Taste of the Word 2007

Trying out the Flickr account. Check out this year's event here.

From 4.5 to 6.5 million people

The latest news reads "Singaporeans need assurance over growing population: sociologist." For an island that is only 270 sq miles (700 sq km), that would translate into roughly 279 sq metre for every individual. For an approximation, a family of four typically occupy a 4-room apartment that is about 1200 square metres. If we were to add to the space requirements the additional stuff people has, their furniture and basic shelf space, there isn't much room left to jump. Ok, there will be taller and deeper buildings, and logistically, it is still possible to envision an island being able to accommodate that many people, still, the social implications are not to be underestimated. If there is a squeeze for space, it will mean:

1) Increased competition and increased stress for the limited public resources. People might fight for everything merely because 'everybody is doing it.'
2) Heightened level of impatience which breeds bad social behaviour. I remember those times where queueing up is a way of life for everything, from waiting for a car-park space to lining up to buy cinema tickets. This will also challenge Christians on the spiritual discipline of waiting.
3) Quality of Life. Creativity and innovation requires space, both to think, to experiment and to review the results. If the pressure is always on for people to keep to their schedule to keep the queue going for the next person standing in line, it adds pressure to achieving short-term gains at the expense of things long-term.
Anyway, queueing up will be a way of life.

Well, there are merits if there is a larger population.
- Higher probability of a Nobel peace prize winner, or greater quantity of brainy professionals;
- Increased competition leads to lowering of complacency
- Higher investment by foreigners based on a larger domestic market

Yet the negative side must not be undermined. Packing sardines into cans is doable. Packing people into a tight space is another matter altogether.

Read it for yourself: here

ks

Dare We Pray this?

I received this via email today, and checked that it is indeed a true message dating way back to 1996 at a Kansas senate meeting. This prayer was delivered January 23, 1996 by the Rev. Joe Wright to the Kansas House.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, The Rest of the Story, and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called one nation under God.

Do we dare to pray like this, at the risk of ostracism by the society we live in?

The 'C' word

"The opposite of poverty is not property. Rather, the opposite of both is community. For in community we become rich: rich in friends, in neighbors, in colleagues, in comrades, in brothers and sisters. Together, as a community, we can help ourselves in most of our difficulties." (Jürgen Moltmann, The Source of Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1997), p109.

Regent students love to quote Moltmann, though his last phrase above risks misinterpreted as humanistic. Well, most of us know what he means. I too will do the same to reflect the ethos of the 'un'-seminary.

ks

Thoughts from the movie: "Crash"

Comprising a star studded cast of Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and many others, the film weaves together a multi-ethnic group of characters whose lives 'crash' into one another, some with devastating results, others with redemption. Set within the city of Los Angeles, Director Paul Haggis apparently was very intentional in lifting up the covers of everyday niceties to reveal the dark side of racial discrimination. In the movie, one black man call his own race 'nigger' (a derogatory term), a white woman distrusts a Latino locksmith, a Persian shopkeeper was mistaken as an Arab and the black calling an Asian as 'chinaman'. A black film director was almost helpless when a white policeman molested his wife.

Strangely there were redemptive moments throughout the show. The white policeman who molested the black woman rescued the same woman later at an accident scene. The black who ran over an Asian eventually 'redeemed' himself by setting free some Asian slaves who were to be sold to a prostitution ring. The Persian man, frustrated by racial harassment, through some strange turn of events, saw an angel, who prevented him from committing a terrible murder. The white woman who distrusts latino people, eventually admitted to her housemaid, who is also a latino, that she, the housemaid is the closest friend she ever had. There were lots of twists and turns in the movie. The director, while trying to showcase the deep underlying racial tensions in ethnic relations in LA, also took pains to show the humanness of people, that kindness is and should be colour-blind.

In a sense, I think a movie like this serves us an important point. Like little children who took to the playground and play, regardless of language, race or religion, we ought to have eyes like little children. Perhaps as we grew older, we have abandoned our common playground for harmony and neighbourliness. We have forgotten to take turns or let others have a fair chance at life, regardless of our background. We need new playgrounds where all can play and live harmoniously together. This is what a new heaven is all about.

A movie if it simply reflects reality is not good enough. It must do more. It must point the way forward that racial tensions is simply a consequence of fear. Only in love can this fear be overcome. How can this be done? I remember a scene from another movie "Volcano", where at the very end, a little girl exclaimed that everybody looked the same, as all their faces, their clothing and their bodies were covered in grey volcanic ashes. There was no distinction at all, where everybody have the common goal of saving one another from the deadly volcanic lava. Maybe, instead of ashes which can be easily washed away by rains, we ought to change our lens to see with eyes of love.

ks

Prayer for the World 2007

Last weekend, Friday evening (2/3Feb 2007) was the event. It was hard to stay awake. About 100 Regent students, faculty and staff laboured on throughout the night. Some stayed for the whole night from 8PM to 7AM the next day, others stayed for a little while, but many had a great time praying and worshiping. Due to a late start, refreshments only happened at 12AM midnight, pushing the programmes back one hour. The grapes were great, coffee, tea and fruit juices were aplenty plus great snacks like pretzels, chips and cookies. That might sound like the highlight for the evening, but I must say the highlight was the worship/communion at 2AM. I remember Andrew from England who taught us to point our hands towards God in worship. He had an interesting reason behind that. Being a soccer fan from the UK, he said that when he was at a soccer stadium with a bunch of friends cheering their favourite team, they will point their hands and fingers at the sky in one unison, singing loudly for their team, believing in their heart that it is the best team they are cheering. He admitted that kind of cheering was a little odd as every supporter (including opponents) will think their team is better. However in worshiping God, Andrew taught us that when we sing with our hands we proclaim a definite and victorious God. That set all of us wide awake and for the next few moments, everyone in the chapel were worshiping with gusto and believing that all our prayers is viable because we are calling upon a God who can do the impossible. That certainly energizes many of us.

Yes. Communion is the highlight for at the table, we declare our common identity in Christ and we share Christ's concern for the world. Compared to last year, this year's event was slightly less attended but the atmosphere remained electric. Members of the community were deep in prayer and earnest pleading for God to change the world. I must say that this Prayer for the World event is the most 'spiritual' event among all of Regent's offering. I sense a kind of openness that is very different. An openness that is united in a common concern for the world. It is that moment where no one is distinguished whether they get A's, B's or F's. Whatever ethnicity, denominational background, nationalities or other differences, it does not matter. Every member wears the common uniform of love for God and neighbour.

It is also a special time of sharing information about our home countries. At each hour, different people gathered at different rooms praying for the countries represented. This year, the Singapore/Malaysia slot was held at the Prayer Chapel. Some people were surprised to know that Singapore and Malaysia were formerly one country. If you have a chance to participate in next year's event, you should. Trust me. It is awesome.

Changing Religion in Malaysia due to Hospital Mixed Up. Possible?

This is a sensitive issue in Malaysia. In Malaysia, it is practically illegal for Muslims to renounce their religion and convert to other faith. This case is interesting because this man, now a Muslim, actually belongs to a Buddhist Chinese family, who were victims of a hospital error, who switched the Malay baby with a Chinese baby. This is another hot potato that can elevate religious tensions.

Hospital switched Malay babies

KUALA LAMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Malaysian couple, always convinced the baby they were given at the hospital was not theirs, were reunited with their biological son after 30 years.

The BBC reported Saturday the couple was now considering legal action against the hospital in southern Malaysia for sending them home with the wrong baby and subjecting them to scurrilous talk among their neighbors because he didn't resemble his parents.

The family was actually reunited by sheer coincidence eight years ago when one of the Teo family siblings spotted the prodigal son working at a shopping mall and thought he was the spitting image of her father.

It is just now that the family is going public with the information because the man wishes to take a Chinese name and renounce Islam, the religion of the Muslim family that he was wrongly given to in 1978, the report said.

Meanwhile, the child given to the Teo family at the hospital left home at the tender age of 13 in 1991 because they said he always felt like he did not belong in the family.

Asia1 has another version of this: "Malaysian switched at birth wants to switch religion"