Alternative Culture: The Big Show Show review

 

When I was younger I used to watch professional wrestling. Paul Wight (aka the Big Show) was one of my favourite wrestlers. So when the Big Show Show aired on Netflix, I had to catch it.

Synopsis

The Big Show Show stars the fictitious family of the Big Show: Paul Wight, his (second) wife Cassy, his eldest daughter Lola (from Paul's first marriage), second daughter Mandy and youngest daughter JJ.

The series starts off with Lola moving from Minnesota to stay with Paul and Cassy in Florida. Lola's mother had taken a job in Belgium. Tension and hilarity arises as the family has to adjust to Paul's retirement and Lola's unfamiliarity with life in Florida.

Theological thoughts

I know this movie is not meant Christian show, and that the "family" are all actors. Yet the strength of the family bonds, especially between Lola and her rest of the gang appeals to me all the same.

Even though Lola is not off Cassy's blood, Cassy still managed to adjust her lifestyle (such as finding out Lola's music tastes etc) to allow Lola to feel as comfortable as possible. This made Lola feel part of the family.

This echoes the family-nature of the Church, and how attractive it is to non-Christians.

 "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 15:35)

Review

The Big Show Show is a call-back to the wholesome nature of family-centric comedies. While not ground-breaking in any way, it has interesting scenarios like a politically-active daughter and a career-focused wife during a holiday cruise.

I considered it as a decent show. 

Theology 1.0: What is TULIP?

Is it predestined that I drew this card?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about Calvinism and its founder John Calvin. While I have to address some of those, in this post I would like to summarise what the famed acronym TULIP is.

Most people summarise Calvinism via TULIP. However, this fails to understand why TULIP was created (and that Calvin did outline much more stuff). TULIP was created to summarise Calvinists' objections to the Arminians, rather than condensing the entire theology of Calvin.


Who are the Arminians?The Arminians follow the theology of Dutch reformist Jacobus Arminius, who argued that salvation was a cooperation between God and humans. Traditionally, Methodists do adopted Arminianism.

Calvinists, on the other hand, argued that salvation was purely God's choice, and outlined their argument points through the acronym TULIP.

T- Total Depravity

Calvinists believe that humans are unable to choose to follow God due to sinful human nature. In others words, humans cannot follow God through their own effort.

Arminians believe that while humans are sinful, they can make themselves "saveable".

U- Unconditional Election

Calvinists argue that God chooses (or has predestined) who He will save and not save based on His mercy alone.

Arminians on the other hand, explain that humans can be saved by making themselves "saveable" (such through repentance and submission to God).

L- Limited Atonement

Calvinist believe that since God chooses who to save, only some (who were elected) will be atoned by Jesus's sacrifice.

On the other hand, Arminians believe that every human has the potential to be saved. It depends wheteher they cooperate with God to be "saveable".

I- Irresistible GraceCalvinists believe that if it is in God’s plan for a person to be saved, then they will definitely be saved. No one can overwrite God's will.

On the other hand, Arminians believe that humans can reject cooperation with God's will.

P- Preservation of Saints

Calvinists assert that since God is sovereign, then He will save who ever has been predestined to be saved.

Arminians assert that people, through lack of coopeartion with God, can lose their salvation.

For more details:

AP European history

Desiring God

Theology 1.0: The four views on the Lord's Supper

Obviously not bread and wine

One of the major theological issues that divides the Christian world is the issue of the Lord's Supper. The four words "this is my body" (Luke 22:19) caused much arguments between the churches. Is God physically or spiritually present during the Holy Communion?

In this post I will summarise the four major views on this: (A) Roman Catholicism, (B) Lutheranism, (C) (C) Zwinglianism, and (D) Calvinism.

Pope Clement V

(A) Roman Catholicism

At the Communion table (with the ordained priest's blessings), the bread and wine are converted to the actual literal Body and Blood of Christ. This process is called transubstantiation. Thus, Roman Catholics believe that Christ is physically present during the Lord's Supper, while the bread and wine retain their appearance and taste.

By partaking in the Lord's Supper, believers enter a union with Christ and are therefore part of the true church.

(B) Lutheranism

Luther's view is sometimes called consubstantiation (but he did not use that term). He felt that the presence of Christ does join the bread and wine of communion in a "glorified body". No priestly input is needed.

He rejected the term "transubstantiation" (as it came from Greek philosophy) and argued that Christian faith should be separate from reason (i.e. Aristotle's philosophy). He also argued that any attempt to deny Christ's physical presence is to overwrite His actual words "This is my body."

Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin

(C) Zwinglianism

Zwingli's view is often called memorialism. Zwingli argued that Christ was present symbolically, rather than physically in the bread and wine. Therefore Christ's presence is already present by partaking in faith, so Christ did not need to be particularly present during the Holy Communion. The bread and wine symbolises spiritual assets.

(D) Calvinism

Calvin takes a position that Christ is present spiritually but not physically. Sometimes called virtualism or receptionism, The Body and Blood of Christ are thus sacraments or vehicles of grace to allow believers to participate in the body of Christ.

Conclusion

Regardless of your church's tradition, remember to take the Holy Communion seriously, and in remembrance of Christ's love and sacrifice for us.

For more information:

Simply Put

Inview

Two Pilgrims

Alternative Culture: Spirited Away Review

One of the great things about this circuit-breaker (or the Singapore "lockdown") is that I can spend some time with my wife to catch up on all the Netflix films I had planned to watch.

So one of the movies I hopped on was the classic from Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away. While portrayed as a children's show combined with imagery and themes from Shinto Buddhism, I found some ideas that resonated with Christianity.

Synopsis
The film follows Chihiro, a ten-year old girl, as she entered the spirit world with her parents unwittingly. As her parents get turned into pigs, Chihiro seeks the help of spirit world residents to return her family to the earthly realm.

Greed
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” -- Luke 12:15

One of the main theme of the movie is greed. One thing that united the residents of the spirit world is their greed for gold. As the spirit No-Face is seen as a high-spending customer, the residents are willing to suspend all rest hours and services in order to serve him. Seeing that this was a pattern, No-Face also tries to buy the affection of Chihiro by offering her a huge number of gold nuggets. Chihiro rightly ignores him.

Note on this point: He did not trust Chihiro to like him for who he is; he just trusted her to be greedy.
This assumption also extends to the owner of the bathhouse and her relationship with her baby. She

This point is reflected in our daily lives. After all, it is a governmental belief that high salaries and bonus retains talent. We can trust game companies to charge extra for content. Even highly-paid world leaders are not immune from corruption.

Be careful of who you trust
“From the least to the greatest,
    all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
    all practice deceit." -- Jeremiah 6:13

What lesson can we learn then? From the Bible we know that not even priests, leaders or our own hearts are immune to greed.

It still shocks me today that people blindly follow certain leaders, reporters or even governments (instead of insisting on some form of discernment).

We also should watch our own hearts.

"For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." -- Ephesians 5:5

My confession: my Covid-19 reflections

As Singapore experiences it's "circuit-breaker" measures in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 (aka Wuhan virus/ Coronavirus), I find myself unable to attend church services.

Better blogs have written good reflections on this pandemic, so I will attempt to log in my reflections.

God is in charge of everything

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him! - Matthew 8:27

The lot is cast into the lap,
    but its every decision is from the Lord. - Proverbs 16:33

Regardless of how powerful the disease seems to be, I remember that ultimately God is in control of everything. The disease may have shut down shops and limited travel, but I am thankful to still have a job.

Material items are temporary

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. - Matthew 6:19

It is important to note that every achievement we accumulated on earth is not meant to last forever. With this black swan event, economies crash, events are cancelled and even weddings postponed. Visitations are limited and gatherings are discouraged. Even relationships are mot immune to this virus.

God of the good times and God of the pain

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”  - Job 1:20-21

If we trust God in the peaks of our life, we should continue to trust God in lows.

With due respect: Name one thing that Christianity has done for us?

Recently, I watched a conversation between historian Tom Holland (not the actor) and atheist philosopher AC Grayling. During the respectful debate, Grayling challenged Holland to name "one thing" that Christianity had done for humanity.

To put it in context, Grayling argued that the societal contributions of Christianity came from other ancient sources and therefore Christianity was not unique in its contributions. In other words, the world would not have been affected much if Christianity had not existed.

While Holland countered eloquently, I listed briefly some unique societal contributions by Christianity.

1) Philosophy of science

While ancient India, China and Greece came up with scientific discoveries, the scientific philosophy (that included major ideas of experimentation and formal logic) was developed with the background of Christian theology. China, India and Greece did not even come close to uncovering that philosophy.

It had been argued that without Christianity establishing that a logical God would create an understandable world, science as a philosophy would not be thought about.

2) Universality of rights

Another unique thing that Christianity brought was the universality of rights. God revealed to Apostle Peter in Acts 10 that the idea of being God's children was not a matter of genetics (i.e. being Jews) but a matter of belief. 

In doing so, Christianity laid the foundation of Universal Human Rights, since all humans are seen to be children of God.

3) Presumption of innocence

Another great contribution that Christianity laid was the idea of the presumption of innocence: that one was considered innocent till proven guilty.

Formally formulated during the Inquisition, the presumption of innocence drew inspiration from Abraham's negotiation with God over the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 18). From the Inquition came many modern systems of law and order, one of which is English Common Law.

Recommended readings:

James Hannam (2009) God's Philosophers

Rodney Stark (2005) The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success

For reference to the video:

Alternative Culture: Christianity Today and Trump

One of the more murky topics in Christianity is politics. Unlike other religions, Jesus did not established an earthly government or write a political thesis before he ascended back to heaven. Thus is it hard to argue for a political system, one way or another.

As a result, many of my Christian friends and I have differing political opinion. So it came no surprise to me when Mark Galli (editor of Christianity Today) wrote a critical article on the American President Donald Trump.

For this post, I am not arguing whether we should or should not support Trump, but to give a nuance view.

Galli's view

Galli argued that Trump should be removed for two reasons.

(A) That he illegally sought a foreign government's help to undermine a political rival

(B) His immoral behaviour while being President

Trump's supporters' view

To supporters of Trump, they argue that

(A) There was lack of strong evidence 

(B) They did not vote for Trump for morality; Trump's policies had protected the rights of the religious.

The bigger view

The most disappointing thing is that our American siblings-in-Christ have made support for Trump a "Christian" identity issue. This reminds me of what was written in 1 Corinthians 3: 4-5

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

By making support of or against Trump a religious issue, our Christian siblings have split themselves unnecessarily. We have to remember that we are united in Christ.