Rooting

Misnaming the South American Waodani tribe as “A*ca” (the slur their neighbors call them) and parading the story of Jim Elliot as an example of effective American missions was more than a slight oversight. Perhaps missions would improve if Korea sent missionaries to America.

“Move your congregation slowly so that they never know they changed,” says the seminary professor. I don’t see “repentance” in that equation, do you?

The about face of saying to one’s self, “How foolish I’ve been,” doesn’t come from changing our minds so slowly that we don’t trip the motion detector. Nor does it come from beating people with the truth. Repentance results from the evangelist having made his own u-turn first, not seminary certification.

America’s increasing drama with China tells all: We don’t know who the Chinese are or how they think. The Chinese never tell you what they are thinking, even if you are a friend—they only “imply”..

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Dear China

The PointI write as a foreigner, an American, living as a guest in Taiwan—a nation with a similar history with you as Great Britain has with my own country.

When siblings have a dispute, they keep it between themselves. An older and younger brother may quarrel, but if anyone harms either brother, both brothers will stand together. Though brothers still have their disputes, they remain brothers. Their strengths cover each others’ weaknesses. In the end, they never seek to win a fight against each other, they seek to win friendship and reconciliation. Even in their grievances, they still give each other justice. Their conflict proves all the more that they love each other and that they are one family because they pay restitution with love.

The Taiwanese are your brothers.

You claim that Taiwan is a region under your government, yet, the Koreans disrespect that region in many sports leagues and you do not react as an older brother does.

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Worldwide Hope in America’s Tea Party

The American Department of Homeland Security can’t decide whether to harass people who know better than to pull a stunt in an airport or illegal Mexicans running through Arizona. Having been in and out of Hong Kong International twice I can certainly say, the Chinese Communists are far more welcoming—and wise—in who they allow into their country. They stare through your eyes to profile your reaction. Chinese Communists are smarter and freer than America’s DHS. The brilliance indeed required to head such a department calls for a voter-driven demand for investigating the affiliations of policy makers.

The questions asked by Americans in the Tea Party movement are not far stretched from questions asked by the world for the last fifteen years or so. “What in the ‘world’ is America doing?”

Six months ago, expressing my sorrow over Obama would raise eyebrows in Hong Kong for why I didn’t support the messiah of change and future.

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Moderated Moderates

In November, Americans fired Moderate Republicans and Moderate Democrats in one sweep, but they won’t stop there. Moderate pastors and ministers in the American Christian Church will be next. The twist will be that Moderate Christian leadership will react the same way as the Established Moderate Republican leadership. They’ll treat it as a “style” problem and announce a quest for “better communicators” to “convince people” that their mediocrity is beneficial—unaware that the clarification is only necessary because their actions shout the contrary.

Professionals who depend on popular public opinion aren’t all that different from each other, politicians and ministers alike. The good ones are exceptionally honest and the bad ones lie at altitudes in the pathological stratosphere—especially to themselves. They tell their donor base that the angry masses want them to “move even more to the center” when, in their minds, we don’t like them because we listened to the wrong guy on the radio.

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