My Confession: Poor prayer life

Dear God,

I have a confession -- when I am busy, my prayer life would be the first to go. Then my Bible reading. Then me even thinking of you.

I don't want to live my life as if You do not exist.

Don't leave me this way, Father.

Alternative Culture: Youth Shunning religion in Singapore

Singapore's leading newspaper, The Straits Times recently published an article about the drop of number of religious believers.

In this post, I will not be questioning the validity of the findings, nor will I be criticising the purpose of such an article.

I simply want to what the article (if true) means in terms of theology.

Religion on the decline

The article claims that that the trend is due to an increasing number of people being brought up in nominally-religious families. This is expected -- if God becomes less important in our daily lives, worship would cease.

According to the article,

"Academics and religious leaders The Straits Times spoke to said the trend of non-religious affiliation is in tandem with an increasingly educated populace, some of whom might move away from religion if it does not connect with their lives and needs."

This is especially true for those in the nominal Protestants, where our sense of tradition is less pronounced than our Muslim and Buddhist friends.

Moral without God

According to a Mr Seah in the article,

"I don't think I need divine guidance to make a right or wrong decision. Reason alone can guide such decision- making"

And if Christianity is simply about making people moral, then Mr Seah is correct. One can carry out moral actions without believing in anything.

What I would argue is that it is hard to have a source of morality without religion. Mr Seah's world view may sound ideal, but it fails to answer the question of whose reasoning should reign supreme. As we all know, everyone reasons differently.

Conclusion
Christianity is more than just moral teaching or tradition. Other religions, and atheism can provide that. Christianity is about knowing the identity of God and loving him.

And I wished more people knew that.

With Due Respect: What about the Inquisition?

[Editor's note: The author and editor of this post does not support violence. He is merely highlighting the events leading up to the Inquisition, and what it intended to do.]

Mass execution of Harvestmen? No, they were already dead.

Say Inquisition, and immediately images of people burning at the stake instantly enters the minds of many. Some may even mouth the name "Torquemada", the most cruel of the Inquisitors. Torquemada influenced Spanish royalty to banish Jews and burn heretics

The violence of the Inquisition is sometimes raised as evidence of the violence of Christianity.

In this post, I will examine Inquisition in the Medieval era.

An advancement in law and order
With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Western Europe was ruled by a various, fleeting warlords. As such, the church was seen as a continuity of government as was given authority in civil affairs (Hannam, 2009).

Due to internal conflicts, many individuals and groups were accusing each other of being a heretic, witch or practising magic. If one was from a noble family, one could abuse his reputation to get his enemies persecuted.

As a result, the church came up with a law system called the Inquisition. It was a novel attempt to create an evidence-based legal system. This prevented wanton finger-pointing. For instance, several witnesses were required to justify a testimony. Furthermore, the witness had to be independent of the involved parties.

In addition, confirmed heretics were not sentenced to death. They were given a chance to recant their false beliefs, and avoid being executed. Only repeated heresy resulted in execution by secular authorities.

But it was not perfect
As with any human system, it is not perfect, and prone to influence from politics and corruption. The Spanish Inquisition was especially violent because the desire to remove Islam and Judaism from the Spain and Portugal, the political placement of the Inquisition under royal authority and the ongoing wars.

Conclusion
The Inquisition was not intended to be mindless violent reaction to heretics. It was designed to be a lawful (and merciful) response in an age of intolerance.

Even the most violence version in Spain managed about 826 executions out of over 44,000 cases tried (Henning, 1992).

References
Hannam, J. (2009) God's Philosophers

Henning, G. (1992) The database of the Spanish Inquisition in: Monhaupt (Heinz), Simon (Dieter), ed., Vorträge zur Justizforschung. Geschichte und Theorie, 1993, Band 2, pp. 43-85

Further reading
Huffington post

Alternative culture: Anglican General Synod votes to reject report on same-sex marriage

Recently, the Church of England voted 100 to 93 to reject a report that would have allowed gay clergy to practise their sexual preferences (instead of remaining celibate) and allow the conduction of same-sex marriage.

Traditionalism or liberalism?
To the laymen, it may seem like a simple battle between the reactionaries who want to stick to traditional marriages and the radicals who want the church to be more accommodating to our homosexual friends.

However, to me, there is a greater battle than that. It is a battle of identity. Do we define ourselves by our sexuality or traditions, and reason our way from there? Or are we willing to identify ourselves as Christians and be willing to follow what Jesus said.

What did Jesus say about marriage?
“But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 
-- Mark 10: 5-9

For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

-- Matthew 15: 19

Jesus not only affirms that marriage should be between male and female (Mark 10:5-9), he also spoke against sexual immorality in Matthew 15:19, which would have included homosexuality.

Let's be clear: Being homosexual does not send someone to hell, and being heterosexual does not send someone to heaven. We can only can be with God when we believe Jesus is Lord and has taken our sins away.

Conclusion
My stand on the matter is well-represented by Sam Allberry in the video below:

Theology 1.0: What is the Lewis trilemma?

The Lewis trilemma is the apologetic defence of the divinity of Jesus, popularised by CS Lewis (the writer of Chronicles of Narnia and the Screwtape Letters) in his 1952 book Mere Christianity. 

Based on Jesus's description of himself in the New Testament, Lewis argues the following:

1) Jesus is God
This is because this is who Jesus claims he is.

2) Jesus is evil
This is because he claims to be God and gathers followers .

OR

3) Jesus is mad.
This is because he was mistaken to be God.

What Lewis was criticising was the view that Jesus was a simple moral teacher. In his words,

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

What are the rebuttals?

Christian New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright (1999) felt that Lewis oversimplified how first century Jews might have understood Jesus's words. For instance in offering the forgiveness of sins, Jesus was telling the Jews that they did not need to pay for such a service at a temple, rather than showing he was God.

Christian philosopher William Lane Craig (1994) also points out that it is possible to be deluded and yet give great moral teaching. In other words, Lewis trilemma fails to take in other possibilities.

Conclusion

While the Lewis trilemma is not perfect, it is a great primer to kick off a discussion on why we see Jesus as more than a moral teacher.

References

Craig, W.L.C. (1994). Reasonable Faith

Wright, N.T. (1999). The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering who Jesus was and is.

Alternative Culture: Trump becomes the next president.

Map of the continental United States, from the board game Pandemic

In early November the unthinkable happened -- Donald Trump, a businessman with zero political experience was voted in to become the 45th president of the United States.

In this post, I want to get some theological reflections from this year's election. Before I get misunderstood, I am not a Trump supporter, nor am I a Clinton supporter. As an observer from Singapore, I would much rather see a Sanders VS Kasich election. If you are looking at a political analysis of a Trump presidency, go to another blog.

Theological observations
1) Liberal bias of the media

By watching the news alone, I would assumed that Clinton would win the election easily with 70% of the vote. After all, no major newspaper and news agencies openly endorsed Trump, especially with his seemingly divisive speeches. (Even Fox News, which traditionally supported the Republicans which Trump was representing, called the election result "unreal".)

However the media failed to reflect the reality on the ground. This should fuel our scepticism of the media's objectivity. This leads on to the next point.

2) The frustration of the masses

The key issues that were brought up were immigration, job security and trade. While there have been benefits of free trade agreements, the American masses do not feel those benefits. Trump may have been divisive in statements concerning political and social issues, but his economic promises were music to the ears of factory workers.

3) The importance of contingency plans

As Trump now begins to pull out of trade agreements and implement protectionist policies, my country of Singapore will feel the impact. We can ill-afford to be complacent and must adjust accordingly.

Conclusion
As Christians, we should be wary of what we read and what we hear. While we seek for news that that favour us, we should never be taken astray from the reality of the world and the truth of God's word.

And no matter what happens, God is in charge.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

-- John 16:33

Video reference

Alternative Culture: Christianity in Asia exhibition at Asian Civilisation Museum

Japanese martyrs

Recently, I visited the Christianity in Asia exhibit at the Asian Civilisation Museum (in Singapore). My knowledge of Asian Christianity is limited: I do know of the Hudson Taylor's efforts in China and Francis Xavier's in Japan, but not too much beyond that.

I was quite pleasantly surprised by the evidence Chinese Christians in 800 AD, as shown by the tavlet below. The museum also displayed the sword hilts of the Christian samurai.

Tablet of Nestorian Christians in China dated around 800 AD

Displays of Christ and angels from India to Southeast Asia were always shown. All in all, it was a good attempt by the museum to show that Christians were not newcomers to Asia.

Ivory ornaments from India