To be fair to Alwyn he did post first but it was focused on his own presentation and the feedback from it . Read on.
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It was, from the start, unlikely that many would find the below presentation totally agreeable, but I appreciate the feedback nevertheless (from ROH Merdeka 2008 participants and non-participants alike).
Some responses raised to the idea that peace-making, reconciliation and forgiveness must be the Church’s defining role (in politics and all domains of life) included:
- Jesus has many facets, not merely the suffering/dying one e.g. His Temple action
- The Church also has a prophetic role to play i.e. Christians have a responsibility to rebuke the world as the Biblical prophets did
- "Love thy enemy" doesn’t apply to societal/institutional evil (e.g. we are not called to love apartheid)
- One doesn’t tell an abused wife to ‘love her husband’
- The book of Revelations was filled with tirades against Rome (e.g. it labeled Rome a beast)
A good friend even said that whilst he wouldn’t mind inviting Ahmad Ismail (who made racist remarks against Malaysian Chinese) to dinner, he would also call UMNO to fire him.
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Everyone has a point here…alwyn or critics.
I was really fumed with a lot of personal angry emotions at my work place when I came to read this post and alwyn’s power point. I can’t make sense of some points (since they are only points and not explanation), but the imageries of Jesus being abused to that extend and his teachings on forgiveness destroy me to the core.
I realized with fresh awareness that Jesus didn’t just teach about forgiving and loving one’s enemy before Calvary, he forgave on the Cross.
There’s just this sense of silly absurdity. About being pushed around and still be committed to an out of this world love.
But I think if we are not called to be angry and hatred for the abusive system, then something is wrong. Jesus did not as much defend injustice against himself as he defended injustice against others. Perhaps we must realized that we have a lot of things to complain about, even at times of peace and prosperity. The whole idea of lamb led to its shearer is how we can forget ourselves and our grievances for once and focus on a larger issue.
So while we talk about being involved, there must be in some way a spirit of self-denial which agonizes for our own pains and others, and yet able to find a strength to forgive those who abuse us, love all, AND defend to the last, the dignity of another person, even if it meant that we are stripped of our own dignity – like imageries of Jesus shown in the slides.
God help us.
Trying-hard-not-to-be-angry-Steven
Steven – I think you raised an important distinction between relating to people and relating to systems, which is one area I raised with Alwyn during his presentation. While both cannot be divided, distinguishing it helps I believe for us to have some healthy distance in order to discern what is the next course of action and of course how we carry out the action (which I sense is what Alwyn is reacting to by his presentation towards an uncritical stance especially in political rhetoric today especially on the ground).