The mission organizations do what they believe is the best and righteous for the Sawi people; "We missionaries don't want the same fate to befall these magnificent tribes in Irian Jaya. We risk our lives to get to them first because we beleve we are more sympathetic agents of change than profit-hungry commercialists." The fact that they would risk their lives in order to save the Sawi people reminded me of what happened a while ago with Koreans.
What happened was that about 20 Christians from Sam-Mul Church decided to go on a mission trip to Afganistan to help the poor and spread the Word of God. They had probably thought of what Don Richardson stated, "I guess what you are looking for the cultural key, the key that unlocks the culture and opens the way for the gospel" However, although they had no intention at all of causing harm to Korea, the Christians ended up getting kidnapped by the Taliban terrorists. Therefore, the government had to pay tremendous amount of money to bring them back safely, and some of them like Mr. Bae, the pastor, unfortunately got killed before they could be brought back home safely.
When I first heard of this incident, I thought the Christians are the epitome of mankind; they disregard the danger that might be ahead of them, strengthen the boldness through belief in God, and do their job - help make peace. I had always thought this story was truly exemplary of Christians' righteous intentions and motivation unfortunately being sadly denied by immoral terrorists only until... until I have become aware of the truth - They carried out their actions DESPITE the government's numerous warnings. First the government cancelled all their plane tickets in the hopes of preventing the potential conflicts catastrophies. When the Christians rejected the suggestion and had just arrived in Afghanistan, the Korean government sent planes to safely bring them back before anything horrible could happen. They denied. They got kidnapped. Now the reputation of Korea in a global society and Christians has been marred severely. No one can reverse this. Are they to be blamed though? I don't know, but I'm sure the government did what they can, and they are not to be blamed.
This triggered so much discussion within Korea and internationally because Korea was on the verge of being viewed as the nation to compromise with the terrorists, and this would surely have hurt the reputation of Korea, and its relationship with the United States. Even the religion Christianity was doubted and reprimanded by so many people. My opinion on this particular issue was this - they should have come back when they sent planes to bring all of them back home.
Reminding myself of this incident reminded me, again, of what Don Richardson had mentioned in his book. One family went to research on the life of the Sawi people, and its husband had been killed unfortunately. She went back to the United States, and after matters were settled, she went back to the forest full of danger, believing that God wanted her to send a message to the Sawi people.
Earlier in this post, I have stated that the mission organizations do what they believe is the best for the primitive cultures. I think the word believe in that sentence is of great significance. believe. It's a hypothetical situation! And they are putting the lives of twenty - thirty - so many people on a risk on the most dangerous parts of the world where treachery and cannibalism are respected?
Well, I honestly don't know the answer. I'm not sure if the wife should not have gone back to the Sawi after the husband had been killed. I don't know if the people from Sam-Mul Church should have come back when planes were sent just before they were kidnapped by the terrorists. I am not sure if what they did shows how strong their faith it was, or if it was just foolishness. I don't want to say that it was foolishness. I just hope God is looking after those who got unfortunately killed, and would please give them the very wisdom necessary to distinguish what is God's intention, and what is not. Only if they had had the wisdom to accurately interpret God's message and carry that out...
They do what they believe is best for people in underdeveloped areas. No one but God knows what really is the best for them. I would like to know.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Second Entry: What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?
As technologies and communication methods such as the advent of the internet develop more rapidly than ever before, we have become more prone to facing other cultures even when we did not intend to do so. Exposure to exotic cultures at first could trigger repulsion from it; however, I believe this is not the way we should deal with this issue. However, this is not to say that one should accept every culture just because one wants others to respect his or her culture as well. I believe and understand that one could have prejudices and preconceptions about other cultures with which one is not familiar. I think those discriminations could possibly justifiable if and only if one has a certain set of beliefs that drive one’s behavior. For instance, although I am not a Christian, I firmly believe that it is completely immoral to be cannibalistic. Can you consider humans as a source of food? To me, that is not even a rhetorical question, and that is blatantly against my set of beliefs. I simply can’t understand the notion that one can accept others eating up his or her parents, friends, or relatives. However, even though I do not agree with cannibalism, I do not intend to go find countries who practice that and destroy that culture; this is the maximum degree of which I can show towards those cultures. I do not agree with them, but I won’t deal with them, and rather shut off my ears and eyes because they have their own logic and reasoning that affect their behaviors, and I guess I’ll have to respect that. Therefore, I think when one is confronted with other culture, (yes, one eventually will encounter one with which one completely disagrees with) one can judge their cultures whether or not morally acceptable in their mind, but is not necessarily required, or I’d rather say, preferable if one does not express one’s opinions publicly.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
First Entry: what factors of your native culture have informed your religious views? Explain the impact of these factors
Before I talk about factors of my native culture that have informed my religious views, I would like to discuss about the impacts of my personal background and parents on my religious views because I believe they are equally as influential as native culture is. I have parents who hold different beliefs. My mother is a strong Christian who prays, reads Bible regularly, and goes to church regularly. However, my father is almost an atheist. I have rarely seen him talking about religion with my mother or with anyone. Thus, I had been accustomed to the inconsistencies between the parents about Christianity. My father was a very down-to-earth atheist who believed that religion is for the "weak" on which to depend and rely, whereas my mother firmly believed that it is the ultimate source of life. In short, my parents had posed one critical question in my mind about religion; what is the truth?
Although I was born in L.A., California, my childhood had not been much influenced by American culture at that time TCIS because I came back to Korea when I was two. Since then, I had been going to a Korean school until I moved to TCIS in 2005. I was a person who was very indifferent about religion; I did not care if God existed or if Christ cared for me. I had no knowledge about the Bible and Christianity as a whole. And since my mother, who has always been a Christian, had never forced me to go to church or believe in God, I was never forced to take part in any religious activities that rarely happened between my mother and cousins who believed in God. Although I was occasionally encouraged to go to church with my friends, I did not consider that as more than “Sunday morning meeting friends and going to PC band afterwards.”
However, my entrance to TCIS in 2005 was a pivotal point in my life. Although it does not mean that, I miraculously felt the existence of God immediately after coming to TCIS, my viewpoint about God had significantly changed in the sense that I now “care” about it. TCIS has either encouraged or at times forced me to have interest in Christianity through means of CIC, Chapel, SEW, Christian teachers, Bible class, which I do not think had negative influence on me at all although at first I did not welcome the enforcement. I started learning that in Biology class evolutionism is not ethical or scientifically correct. I learned that Bible is 100% true.
TCIS has gradually changed my point of view on religion. When I first came, SEW felt like a three-day half-vacation where I hang out with new friends. Bible class did nothing more than forcing students to memorize Bible verses, which I knew I would forget after the final exams anyway. In 9th grade, Bible class was more like a “second study hall” or “sleep-if-you-want” class to me. Chapel was merely another opportunity to fall asleep while someone was talking on stage about something I did not really care. Yet, my tenth grade Bible teacher was, unfortunately, or fortunately, not “nice” enough to let me do other homework or fall asleep. I was to take notes about stories in the Bible just as I would in any other class. I learned about statistics regarding how accurate and correct Bible is. Nevertheless, most importantly, it intrigued me to ask myself questions about the religion. Does God exist? Why do bad things happen then? Is it to make us appreciate the ordinary days we take it for granted most of the times? Why isn’t God talking to me if He exists? Is the Bible true? Although I have not found all the answers to any of my questions, I became open-minded, curious, not judgmental, eager to learn, willing to be objective. I now abandoned prejudices I had against religion somewhat enforced upon me by my father; religion is what “weak” people believe in because they need something to rely on other than themselves.
Due to the impact of factors of native culture I experienced in my life, my current status on religion became open-minded and unprejudiced. I now believe that God could exist, in fact probably exists, and I am pretty much ready to try to live my life for Him when He calls me.
Although I was born in L.A., California, my childhood had not been much influenced by American culture at that time TCIS because I came back to Korea when I was two. Since then, I had been going to a Korean school until I moved to TCIS in 2005. I was a person who was very indifferent about religion; I did not care if God existed or if Christ cared for me. I had no knowledge about the Bible and Christianity as a whole. And since my mother, who has always been a Christian, had never forced me to go to church or believe in God, I was never forced to take part in any religious activities that rarely happened between my mother and cousins who believed in God. Although I was occasionally encouraged to go to church with my friends, I did not consider that as more than “Sunday morning meeting friends and going to PC band afterwards.”
However, my entrance to TCIS in 2005 was a pivotal point in my life. Although it does not mean that, I miraculously felt the existence of God immediately after coming to TCIS, my viewpoint about God had significantly changed in the sense that I now “care” about it. TCIS has either encouraged or at times forced me to have interest in Christianity through means of CIC, Chapel, SEW, Christian teachers, Bible class, which I do not think had negative influence on me at all although at first I did not welcome the enforcement. I started learning that in Biology class evolutionism is not ethical or scientifically correct. I learned that Bible is 100% true.
TCIS has gradually changed my point of view on religion. When I first came, SEW felt like a three-day half-vacation where I hang out with new friends. Bible class did nothing more than forcing students to memorize Bible verses, which I knew I would forget after the final exams anyway. In 9th grade, Bible class was more like a “second study hall” or “sleep-if-you-want” class to me. Chapel was merely another opportunity to fall asleep while someone was talking on stage about something I did not really care. Yet, my tenth grade Bible teacher was, unfortunately, or fortunately, not “nice” enough to let me do other homework or fall asleep. I was to take notes about stories in the Bible just as I would in any other class. I learned about statistics regarding how accurate and correct Bible is. Nevertheless, most importantly, it intrigued me to ask myself questions about the religion. Does God exist? Why do bad things happen then? Is it to make us appreciate the ordinary days we take it for granted most of the times? Why isn’t God talking to me if He exists? Is the Bible true? Although I have not found all the answers to any of my questions, I became open-minded, curious, not judgmental, eager to learn, willing to be objective. I now abandoned prejudices I had against religion somewhat enforced upon me by my father; religion is what “weak” people believe in because they need something to rely on other than themselves.
Due to the impact of factors of native culture I experienced in my life, my current status on religion became open-minded and unprejudiced. I now believe that God could exist, in fact probably exists, and I am pretty much ready to try to live my life for Him when He calls me.
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