The Balm of Healing: Forgiveness

This decade is awful. Images of terrorism raise fears. Economic turmoils raise uncertainties. Yet, I cannot hepl but feel even more, that the path to peace is not from this world. It is from above, and we need to let the peace of God that passes all understanding, to sink deep into our hearts. This begins with forgiveness.

This year saw the passing of a music legend, Michael Jackson. As my last post for the year, it is fitting to close the year with a reminder that the key to healing is forgiveness. May this song be a lasting legacy of Michael Jackson, and for all mankind. Peace.



Forgive One Another
The path to long-lasting peace is not military might, not political fights, not academic heights, not ethical right, nor security that is tight. All these things only peels away the superficial levels of people, resulting either in short-term truce or temporary peace. Worse, it raises fear. Why not rethink our approach?

It is only forgiveness that can bring true healing to all. It is only forgiveness that touches the heart. Only when we forgive one another like little children will there be lasting peace. Like a spiritual master once said,

"The moment when you understand, compassion is born in your heart. And now it is possible for you to forgive. . . not before that." (Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist Zen master)

For the Christian, there is a small but significant difference. Compassion comes with embracing Christ who first forgave us. Fighting back and retaliating may be easy, but it often ends in difficult and complex consequences. Forgiving is hard initially, even painful, but results in a long-lasting freedom that eases healing in human relationships. True peace comes from the Lord. It starts with forgiveness.

conrade

"How to Share Christ to a Secular Audience?"

This is classic exhortation on stage. If our worship can be filled with lifting Christ up like this, it will be phenomenal. Interesting to note that the audience here is largely non-religious, or secular. The speaker, Steve Harvey is a comedian! Though I believe there are Christian believers in the audience, the whole context is not religious in any way. Thanks Cheryl for the link.

(Link)



conrade

My Top 10 Favourite Posts of 2009

I have written a lot this year, more than previous years. As I reflect, let me list 10 of my personal favourites for the year. It comprises book reviews, reflections on culture and media, community, economics, evangelism, authenticity and thing about life. Hope you can agree. They are listed in descending order, according to the date published.

1.  Secret to True Identity (Dec 16th, 2009)
   
   
2.  Book Review - "Cash Values" (Nov 28th, 2009)
   
   
3.  'Preparing for the Worst' article (Oct 9th, 2009)
   
   
4.  Reconciliable Differences (Sep 25th, 2009)
   
   
5.  Why Prayer Meetings Are Unpopular (Aug 20th, 2009)
   
   
6.  Musings on Outreach and Evangelism (Jul 7th, 2009)
   
   
7.  Call for Cool Heads Warm Hearts (May 4th, 2009)
   
   
8.  Joining Up the Dots (Mar 10th, 2009)
   
   
9.  A Full Life (Feb 12th, 2009)
   
   
10.  Where is God Amid Economic Trouble? (Jan 24th, 2009)
    
    

Of these 10, which do you like best?

conrade

FW: "I can only hope we find God again before it is too late"

I received this mail today. It happens to be widely circulated especially during the year end Christmas holidays. As usual, I check the source to verify its authenticity. It appears that Ben Stein did indeed say some of it on CBSNews Sunday. I had suspected that any viral emails that is proliferating on the Internet have a high probability of being modified out of its original state. I was spot on! It appears that this message, is only partially true of Ben Stein. The way it is put together, and the cobbling of various other juicy details is by an unknown author.

Here are some of the results of my research.

• Ben Stein's writings here. 
• Part of the original is here, and here. Its original title is "Christmas," published on  8 Dec 2005;
• There have been so many enquiries about the authenticity of the Christmas article that the webmaster has placed a special notice here.

So here's my re-posting. The ones in blue is correctly attributed to Ben Stein, as seen here. The rest in red are put together by somebody else. As far as I am concerned, if we were to forward any emails, we must at least do our homework. Otherwise, we will simply become a pawn of somebody else transmitting falsehood disguised as truth.

conrade

---

The Viral Email Entitled: "I can only hope we find God again before it is too late!!"

I can only hope we find God again before it is too late!!

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees..  I don’t feel threatened.  I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are:  Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me.  I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters

celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in  Malibu  .  If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the concept came from that  America  is an explicitly atheist country.  I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.  But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the  America  we knew went to..

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:  This is not intended to be a joke;  it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock’s son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he’s talking about.  And we said OK.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.  Pass it on if you think it has merit.  If not then just discard it… no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Google Dominance: Boon or Bane?

I tend to be suspicious of big monopolies. While it may be convenient to shop under one roof, there is always a price to pay. Adam Raff, a New York Times contributor writes about the dangers of allowing any one company to dominate our search results. Along the similar arguments of the famous John Dalberg-Acton phrase that 'absolute power corrupts,' let me add that dominance corrupts and absolute dominance corrupts absolutely.

Raff points out the following:

• Google dominates 71% of both search AND advertising;
  
• Google has actually penalized certain websites from legitimate searches;
  
• Money talks;
• The perception that Google is innovative is not exactly true as many of the latest Google apps are not developed in-house, but purchased from outside. 

Some will argue that Google is itself so innovative that we needn’t worry. But the company isn’t as innovative as it is regularly given credit for. Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Groups, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Android and many other Google products are all based on technology that Google has acquired rather than invented.

Even AdWords and AdSense, the phenomenally efficient economic engines behind Google’s meteoric success, are essentially borrowed inventions: Google acquired AdSense by purchasing Applied Semantics in 2003; and AdWords, though developed by Google, is used under license from its inventors, Overture. (Raff)

Let me make a few comments.
1) Dominance Corrupts: It is the last point that is particularly disturbing. While it is true that Google has dished out lots of freebies, the thought that the richer companies can receive priority listing is by itself alarming. If power and dominance corrupts the Monopolizing corporation, it also attracts many others to dance the same dance, to sing the same song. In other words, if dominance corrupts the primary player, it draws in many secondary groups toward a greater disparity between the have's and the have-not's.

2) Dominance: Privilege or Right? A dominant search provider like Google may claim that it has the right to put its own products as priority. However, when one's search engine has penetrated mainstream society, Google has to relinquish this 'right.' For instance, consider Microsoft Internet Explorer in the year 1998. In trying to corner the browser market, Microsoft was sued for embedded Internet Explorer within its ubiquitous Windows operating system, effectively shutting out the competition.Where do we draw the line between privilege and right? Do we need a lawsuit to settle the distinction? I hope Google will play fair. Otherwise, they will, like Microsoft be hit with an anti-competitive suit.

3) Some qualifications: The writer, Adam Raff is a co-founder of Foundem, a firm supposedly victimized by Google. It is one thing to be writing as a third-party observer. Raff is not a third party. In fact, according to the article itself, Raff seems to have an axe to grind with Google.

4) Competition: In order for any industry to remain innovative, low cost and vibrant, competition is key. Thus, we must be suspicious of any organization that seeks to upend the competition with utter dominance. Personally, I like to use Google because of its search accuracy. Yet, I use them with caution as well, knowing that too much dependence on one company is definitely putting all my eggs in one basket. Thus, I switch search engines periodically, using Microsoft Bing, Yahoo Search or Ask engines.

Finally, I believe Google will need to look at spinning off its cash cow at some point. Let the public choose between a for-profit search, say Google-Pro (like for selling and buying products) and a neutral search, say Google-Standard (like students doing research). I am aware that there are some cases where the line between profit and not-for-profit is blurred. For such cases, let them appear in both search engines.

Let me also add that I do not have a problem with Google trying to make money openly. However, to covertly prioritize websites and discriminate against smaller players is definitely anti-competitive, even unethical.

conrade

A New Vision of Christmas

If you cannot see the embedded image below, click here.

conrade

"Happy Holidays" vs "Merry Christmas"

Nowadays in the West, many people are wishing one another "Happy Holidays" during the Christmas season. Atheists are proud about it. Many Christians frown on it. Others simply do not mind any. Here is a provocative post entitled "Happy Holidays will do nicely" from one of my Regent professors, published in Canada's National Post. It argues that "Happy Holidays" should be preferred especially when most of Canada is secular and multicultural. It implicitly assumes that people will be more offended if religious words like 'Christmas' is used.

The positive aspect of the article is that it reflects rather plainly the current cultural sentiment about de-Christianizing the Christmas event. Many people no longer attend churches. Even Christians are shunning Sunday services in droves, especially when they no longer feel 'ministered' to or its message 'relevant' to their needs. The traditional church is shrinking rapidly. Being Canadian is increasingly similar to being 'secular' and multicultural. Yet, I choose to differ politely from my Professor's view with two comments. The first lies with the importance of history and tradition. The second has to do with sense and sensibility to all.

Firstly, it does not mean one has to be Christian in order to use the word 'Christmas.' In any multicultural society, being sensitive to one another's faith belief is important. This does not mean silencing one's heritage. Yet, I do not believe that simply wishing "Merry Christmas" makes the occasion more 'religious' especially in a land where the forefathers are Christians. Moreover, I scratch my head to find out how offensive is the word 'Christmas?' It is a historical event. Tradition is an important source of identity. Lose it, and we spin further away downward the ever confusing spiral called: "Identity Crisis." On this very same argument, I know of some people who do not like the word 'Santa Claus.' In other words, this argument works both ways. Non-believers insisting on removal of words like 'Christmas' should also be sensitive to people who want to remove 'Santa Claus.'

Secondly, the word 'holiday' has a religious word called 'holy' in it. If one insists on removing religious words like 'Christ' from Christmas, why should they spare the 'holy' from 'holidays?' Why not simply blurt our "Happy ___days!" Soon, people's names will be next. Don't name your sons 'Peter' because it is from the Bible. Similarly, avoid 'Mary' in naming any of the toys you buy. Sigh. This kind of removing religious words for the sake of being non-religious will make our society a silly one. For those who insist on 'Happy Holidays' let me say to them, are you 'religious' about it in your insistence? Any atheist who insist on removing 'Christ' from Christmas should not insist that Christians do the same. If this silly game of removing words is allowed to rule our basic sense and sensibility, soon we will be living in a graceless (even wordless) society where every single word has to be censored from society as long as they 'offend.'

• "Holiday Carols" instead of Christmas carols;
• Even Christmas carols will have the words 'Jesus,' 'Christ,' 'God; removed;
• All road names with religious words removed;
• .......
  

My view is, live and let live. Be open to both usages according to how people want to use it. Those who forgets tradition forgets a whole lot more than brain memory. A multicultural society must be open to all preferences, both non-Christians AND Christians. Unless of course, there are no more Christian believers at all in Canada. May that day never happen. Professor Stackhouse's post is like an intellectual pudding. If you like it, you'll want another piece. If not, perhaps just one slice is enough.

It is not everyday that we wish one another Merry Christmas, but every non-work day can be a holiday. In conclusion, if an alien from outer space were to come to us on Christmas Day, and we wish it "Happy Holidays," what are we going to do when it asks: "Which one?" Let me say that at the end of it all, we still have to use the word 'Christmas.'

Have a Blessed Christmas!

conrade