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)