more than 5000 years of culture and civilizations, but behave like idiots!
The article I’m supposed to finish is entitled “The Project of Intercultural Theology”. So, I suppose the above two little reflections is a good place to start from relooking at my base culture . which I no longer think is pure Chinese. Is there any pure culture these days unaffected by others? I doubt it . maybe hidden in some corner of the earth . I can’t be too certain.
How do we get out the dual disease of greed and racism which plagues so many of us? Turn it around, how do we deal with people who are deeply inflicted by greed and racism?
I’m sure there are many ideas which we can throw out. For now, I think I plan to make life difficult for those who misuse the name of the Lord when in actual fact it’s basically refusing to be accountable and transparent in their dealings, and expose their sugar coated schemes. Looks like I would have lesser friends soon.
On racist remarks, maybe I should just interject in the conversation and say, “Excuse me, didn’t you just make a racist remark? Did I hear you correctly when you said ____________?”
God called us to be the way of Jesus, yes . we don’t have to be nasty, but we don’t have to be nice (all the time) either .
And then as for myself, a good look into the mirror . because as one is trying to get the plank from another’s eye, I think there might be more than a few logs in my own.
Lord have mercy!
Interesting. In a real way, we are racists in our thinking because of who we are. It is hard but I think we must first acknowledge and even celebrate our differences before we can sincerely accept those who are of a different race and culture.
On a more personal note, It is hard trying to help grow an “international church” but it well worth the effort
Paul Long, good to hear from you from the beautiful land of NZ! I’ve been catching up with my readings on theology in a global world or globalizing theology. And the vision captured in Revelation 7 is one text where I believe confronts any form of parochialism in the Church. The moment we move from tolerance to respect and even to genuine affirmation of the “otherness” of the other then I think we’ll be closer to Kingdom ideals…. So, all the best in your experiment!