Friday, August 22, 2008

RIP Kenny

Rest in peace Kenny ~ may the Lord have mercy on your soul. You always a good boy to me.

RANT: The Infatuation with Material & Technique


As an Asian-American/Canadian ~ yes a "dualie" (not the truck kind) ~ I've observed the subtle and obvious changes that have occurred within the North American Asian church over the past decade or so. I can't help but see the connection between our local-born addiction to technology and the lateral movement of it (in a Costco wholesale kind of way) into our spirituality. Is it just me or do local-born Chinese (in particular) still carry issues of identity into the 21st century? For instance, why are we so suspicious of the intentions of others? Why are we either too serious or too slack? Why are we either socially integrated or socially segregated? Why aren't there any "in between" to this madness? (i.e. local-borns either running in boatloads to the right or the left; Wallis liberalism vs. MacArthur fundamentalism). Perhaps, we ~ the benefactors of great wealth passed down to us from our hard working immigrant parents ~ are compensating by repeating the cycle taught to us from previous generations. Love = money, Security = material wealth? I don't know. The reason why I would point out the spirituality thing is that our theology - in particular because we are so affluent - is so similar to the same type of Southern Baptist WASP-ish tendencies that many of us grew up coping with (Chinese call you "gwai", White folk call you "those people"). As Ed Stetzer might ask, "how would we maintain biblical fidelity and faithfulness to the mission of God?" As a North American sub-culture, we are just so market-driven and crazy ~ we've sold out to middle-classism and the Southern Californian lifestyle. I feel like throwing up right about now.

Monday, August 18, 2008

What is required in a presidential candidate?

"We can change, yes, we can change" ~ crazy words of inspiration. But, is the character of a candidate revealed in their policy-making? Or lack thereof? Are we so commercialized as to believe that candidates have no "personal voice" of their own? Are they so "spun" that they are just the byproduct of the US Democratic Market-criven political machine? Today, we've got two candidates who are either consistently liberal OR consistently "inconsistent". One candidate is awe-inspiring, youthful and hopeful - but underneath, questionable values when looking at their political record. The other candidate is experienced, has tenure & the temper to go with it, but not someone I would trust to teach Sunday school to my kids (and in all fairness, the younger guy with his idealistic views probably wouldn't qualify as a teacher either). What is required nowadays in a presidential candidate? Does it matter whether or not a guy can hold done a marriage and really prove his toughness (which apparently can break even the hardness former Vietnam POW; the former POW returned to a loving wife who survived a life-threatening car wreck that left her "less than" perfect)? What about adulterous tendencies? Do we care about things like that? Do we sell out and choose the lesser of two evils? Does it really matter that a potential leader of a global superpower care about the right of a woman to abort a child growing within her womb? Or for that matter, care about the rights of unborn children?

I'm sorry Obama, "we can change, yes we can change" (McCain, you too) - the only changing that we must experience is sanctification.