Freedom of Gratitude

This Thanksgiving I should have a lot of great things to be thankful for. I said “should” because I have been distracted by too many details to feel the joy. That changed last Sunday when I saw the words “Freedom of Gratitude” projected overhead during the sermon. Yes, “having a sense of gratitude” frees me from those nitty-grittys that bother me, and reminding myself about what I have helps me with a more positive view of the surroundings. Last Thanksgiving, I wrote something about what I was thankful for at that time. This is a perfect time for me to write another one.
Let me start with the notable things in my family. I am very grateful that my family is in good health. Earlier today, I was on the phone with a colleague who was working at home. It turned out that he was at his parent’s house instead of his own house, because his parents are under the weather. At the same time, he was also baby-sitting his own kid who was interrupting him while we were on the phone. That definitely reminded me how lucky that I don’t have to any of that.
Both my wife and I have decent jobs. With the overall economic situation the way it is, many people are facing the tough situation of losing their jobs and their homes. We are very grateful to have both. I often complain about the commute, but a 40-minute commute to work is quite common around the area I live in. Compared with those facing much harder problems, this little commute problem is nothing.
It has been a banner for me at work. My nearly a decade’s work on a software package has been made public and started to help people from different part of the world. This has lead to some recognition for the software. I am very grateful for my boss who has worked hard to keep the work funded through some tough times. I am even more grateful to those creative people who find ingenious ways to use the software to make interesting applications.
It is about time for me to get going so I will stop here. The important thing to remember is “Be Thankful.” It costs nothing, but may do a lot of good.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

Mostly Asians

A couple of days back, I heard a local news report about a rally in support of Prop. 8 in 2008 California general election. The announcer described the rally as organized by a number of local churches and attended by a few thousand people. For whatever reason, he added "mostly Asians" after a brief pause. I can not tell whether it was the tone of his voice or something else, it really annoyed me. Was it wrong for that mostly Asian crowd to take a stand against the four judges who overruled the voice of people by invalidating Proposition 22? Was it wrong for that crowd to voice their support for traditional marriages? Or are Asians supposed to hide in their homes to let the main stream media decide what they are supposed to think?

I was trying to dig up some explanations about this "mostly Asians" comment, then I noticed something else, a survey of Asian American reported by Mercury News on October 15, 2008. The headline was "Survey: Asian-Americans overwhelmingly against outlawing gay marriage". The article explained that homosexuality is no long an issue of fundamental morality among Asian Americans, but instead Asian Americans sympathize with the homosexuals because many different Asian groups were oppressed by the majority at one time or another. Apparently, the homosexuals have played their role of victim so well that a lot of people are convinced that they are oppressed.

The simply fact is that homosexuals are not oppressed by anyone. In some places around the world, homosexual behavior is considered so vile that the perpetrators are put to death. However, that is not the case here in California. In certain cities, one almost is required to be a homosexual to be elected into an office. Granted that there are certain very low barriers to discourage perversion, for example, to buy alcohol in California, one has to show proof of age, or if you spit on the street, a police officer can give you a ticket. These are for the basic protection of the people. Both drug addicts and homosexuals are identified with a bad behavior, however, the fundamental difference is that a drug addict typically realise that there is something wrong and want to correct the problem or at least contain it. On the other hand, the homosexual community has been imposing on everyone else the notion that their behavior is normal and respectable. This is where they are wrong. They are not victims, but aggressors -- plotting and scheming to get everyone brainwashed.

That "mostly Asian" crowd did not buy into the homosexual propaganda, I am very happy for that. I felt proud to be an Asian when I saw some Asians braving the wind and rain, holding signs of "yes on 8" at a number of intersections around town. It gives me hope that most Asians in California still care a whole lot about morals.

PS: here is an good moral argument for the existence of God.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

None of their business

When I heard the news that California Teachers Association (CTA) donated more than a million dollars to oppose Proposition 8 [MSN news, LA Times], my first reaction was “Proposition 8 is none of their business.” What does a teacher’s union have anything to do with gay marriage? This really got me curious.

On CTA’s web site, they give the following reasons for their position:

“CTA believes that all people should be allowed equal protections under the law. California’s constitution should guarantee the same freedoms and rights to everyone – no one group should be singled out and have their rights taken away. Proposition 8 mandates one set of rules for gay and lesbian couples and another set of rules for everyone else. That’s not fair. California laws should treat everyone equally.”

Their arguments basically rests on “equal protection” of law, but this claim of absolute “equal protection” is not valid. There is a very strict limit on what California Constitution protects. Very simply, not every kind of activity deserves “equal protection.” Clearly, there is no “equal protection” for murder. Well, one might say that this is explicitly prohibited - you would be surprised to know that California Constitution mentions the word “murder” only once and it is not “thou shall not murder.” The point is that reasonable people would agree that murder does not receive “equal protection” from the law, which proves that only some acts are protected.

California has many different ethnic groups from around the world and many of these groups have practices that do not receive “equal protection.” For example, honor killing is practiced in some places as close as St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada [The Vancouver Sun, June 11, 2007], and Jonesboro, Georgia [The Atlanta Journal, July 11, 2008], should we provide them “equal protection?” We also have many residents coming from Africa where female circumcision is practiced, should female circumcision receive “equal protection?” There are plenty of people came to California after many years of running slave factories elsewhere around the world and would be happy pick up their old businesses, should we give their businesses “equal protection?” I would image most people would not grant “equal protection” to these activities.

Because there are many activities that are not under “equal protection,” CTA’s main argument for supporting gay marriage is not valid. What could be the real reason behind CTA’s position? I can only guess.

I have always had a positive view of teachers and have benefited from numerous teachers who taught me. Teachers are loving and caring people. As a whole, they tend to be socially active. In California, they are also politically very active as well. Because of their loving nature, they tend to latch on to progressive ideas. Taking the War on Drugs as an example, the teachers are very active in educating our children about the harms of drugs. This is definitely the right things to do. However, in the case of gay marriage, their loving nature is leading them wrong. A very small but vocal group of gays has for years been portraying themselves as oppressed and outcast. As a society, we have made a lot of effort to accommodate their deviant behaviors. However, they are not happy with being tolerated; they want everyone to “respect” then choice and to regard their behaviors as “normal.” A few activist judges in California Supreme Court overruled millions of voters by striking down the gay marriage ban. Now, the California voters are left with the only way to assert their voice by amending the state constitution through Proposition 8. CTA’s aggressive stance against this voice is dreadfully unloving to the majority of voters.

CTA’s involvement in this political fight does not in any way benefit their members, nor the California education system. There is simply no reason why CTA need to be involved in this. On the contrary, the large sum they donated to fight Proposition 8 can be much better used to sponsor education related projects. Given that the kids in our schools are predominately from traditional households, the stance taken by CTA irritates the parents like me. California does not have the greatest schools, and there is a lot of funding issues just beyond the horizon. CTA would need the parents to support them in these upcoming budget battles. I wish the union would be a little smarter about where they spend their membership dues, at least not to irritate their biggest constituency.

A fundamental flaw in the “equal protection” argument is the lack of moral stands. In the US, the education system has removed all moral standards from itself. This leaves the moral relativism to dominate every level of the education system. There are good reasons to recognize the values of different cultures our residents came from. However, instead of taking the good and honorable aspects of these cultural practices, we get ourselves into the business of accommodating all sorts of strange things. The homosexual act is the most prominent example of these odd balls. The AIDS scare of the 1980’s made gays into a visible group. From then on, gays have played their role as victims very well and have been well rewarded for their efforts. Comparing gays to the drug users, the difference is night-and-day. Because of the lack of standards for right-or-wrong, even though both these two groups practice unhealthy behaviors for temporary pleasure, they have enjoyed very different consequences. One of them has gained many legal rights in the past few years and is on the verge of gaining a constitutional right, while the other are still a target of War on Drugs. My kids came back from school this Monday with red bracelets that reminded them of the War on Drugs. I can not stop wondering what bracelets they will come back with to remind them of gay marriage.

PS: Given that the teachers union has been quite active in pushing for gay marriage as a constitutional right, I am pretty sure that the teachers would be more than happy to push for commemorative activities of this “hard-fought” right in school. There is already 1^st grader taking Field Trip to lesbian Wedding in San Francisco, an bracelet is not that far down the road.

Lev 18:22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Democracy or theocracy

Just saw Joe Biden being interviewed on “Meet the Press.” He was asked about his view on abortion. His answer was quite interesting. Joe stated that he was a Catholic for a long time and his belief was that “life begins at conception.” However, he suggested that there are plenty of rational people with equally valid beliefs, even those in the same Christian faith, and therefore, as a matter of government policy, he would respect their decisions and would prefer to not use the government as a means of imposing his own belief on others.
This seems to be the most rational explanation I have seen on the dilemma faced by Christina politicians, especially those on the democratic side. After all, United States of American is a country of democracy not a theocracy, no one is to simply impose their view on the rest of the population, even if their view is the majority view. If there is validity to the dissenting view, a democracy is to tolerate that dissenting view. This is what makes a democracy messy, but it is also its strength.

Related:

• Christianity has long believed in democracy
  
• Judaism, Christianity and the Origins of Democracy: Part 1 and Part 2
  
• A sample of views on abortion based on biblical text: 1, 2, 3, 4.
  

Love and Justice

The other day, our church program contains a quote from Dom Helder Camara: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I asked why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” The Sunday message was about the commandment “love thy neighbor as yourself.” The pastor talked about levels of love. In connection to the quote, “feeding the poor” would be one level which meets an obvious need, and “doing something about why no food” is the next level which is working for justice. Assigning a high priority to the demand of justice is supported by Mathew 23:23. (“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.)

This message appeared to be well-supported and well-articulated for the most part. However, near the end of the message, the pastor seemed to take a different tone and went to a more mundane route of exalting the congregation to be nice and so on. It seems to be a little out of place with the earlier part of the message, but I did not give it too much thought. Following the sermon, one of the old-timers blurted out something about “liberation theology” in a disapproving tone. I have heard something bad about the term, and am started to wonder how the quote and liberation theology are related. This led to a little bit of searching on the internet.

It turned out that Dom Helder Camara was a famous archbishop of Olinda and Recife in northeast of Brazil, and a influential figure in the so called “liberation theology.” His best-known work is a book titled “Spiral of Violence.” He observed a spiral of violence: injustice leads to revolt which leads to oppression that intensifies injustice. He proposes to break the spiral of violence with Action of Justice and Peace.

Even though the writing was from 1970s, his central observation is quite accurate today. There continues to be persistent and structural injustice in the international trade and within a nation. Take the relation between US and China as an example of relation between a developed country and a underdeveloped country. China performs most of the dirty manufacturing for US, while the people in US enjoy cheap toys, clothes, electronics and so on, the people in China suffers the slave-labor condition in factors and the pollution in the air. Just in case, this is a little to vague for most people, take Apple as microcosm of this relation. The factory that manufactures iPod was basically run as a labor camp, which tens of thousands of workers locked in the factor compounds, while in US Apple employees each got an iPod for Christmas. Maybe China is a little too far away for one to be concerned, then take a look at the news reports in US. The level of violence in some of the inner cities is horrifying – would this be close enough for some loving Christians to do something? The pastor who delivered that sermon did not touch anything outside of US. He seemed to be ready to talk about the inner cities -- at least the poor neighborhoods nearby, but he stepped back from that pretty quickly.

Call me blind, but I don't see the connection between the reputation of liberation theology and the quote of Archbishop Camara. In the book “Spiral of Violence” Archbishop Camara proposed a non-violent Action for Justice and Peace in the same vein of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. One of the main criticism of the liberation theology is its militant messages. So far as I can tell, Archbishop Camara was not advocating for violence.

Labeling a message on justice as liberation theology is at minimum an overreaction. Stepping out of one's comfort zone to love another and seek justice for another is very hard. However, mis-characterizing it is no way to avoid the demand of justice.

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Pro 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Saint Randy of Pittsburgh

Randy Pausch died today. Like millions who have seen his last lecture, I felt inspired hearing his lecture and felt sadden by his passing.

This title refers to a nickname given to Randy Pausch in some of the blogs after the video of his lecture started to propagate on the internet. Many like me are encouraged by his message, his courageous action in face of death and his encouraging words; we thought of him as a true saint. However, many use this name to mock him. In fact, I heard of an entire radio talk show program devoted to this. The talk show host started with a five-minute segment of Randy's appearance on Oprah Winfrey Show, and then post the question “whether Randy's was Christian?” to the audience. The host's tone was pretty clear that he disapproved what was said by Randy: too much worldly ambitions, too much talking about doing than believing, too theatric, and so on.

Guess the host did not read Randy's book, because the book clearly states that he is a Christian. It is quite unfortunate the talk show host spoke before he had all the information. The last lecture was his “swan song,” his attempt to summarize his life and leave a legacy. The talk show host did not like the nickname because the name “Saint” is reserved for Christians only. Had Randy invoked the name of God every few minutes like a preacher, he would be regarded Christian then. However, his lecture was uplifting, funny, and touching, complaining about the lack of references to God is quite petty and completely missed the mark.

Randy's message was definitely “Christian” as far as I am concerned. He used his own life as an example and encouraged his listeners to follow their dreams. In his presentation, we see plenty of examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Those are virtues I hope a Christian would approve. No one is righteous outside of the Lord. However, it is hard to miss the fruits of the spirit on display there. These should be enough to demonstrate that he is in the Lord.

This world lacks a hero that people can identify with. Randy is a shiny example in recent history. He faced a terminal illness in the prime of his life with joy, strength, and self-control. Instead of dying quietly, he used his life experiences to inspire millions of people around the word. I believe that this qualifies as the action described in the book of James. James would agree that Randy is a Christian with works.

I am a little disappointed by all the people claiming to be Christians but failed to recognize the fruits of the spirit. Let me close here by offering a couple explanations as how this happens. The Christian community has been under the care of shepherds who put too much emphasis on words, not nearly enough stress on actions. This creates a generation of Christians without actions and can not even recognize actions when they see them. I am pretty sure that this criticism of “St. Randy” is also a reflection of certain political affiliations as well. An inspirational message typically has an element of helping others, this is generally marked as “Democratic” in the US. This is very unfortunate because “love thy neighbor” is a calling for all Christians. However, in the US, inspirational messages are typically from Democrats, such as John F. Kennedy and Barak Obama, and Democrats are generally assumed to be atheists. Furthermore, professors are typically regarded as a Democratic, atheist or extreme liberal. This makes Randy a natural target for Christian talk show host – a message from a professor about helping others and inspiring dreams must be from the devil himself. Too bad for his listeners, the truth that Randy is a Christian with works would have been much better for everyone.

James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Related information

1. Last Lecture on youtube


2. Last Lecture on google video


3. 'Last Lecture' Computer-science Professor Randy Pausch Dies


4. In Memoriam: Randy Pausch, Innovative Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Launched Education Initiatives, Gained Worldwide Acclaim for Last Lecture


5. Dreamer Randy Pausch Dies


6. Last Lecture – the book and more


7. Some links to blogs and reports about Randy: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

The Unborn And The Mother

The other day, I heard something on the radio that I just can not get it out of my mind. When I turned on the radio, I heard a man and a woman conversing about the issue of abortion. It is easy to tell they have taken the “anti-abortion” position, which is perfectly reasonable as far as I am concerned. However, the conversation quickly turned into the a discussion that the pregnancy should never be terminated even if it comes as the result of a violent rape. I could respect their views so far, but what the lady said next really got me upset. She said something like “it is commonly stated that every moment of the pregnancy the woman would be reminded of the violence, I disagree.” I simply can not fathom who give her the right to make such a statement.

The people in the US who took the extreme position that a pregnancy can not be terminated no matter what are typically Christians. So far as I can tell, the rationale of this position is derived from the command "love thy neighbour." The unborn child is a life created by God and therefore a neighbor. This is a very reasonable application of the bible. However, taking an extreme stand on this position to the point of denying legitimate feelings is violating the spirit of the command.

Some time ago, there was report of 23-year-old mother being charged in her 8-year-old son's death [report 1] [report 2]. This kid was conceived when the mother was about 14, likely through some traumatic circumstance because she treated her other kid normally. A pastor said that the more loving thing that could have been done here would be for someone to minister to the mother and someone to adopt the kid. I couldn't agree more.

Yes, speaking up for the unborn is a stand for life itself, definitely a good thing. However, taking this point to the extreme of ignoring the feeling of the mother clearly forgot that the mother is also a "neighbor" too, someone that deserves at least as much love as the unborn child. According to 1 John 4:20, one who professes a love for the unborn (whom he has not seen) but neglects the mother (whom he has seen) is a liar.

I John 4:20 If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

PS: Here is a piece by George Carlin that expresses this view in a much more colorful way. Warning George Carlin is famous for very colorful language.

Kindness of strangers

Once in a while, I am reminded that my life is supported by an endless streams of kindness of strangers. Here are two recent cases involving jump-starting cars.
The first one of the two cases happened last Christmas time while my family was visiting Hawaii. We were driving around in two cars and making frequent stop along a scenic drive. While stopping at one of those spots, I forgot to turn off the head lights. About an hour later when we came back to the cars, we couldn't start the car anymore. The first idea we tried is to see if we can get a jumper cable from some where to jump-start the car. However, most people in the parking lot was tourists with rental cars; no one has a jumper cable. Since we had another car that can start, we thought of drive to somewhere and get help. We stopped by at the first gas station a few miles down the road. We were very surprised that the gas station had a jumper cable and the attendant offered it to us. How nice! When we go back to the parking lot, we found the dead car was surrounded on both sides by other cars. We have get one of them to move in order to use our own car to jump start the dead one. We have to ask around a bit until we find a person whose car was next to ours. To our surprise, he offered to help us by using his car to jump start ours. He was very handy with the cars and it took only a couple of minutes for him to get the dead car started. Thanks to those two strangers, we were able to continue with our sightseeing and brought back beautiful memory of both islands and its people.
The second one happened on a trip to Oregon. A friend of mine has changed the car battery for us a few days before the trip. It was a long drive and I ended up in a small motel late in the evening. Next morning, when I tried to start my car, it was not starting. I ran back to the lobby of the motel and try to find someone to jump start the car. Luckily, a gentleman came in and said that he can jump start my car even though he is in a hurry to a meeting. He worked like a man in a hurry and was definitely efficient too. He pulled his car next to mine and in a flush, my car was started and he was on his way. The only thing I got to do was to say thanks and waved good-bye. Strangely, a little while later after a brief stop to take care of some business, I found that my car won't start again. Now, I have two things to do, starting the car again and figuring out how it keeps failing to start. Well, I managed to get get the car started again with another stranger's help, lucky for me, he also figured out that the connector for my new battery was bad and pointed me to the nearby hardware shop that might have a connector for me. I got to the shop and the first person I talked to was an off-duty employee. He was very friendly and offered to help me even though he was right in the middle of his breakfast. He located the right connector, but it turned out that removing the old connector was a big job. It took quite a bit pushing and pulling and trying out different wrenches, but he was very persistent and stayed on the task. It took about about an hour but he was able to put the new connector in its place. It has not given me any trouble since then, thanks to the help of another perfect stranger.

love thy neighbour as thyself -- Leviticus 19:18 (KJV)

The Smell of Childhood

It has been a long time since I smelled canola blossom and saw a large patch of them in the field. This brings back a lot of childhood memories.



I was born in a village near the town of Sanhe, a small town with a very common name in that part of the world – an on-line map tells me that there are at least four different places with the same name in the same province. One of the most vivid memories from my childhood was this large patch of canola blossom surrounding the whole village during spring time. When the grown-ups go out to work in the field, we kids can roam free in the village and the field. In a sunny day, taking a nap in the middle of these flowers is one of my favorite things to do. I close my eyes and let the warm sun and cool breeze brushing against my face at the same time; I can hear the rustle of these flowers and gentle waves of the nearby pond. I had no cares in the world but my nap.
Under the spring Sun, the whole world was bright yellow. It was so bright that I can not bear to look at them. The brightness was so overwhelming, it hurts my eyes. But since the flower and the brightness surround me from every side, I had no choice to delight in them. To this day, bright yellow color still delights me.
One can not escape the smell of the flowers when they are in full bloom. The smell was like a pleasant euphoria, a dreamy nirvana, and a piece of heaven on earth all rolled together. Once the smell hits my nose, it triggers a tingle down my back. The happy smile of sunny spring is back in me; and I am transported to that magical place of innocence. I will always treasure this smell as a precious gift, a blessing across time.

Gen 27:27 “the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.”

PS: The above photo was taken at a farm near San Francisco Bay, not from Sanhe.

PPS: Some additional information about Sanhe – Battle of Sanhe,
Tourist information – from virtual tourist and Go China Travel.