Jack Yan on Vox

My cousin Kevin is getting baptized

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:00:43 +1200

Some nice family news: my cousin Kevin, the second-youngest of my first cousins in my mega-large family (my father is one of eight), has decided to get baptized, which I think is very positive. I was not too surprised when I got news of this today since we had had a long discussion earlier this year about Christianity.
   It’s not so much whether one supports Christianity or not, it’s more that Kevin has made a decision about his spirituality that he believes will enrich his life.
   I was around Kevin’s age when I made the decision to be baptized. I probably started off stricter than I am now in terms of my beliefs. I still live by the idea that I am against forces that ‘rebel against God’, a commitment I made.
   Our family has had plenty of reasons to put our faith in Jesus Christ: from getting us out of Red China before the peasants revolted on our land, to the recent news that my second cousin Harold survived the NIU shooting.
   As those who watched the video clips of Harold earlier this year know, he puts his survival firmly on his faith in Christ and recently was behind the Bamboo Curtain to spread the Good Word. Being a US citizen, I am sure he was better protected than a local trying to practise Christianity within the occupied part of China.
   Atheists will argue that these are simply events that happen and some luck played a part; they are perfectly free to believe that. I can’t attack them and say that their belief lacks merit. If it works for them and they aren’t harming others by their views, and they aren’t dissing alternative viewpoints, then I can live with that. Personally, I prefer to believe there is some guiding force behind it all, whether it’s the traditional view of God or a more liberal view of co-creation. It would be boring to just have “shit happen” without something grander behind the scenes.
   I can’t fathom not having a spiritual element in my life. I do have a problem with religiosity or those who use the name of any religion to hurt others. It was actually interesting to note that at our reunion, quite a few of us, who went to a church school for the formative years of our lives, are no longer Christians.
   One reason I imagine my fellow classmates turned from Christianity and now consider themselves atheists, or “spiritual” at best (one friend, not a classmate, notes ‘SBNR’—Spiritual But Not Religious) is that religion was promoted too seriously for their liking. I probably had some mild form of ADD as a child (it did not prevent me from coming first in my year each year from 1981 to 1985) coupled with having to deal with English as a second language, so maybe it never seemed to come forth with as great an authority. I had the freedom to search for my own spirituality and included what I knew from Divinity classes at school with traditional Chinese beliefs and what I learned for myself.
   Like Timothy on Vox, I have used the ‘liberal Christian’ term for myself: less Ned Flanders, more someone who has combined elements of different beliefs in line with my personal history but ultimately accepting Jesus Christ as my personal saviour. On my Facebook profile, I list ‘spiritual’ as my belief, principally because my “version” of Christianity jars with some of what is said in the weekly eucharist. While I don’t subscribe to the Da Vinci Code version of events, I do believe the Bible has been modified by people over the centuries, but I do not believe that translation errors and the like weaken its spiritual purpose. I also don’t think God is a guy who talks like Orson Welles and has a beard. Therefore, some Christians might see me as just slightly better than an atheist on some continuum!
   I once attended church weekly and ceased doing so in the 1990s. Part of it was that I came to feel that the energy was not right. My final regular church, which was actually my first church at St Mark’s where I attended school, was fine. But I had attended many over the years to discover the hypocrisy behind some Christians, enough to leave a sour taste in my mouth that they were not willing to live the life they claimed.
   Unlike those schoolmates who turned totally from Christ, I didn’t see any reason to, but I also felt that God could hear me anywhere and it didn’t need to be at a prescribed time at a prescribed place. God didn’t hang up an ‘opening hours’ sign. Religion, in my private definition, implies some level of getting together and supporting an institution, while spirituality is personal. With my evolving view on Christianity it was better to take a personal path to figure out my dharma, and that has been an adventure in itself.
   I prefer to respect that everyone is different and that we all follow different paths.
   Kevin will have his path and I will be interested to see how he follows it. I really admire this personal choice because it’s not a commitment you see every day from someone.
   Kevin: I congratulate you on taking this step and it will be my pleasure to attend your baptism.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

‘The Light shines / In the darkness’

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:31:53 +1200

I had been chatting to my cousin Clara in NJ about Satanic influences in our lives today. She had written the below poem, and begins with a bit of scripture from the Gospel of John. I thought I’d share it with readers today.

The Light shines
In the darkness,
And the darkness
Has not overcome it.
—John 1:5 (RSV)

Good vs. Evil

Evil, where is your sting?
I am not afraid
for the Lord is staying very close.
You may change your form;
I can recognize you.

Attack me,
Scare me,
Tempt me,
Deceive me,
Surround me,
Overwhelm me,
I have no fear
My Lord is shielding me.

In the pit,
In the fire,
In the lion’s den,
In the wilderness,
He is there with me.

You are cunning,
You are ugly,
You are fierce,
You are ready to devour me,
but my Protector will not let you.
He is far stronger;
He is far more superior.

Fooling the people,
Deceiving my friends,
A wolf in sheep’s skin
cannot conceal its identity forever.
Your real self will emerge sooner or later.
Your true intention will be uncovered.
I have all the patience in the world
for the Lord promised me that
justice will be served.

You can attack my weaknesses.
You can aim at my reputation.
You can destroy my personal relationships.
You can hurt me but I will not yield to you.

My friends will wake up someday from your deception.
They will return to me if I mean anything to them.
Broken relationships can be mended.
If it cannot, it was not meant to be.
We all have to make our choices
and learn from our mistakes.

It was tough to engage in a long
spiritual battle with the devil,
I was exhausted.
I felt lonely but I was not alone.
My Lord held me tight.
He whispered to me
that everything was going to be fine.

It was all dark.
Rain was pouring.
Fierce winds were blowing.
Thunder and lightening pierced
through the sky’s darkness.
Then, everything died down.
The air was suffocating.
I could not breathe.
I choked, waiting.

Finally, your evilness arrived in the form of
sand storms and hurricanes gushing toward me.
You swept through the path
destroying everything along the way.
In that final moment of confrontation,
I was as secure as ever.
In His strong arms,
I trusted Him like a child.
Nothing could harm me,
not sickness, not death,
not anything and not anyone.

He saw to it that
Satan’s power would not reach me.
Darkness came upon me,
but it could not overtake me.

I will be His light in the darkness,
and His beacon in the wilderness,
testifying and showing the whole world
His greatness and His glory.
His love will stay with His children forever;
No one can take that away.

—Clara Lee, October 10, 2003

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Mike Huckabee is right to be proud of his Christian faith

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:03:31 +1300

What Really Matters

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential nominee hopeful Mike Huckabee released a 30 sec ad in the US talking about Jesus Christ, which appears to have got some Americans upset.
   The Murdoch Press quotes from the commercial: ‘Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you’ve been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don’t blame you. At this time of year sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends.’
   Sounds good to me.
   I like a planet where we saw Hanukkah a few weeks back. I enjoyed seeing Muslims make pilgrimages for Eid ul-Adha on al-Jazeera. And, by all means, Gov Huckabee, a Christian, should proudly invoke his faith and talk about Jesus Christ.
   I thought the true meaning of political correctness was accepting everyone’s beliefs, not undermining those of the majority in their nations. In fact, I didn’t imagine political correctness equated to godless communism. Or maybe it does?
   Gov Huckabee told a congregation in San Antonio, ‘Sometimes in the middle of Christmas, Jesus is the one person who’s tough to find. You notice that? I can find Santa at every mall, you can find discounts in every store but if you mention the name of Jesus, as I found out recently, it upsets the whole world. Forgive me but I thought that was the point of the whole day.’
   I agree.
   With so many people sending holiday greetings this December from the western world, have folks noticed that many have missed Hanukkah? The ‘Happy holidays’ greetings I received are largely timed for Christmas and were sent after the Jewish festival this year. A number of Muslim friends have sent Eid greetings.
   When I know the sender does not follow Islam or observes Kwanzaa, then saying ‘Happy holidays’ doesn’t diminish the fact that the greeting is for Christmas, a day during which I can bet they are not working.
   My point is that there are a lot of people celebrating specifically Christmas, whether they proclaim a belief in Jesus Christ or not. In Mike Huckabee’s case, he’s celebrating it his way by going back to basics.
   I think he has a right to do that—and if he is a Christian, I am glad he is proud to proclaim his faith, rather than hide it because he’s so scared about offending parts of the electorate.
   I’d write a similar post if another candidate proclaimed another faith: if this is what one believes, then why hide it?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Christ is risen

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 10:42:48 +1200

He is risen indeed!
Happy Easter, everyone.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend