“America’s Children and The Memory of Tomorrow”

What kind of memory this country is constructing for the children and youth of this generation?

We’re raising children today who will become the adults of (America’s) tomorrow, whose childhood in contemporary American life is masked by tragic fear, terror, and gun violence. Our contemporary children are the memory of tomorrow. What will they remember about their America?

They will remember their American childhood as a zone of death and a country that did not care about the life of its children and the preservation of human life.

They will remember their American schools, theaters, churches, temples, social clubs, marketplaces, and any meeting place as unsafe places for them, family members, their classmates or friends.

They will remember America as the country in which places of sanctuary, refuge or shelter were rare to find or did not exist in their childhood.

They will remember America as a nation that shuts its heart to the suffering and pain of its children, and where life is cold and sour. 

What a tragic life and traumatic legacy our children today will inherit tomorrow?

What a devastating mental scar that will mark permanently their American experience as both children and adults!

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”— Jeremiah 31:15

“When Human Life Becomes More Vulnerable and Prayer is not Enough”

As a father of three children who are students in Elementary, Middle, and High school, I’m always concerned about the safety of my children and those of other parents. Unfortunately, one never knows for certain if one’s child or the neighbor’s child will come home safely.

The gun crisis in our culture makes life more vulnerable and death more urgent. I do not believe prayer is the sole solution to this cultural tragedy we’re currently facing as a country and people. We can’t just depend on our collective prayers to solve this human dilemma in our culture. Some individuals in our society use prayer as a smokescreen to refrain from taking responsible (legal) actions. It’s probably incorrect to state that gun violence has increased in our society because we removed God and prayer in the classroom. It is also not true to argue that the cause of the gun dilemma is the result of the American society moving more towards the left or it becoming more secular. Recent research on gun laws and individual freedom in other Western countries contradict this thesis. Perhaps, our problem is that our lawmakers and the institutions that support light and flexible gun control laws prioritize money and ideology over (the sacredness of) human life.

The gun crisis in our culture is a moral problem that urges us as a people to take ethical actions for the preservation of life. We must hold our legislators acountable to pass stricter gun laws to safeguard life in this country, and enforce more life-centered regulations in the ownership and selling of weapons. Similarly, we must pressure our lawmakers to act morally and ethically when making political and legal decisions about gun laws and ownership behind closed doors.

America’s Children and The Memory of Tomorrow

What kind of memory this country is constructing for the children and youth of this generation?

We’re raising children today who will become the adults of (America’s) tomorrow, whose childhood in contemporary American life is masked by tragic fear, terror, and gun violence. Our contemporary children are the memory of tomorrow. What will they remember about their America?

They will remember their American childhood as a zone of death and a country that did not care about the life of its children and the preservation of human life.

They will remember their American schools, theaters, churches, temples, social clubs, marketplaces, and any meeting place as unsafe places for them, family members, their classmates or friends.

They will remember America as the country in which places of sanctuary, refuge or shelter were rare to find or did not exist in their childhood.

They will remember America as a nation that shuts its heart to the suffering and pain of its children, and where life is cold and sour.

What a tragic life and traumatic legacy our children today will inherit tomorrow?

What a devastating mental scar that will mark permanently their American experience as both children and adults!

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”— Jeremiah 31:15

“When German Christians Were Silent: A Plea to American Christians to Consider the Plot of the DACA, DREAMERS, and the Refugee and Immigrant Families”

I’m very concerned about the attitude of the current American administration and American Christianity toward the individuals and families that fall under the category of DACA, Dreamers, and (illegal) Immigrants.

I’m worried about their current and future state in this country because they’re being mistreated and dehumanized by the current administration; I’m also worried because of the dreadful silence of American Christians and American Evangelicals concerning the plot and status of this group of individuals and families. My fear is that the United States is progressively becoming a fascist state. I’m also worried that a lot of cruel things that happened to the Jews in Germany in the first half of the twentieth-century, especially in the 1940s, could potentially happen in America and to the so-called illegal and undocumented people and families.

The Jews were considered illegal people in Germany; they were also accused of taking German jobs, elevating poverty and hunger in Germany, and increasing unemployment and crime rates in Germany. The Jewish people were also portrayed as criminals, murderers, thieves, lazy, unpatriotic, and anti-German. The Jews were the victims of an unjust and racist system.

Unfortunately, the majority of the German Christian population of that historical era was silent on the suffering and mistreatment of the Jews. As a result, Jews were ridiculed, dehumanized, humiliated, expelled from Germany, tortured, executed, and eventually, they became victims of one of the greatest human genocides in the first half of the twentieth-century. The Jewish genocide happened because many German Christians unashamedly supported the public policies of the German state, and many of them were fervent Natzis. Jews in Germany not only suffered mass deportation to countries they have not known or even visited. Jewish families were separated from each other because of unjust and inhumane immigration policies and anti-Semitism.

I hope American Christians of all denominational expressions and correspondingly Evangelical Christians would muster up their courage to speak out against the current xenophobia, forced deportation, and sinful actions of this present administration against immigrant families, the DACA, and dreamers, and the so-called illegal people. Not only this group of individuals are suffering; the lives of their American friends, co-workers, classmates, and individuals of the same church have forever transformed. They sympathize with them and mourn over their situation. They’re also worried about the future.

I’m worried about the silence of American Christians on these moral and ethical issues. I pray we won’t follow the footsteps of the German Christians in the time of Hitler and the Jewish Holocaust. May God grant us the zeal, passion, boldness, and Christ’s love to fight for those who are weak and vulnerable!

God has commanded his people and the church to speak out on matters of justice and injustice, human oppression, socio-political issues, economic matters, and power dynamics and relations in our culture; as Walter Brueggermann affirms,

“The church has a huge stake in breaking the silence, because the God of the Bible characteristically appears at the margins of established power arrangements, whether theological or socioeconomic and political.”

I’m asking American Christians to take a stand on these moral issues because American Evangelicals are a powerful group of individuals whose influence extends to the sphere of American politics and public policies.

I’m asking American Christians to take a stand on these urgent issues because love and compassion are greater than xenophobia and racism.

I’m asking American Christians to speak against the injustice in the American Immigration policies and laws because they target a particular group of people and racial groups, the non-European and brown individuals and families.

I’m asking followers of Christ to counter the evil and injustice in our political system because the Christian God is a Good of justice and of the biblical mandate to practice justice in public, to show hospitality to strangers and immigrants, and to fight for the cause of the oppressed, the poor, and underprivileged families and individuals. This is what the message of the Gospel looks like in practice and action. The cause of (American) patriotism and nationalism is not greater than the cause of the Gospel and the divine call to embrace and love the weak.

Let us show kindness and compassion to this group of individuals and families.

Let us be the Salt of the earth and Light of the world that Christ has called to be.

Let us embody the message of the Gospel in our moral choices, everyday decision, and action.

Let the world see we are truly Christ’s disciples and followers by supporting his values and walking in the light.

“35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
–Matthew 25:35-40

*** I know some of you friends will find some of my words in this post too strong or will say that the American context and the German context are not the same. Whatever your position is on these important matters, remember that all human life is sacred before God and that people regardless of their cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic background, and immigration status need to be treated like humans. All people have human and natural rights, and their basic rights to live and to be free need to be protected and maintained.

Furthermore, on a personal note, I immigrated to the United States when I was 15 yrs old. I came to this country legally and with my proper documents issued by the U.S. Immigration. After living in the states for 7 yrs, I became a naturalized American citizen. I’m going to turn 40 yrs old in March this year and have spent more time (24 yrs to be exact) in the U.S. than the country of my birth. My now deceased father, who came to the United States in 1979, did not have the proper documents, approved by the U.S. Immigration, at his arrival. I was only one yr old when he immigrated to the States. After several years of hard work, he was able to obtain gradually a work permit, resident card, and eventually became a naturalized American citizen. He used the benefits and advantages of his U.S.citizenship to bring legally his seven children and wife to the United States. If I remember correctly, the entire process to get us in the states was close to 10 years from the time my father petitioned for us.

“A Few Words of Observations Among Christian Academics and Thinkers Engaged in Public Discourse”

More recently, I have observed an ongoing trend among Christian academics in America that is detrimental to Christian witness in public, Christian unity and alliance, and the solidarity all Christians share in Christ. Many of contenporary influential Christian thinkers and scholars, who write for the popular (church) audience, do not know how to have constructive and Christ-honoring conversations with each other in public and via social media outlets.

If one among them made a mistake (i.e. in interpreting the Scripture or a cultural issue) in public through a published article, Op-ed, or a talk, the common tendency among these Christian thinkers or Christian academic community is to shame each other in public so certain individuals could show that the other party is wrong and they are right.

Unfortunately, the end of these public discourses or conversations is never about correcting the other brother or sister so that this individual could become more mature spiritually, relationally, and intellectually or is it ever about cultivating healthy Christian friendship and relationship, and robust and Christ-like discipleship in the body of Christ. The focus is much on the self and defending the self, the ego, and it’s not on Christ or for the betterment of the sister or brother at fault.

Perhaps, we should ask this question: is this a trait that Christian academics and thinkers inherited from the academic and scholarly world? Even if this is the case, as Apostle Paul exhorts the Christian community in Galatia, “This is not the way you’ve learned Christ,” and how to relate to each other. This particular behavior toward the other individual is not Christ-like and does not lift up the other party; it brings dishonor to the members of the Christian community .

The goal of the other party is unfortunately to show off his or her academic pedigree and vast knowledge in matters relating to interpreting cultural ideas and concepts and understanding the Bible in light of these pertinent matters, and the application of the Biblical text to everyday life experience and decision-making. This is not the way of Christ nor is it the way of biblical wisdom and understanding appropriating to the love for God and correspondingly, the love for the (Christian) neighbor.

As a result, the Christian community in Anerica is becoming more divided and a hostile group or environment; it’s drifting away from being a coherent, relational, and supporting community of faith. The ensuing result is unfortunately the promotion of Christian tribalism and group exceptionalism.

We need to exercise more grace and gentleness and just a little more tolerance and patience toward each other as we exchange ideas and engage in biblical hermeneutics about life issues and theological matters.

May God help us to seek his wisdom and understanding on matters of faith and life, and teach us how to appreciate each other!

Some Random Thoughts

1. To give one’s life away to Christ and for his sake is never a sacrifice or a loss.

This act of self-giving leads to the process of participating and delighting in the saving life and knowledge of Christ.

Jesus Christ is sinners’ friend. His kindness has no bound.

2. Yahweh is King forever!

Empires come, flourish, conquer, and fall. If you don’t believe me, pick up a good history book on the ancient world and civilizations. The empires of this age will not last, but God’s kingdom will not be conquered or destroyed.

Some nation-states and people rely in the power of their missiles, bombs, and the glory of their military forces, but we will trust in the strength, might, and intervention of Yahweh our God!

3. Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord

The biblical God and writers did in fact acknowledge the existence of other gods. However, the God (Yahweh) of the Bible declared that they were not true gods because they were made with human hands, that is they were human invention and subject to weakness. The human-made gods, according to the biblical witness, are also idols. By contrast, Yahweh presents himself as the sole Creator of heavens and the earth, and as the cosmic un-created Deity and the sovereign Ruler of the universe and human history, and no idol or god can threaten his plans or stop his hands.

Rest assured that Yahweh has total control over human history and the gods and demon forces in this world; correspondingly, he knows every detail of your life. He will bring you out of the labyrinth of pain, despair, desolation, and death.

4. The problem in contemporary American Christianity is not a lack of the knowledge of God, but the implications of knowing God truly and genuinely relating to practical matters of life such as justice, love, hospitality, and care for the poor and the refugees/immigrants.

5. God has not overlooked and bypassed any ethnic group, tribe, language, race, nation, or people in the meganarratives of or in the smallest detail in human history. God has worked through human cultures and traditions to make his name known to his creation and people.

The biblical God is not a silent or an absent Deity in global history, but a God who speaks, communicates, and reveals Himself, his salvation, grace, goodness, and knowledge to the world.

“The ‘Big Event’ We need Is Probably not What You think”

No, we the people do not need to face a “big event” in order for us to experience unity as a country. We need to challenge each other about the things that have set us apart , and live daily as if we were interconnected and dependent on each other for breath and life itself.

As a people, we have cultivated an unhealthy notion of (national) unity. For many Americans, unity means to raise proudly the American flag, both in the private and public spheres, and sing in unison “The Star-Spangled Banner.” American patriotism is never a substitute for upholding American democratic ideals nor is it a smokecreen for the activation of justice, equality, and dignity in our daily life. American nationalism should never be equated with xenophobia.

National unity will not occur until we acknowledge the matters that have divided us and alienated us from each other. If we’re serious about national unity, we must learn how to talk genuinely to each other about the things that matter to us, and to listen attentively in order to lean not to defend ourselves. The art of listening can bring both personal healing and collective redemption.

We will experience national unity when we can sit together to work out our differences, plan together our collective future, and collectively find a permanent solution to cure our racial wound; to restore broken homes and dysfunctional families; to stand for life–from conception to adulthood; to ameliorate the living conditions of the American poor and middle class; to improve our broken educational system; to make more equal and humane public policies; to improve our justice system; and to defend the rights of the most Vulnerable in our society.

Nonetheless, what runs deep in the American vein is a profound moral problem; the American heart is spiritually paralyzed and bankrupt. Unfortunately, we have overlooked this matter for too long, and believe wholeheartedly that spiritual fitness and healing is unnecessary to attain shalom and joy in this world, and to achieve the common good. We must first solve this dilemma—which has both individual and collective effects–before we can successful move forward to explore future possibilities for ourselves and our children, and to claim the promising future awaiting for us as a people.

May the God of grace and loving-kindness make his face shine upon us and give us the courage as we act upon our individual and collective responsibility to genuinely repent of our sins and forgive each other, and to intentionally pursue justice and holistic healing.

I am pro-Refugee and pro-Immigrant because my Bible tells me so; hence, my treatment of refugees and immigrants always have to align with God’s passion for justice and compassion toward everybody, especially the weak, the stranger, & the poor among us.

If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News for all and indeed Good news for the poor, it must also be Good News for all refugees and for all people in the world, not just for Christian refugees and the Christian poor. The message of the Gospel transcends religion, ethnicity, class, race, and gender. American bourgeois Christianity is a dead and soulless religion; it is the antithesis of true and biblical Christianity. Lifeless Christianity (American political-bourgeois Christianity) is not sacrificial, loving, empathetic, compassionate, relational, and Jesus-centered.

The problem in contemporary American Christianity is not a lack of the knowledge of God, but the implications of knowing God truly and genuinely relating to practical matters of life such as justice, love, hospitality, and care for the poor and the refugees/immigrants.

For many years, I have been thinking about the interreligious conflict between Christianity and other religions in the world, and the work of Christian missionaries in international mission and cross-cultural evangelization. In the context of Haiti, the conflict lies in the relationship between Vodou and Christianity, Christians and Vodouizan.

As will be observed, the essay below reveals many things about my values, ethics, theology, my understanding of human cultures and cross-cultural friendship, my understanding of the message of the Gospel and its demands upon people, and the infinite value of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for the world.

My target-audience is Christian missionaries who are investing in cross-cultural evangelization and international mission.

“10 Theses about Contemporary Christian International Mission and Cross-Cultural Evangelization“

Historically, the practice of Christian mission and evangelization, both at the cross-cultural and international level, has been influenced by American-Western ideology of conquest and an attempt to deracinate the culture and traditions of the people being evangelized. Correspondingly, Christian mission and evangelization has been operating from the foundational philosophy of the superiority of American and European cultures and value-systems, and the belief in the triumphal achievements of Western countries in global history. Also, the rhetoric of Christian mission and evangelization has also been shaped by the rhetoric of dehumanization and demonization, as circulated in American-Western books, media, and news outlets, of the non-white and Western people. In short, Christian international mission and cross-cultural evangelization has been detrimental to the values, cultures, and concerns of the brown and non-Western people. 

Unfortunately, many Christian missionaries originated from Western and powerful countries support aggressively Western military interventions and wars, coups, economic sanctions and embargoes—often resulting in deaths, abject poverty, and underdevelopment—in the country they claim they are called to serve as missionaries and evangelists; to the great dishonor of the Gospel of peace, they would also interpret these human-made tragedies, catastrophes, suffering, and pain as part of the divine plan for the Gospel to penetrate that foreign land. To continue to contribute to the (on-going) misery and suffering of the people one is called to reach is the very antithesis of the Gospel of peace and reconciliation. Such attitude clearly indicates a grave misunderstanding of the task of the Christian missionary and the essence of biblical Christianity—as if one were to support a politics of human destruction and an ethics of death: social, existential, and physical.

In the same line of thought, the Christian missionary should never sustain international policies and diplomatic-immigration laws that will lead to the obliteration of (foreign) individuals, and the separation and dehumanization of the families of the people they are called to love and reach overseas. Because you are called to be a peacemaker and light of the world, God has also urged you to be on the side of the poor, the vulnerable, the economically-oppressed, and correspondingly, to defend their rights to exist and be free. The Gospel is about the activation of God’s justice and goodness in the world, and the application of divine justice in the social order; thus, the missionary-messenger should be a fierce bearer of human justice and a zealous promoter of God’s intended goal to harmonize everything and make all things right.

Moreover, because of the complexity of transmitting the message of the Gospel to a culture where Christ was not formerly known and to a people of different values than those of the Christian missionary, it creates a problem for the missionary to find the appropriate evangelistic strategy and missional method to bridge walls of division and isolation, to establish genuine human interactions and relationships, and ultimately, to share effectively the message of God’s saving grace, loving-kindness, and compassion. The insensitivity and ignorance of the Christian missionary to the culture of the non-Christian is another hindrance to the effective interpretation and proclamation of the Gospel. The presentation of the Gospel requires boldness, audacity, but not forceful conversion; by consequence, the messenger should not compromise the message, undermine the reality of human sin and oppression, and reciprocally, he/she should not negotiate the distinctive demands of the Gospel and the truths about God revealed in the character and deeds of Jesus Christ. The beauty of the Gospel lies in the person and saving work of Jesus Christ, and his message of grace, love, peace, and fraternity. It is never about the missionary’s wisdom, strength, and persuasion.

In summary, I articulate ten propositions regarding the attitude and actions of Christian missionaries engaging in international missionary endeavors and cross-cultural evangelistic activities and projects.

1. It is God who is the ground of human hope and Jesus Christ the light of cultures and the nations; it is not the culture of the missionary and certainly not the strength and resources of the missionary’s country.
2. The Christian missionary should not conflict the power of the Gospel with the political power of his/her native land; because of human greed and the longing of one nation to dominate or subdue another nation, the workings of the political power of powerful nation-states often leads to further human suffering and death, estrangement, and alienation.
3. The value and worth of the people the Christian missionary is called to reach do not lie in their knowledge of your own culture nor should you continually attempt to forcefully impose your culture upon them as if assimilation to your own culture is a prerequisite to salvation in Christ and the effective understanding of the Gospel.
4. In the same line of thought, the value and worth of the people you are commissioned to is not dependent upon them knowing your native (Western) language, as you may already and falsely assume that your language is far more superior than theirs; in fact, it will be more beneficial to your missionary outreach and effectiveness had you taken the time to learn well their language and be proficient in it. You are “the sent one” and “the one commissioned one.” It is not the other way around.
5. While human sin and unrighteousness may bring about all forms of human suffering and destruction, the missionary should not rejoice in the suffering and death of the people he/she is trying to reach and thus interpret them explicitly as God-given opportunities to engage in Gospel-conversations. Certainly, without postulating a spirit of patronizing, there is an honorable way to discuss the hard life and economic poverty of the target people without undermining their worth and dignity—as they are also created in the Image of God.
6. The Christian missionary should develop a positive attitude toward the people he/she is called to evangelize and correspondingly, the messenger-missionary should foster a relationship of respect, mutual reciprocity, friendship, care, and interconnectedness. The alienated missionary is not a relational human being nor will he or she be an effective God’s servant in that given culture.
7. The Christian missionary ought to know that the saving power of the Gospel and the effective proclamation of Christ to a culture in desperate need of God’s intervening grace and redemption does not depend upon the missionary’s rhetoric of manipulation, fear, and aggression as he/she relates the message of the Gospel to the non-Christian believer in the foreign land.
8. The Christian missionary should know that the non-Christian is entitled to the exercise of religious freedom and right of his or her own religious tradition, and the deliberate practice of such a given faith. God is bigger than religious traditions, and the saving power of Christ transcends all religious authorities, rituals, and practices. Christ saves; religions do not!
9. It is not the conversion from one religion to another one that brings God’s salvation to the individual; Christ alone is the Redeemer of the human soul. The fundamental philosophy of biblical conversion and Christian mission is to make known the distinctive qualities of the person of Christ and the infinite value of his cross resulting in genuine repentance from and forgiveness of sins to the total surrender of the person’s life to God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
10. The end of Christian conversion is not to make new religious converts or proselytes, but to make genuine and permanent followers of Christ of all nations, cultures, and ethnic groups.

We must make a sharp distinction between biblical Christianity, colonial Christianity, and cultural Christianity. These are three different entities and often contradict each other in terms of the values and worldview they promote or sustain. Colonial Christianity is a deviation of the Gospel and true and biblical Christianity.

Yes, let us reject both colonial Christianity and cultural Christianity the same way we should question the validity of cultural American Evangelicalism because it is the antithesis of the message of Jesus Christ.

We must resist all forms of human oppression and sin, and kill hate with the kindness, compassion, and love of God in us.