Agreeing to Disagree
Was reading the ST Forum earlier and saw this letter (insert) from Dr Tan Soo In:
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Jun 18, 2010
On evangelists and religious convictions
I REFER to Wednesday's editorial, "Points to ponder when sermons chafe".
I believe there are a number of issues here. First, is the call to speakers of all religions, and indeed secularists, not to ridicule and run down other religions and belief systems in their sermons and talks. This is right and timely. In an increasingly global and interconnected world, we must be vigilant to protect the religious harmony we enjoy.
However, the same editorial also calls on evangelists to study anthropology and comparative religions so that they would not "fail to notice a difference between an ethnic cultural practice with no religious overtones and an overtly religious ritual".
The truth is many Christian seminaries have had anthropology and comparative religions on their curriculum for a long time now. It is possible that after having the benefit of studying them, I will still arrive at convictions about my religious practices, and the practices of others, and still believe that what might be considered cultural by others is still religious to me.
Dr Tan Soo Inn
----- end quote
Honestly, I agree with the writer. I grew up experiencing myriad religions from Taoism, Buddhism to Roman Catholicism and each are so distinctively different. I also had Muslim housemates from Syria & Nigeria when I studied abroad. My Syrian housemate and I would also sit down after dinner to discuss our beliefs and our family, our countries of origin and our perception of God and the middle eastern situation. We shared our differences with open minds and hearts. He would sit there with his Koran and I with my Bible. We knew our beliefs differed greatly but we shared about it and about hope and about our lives back home. He shared about his wife not being allowed out of Syria along with him for fear that they would escape from Syria, how he couldn't study medicine and be a doc as the govt quota had been acheived, so he had to study something else and he ran a factory making clothes. My eyes were opened to a whole new world. Those were the days. Muneeb was like an elder brother to me and I wish we were still in touch. I wonder often about his family and hope they are doing fine.
I digress.
I would call myself a pretty open-minded person but I draw a line with regards to agreeing to agree that I think that all cultural practices draw parallels and similarities to my faith. It just isn't this way.
Wearing red for luck is a Chinese superstition that I cannot agree with for example. I don't agree with superstitions basically and many of these are perceived to be cultural. But a lot of them have religious roots. Even Qing Ming Jie where the Chinese pay homage to ancestors through ancestral worship is part cultural and part religious. We practice visiting the graves with the older generation as part of our culture, but we do not make offerings to them aka ancestral worship. I guess as more of my older generation become Christian, I would rather spend Qing Ming as a day to remember them fondly over a meal and to keep memories alive. Talk about all those times together with them and all the fond or funny instances durin our interactions with them. The grave to me is not where they are at. That's an empty shell left behind. I celebrate their life and not their death. I don't believe in afterlife; I believe in more life. :) I believe we are truly alive with God the Father when we wake up from our sleep (Christians don't die. They sleep.)
It's unreasonable and narrow minded to say that Christians have the freedom to worship God but must compromise by agreeing to agree. Again, I say, I draw the line at agreeing to disagree with other religions. I don't go around telling people that their religion is wrong regardless of what I believe in, so I don't expect people to tell me my faith is wrong, or that it is wrong for me to disagree with other religious theology simply because I live in Singapore. It is unreasonable and we are naive if we claim that all of us can be on the same page with regards to religion. It's just so personal at the end of the day.
If I really wanted to pick bones, I would question MOE- why do our local Chinese textbooks feature Chinese mythologies in them that talk about Taoist deities? I would ask them why kids of differing religions have to study these mythologies as part of their curriculum. Can't we have more neutral stories in the textbooks? And why must kids learn the name Fo (Buddha) when they learn the "or" sound in Chinese? Why not use the more neutral Bo (uncle) or Po (grandmother) instead?
This is a subject that has no end if we want to pick at it. Sometimes it is best to acknowledge that we can never be the same in one area, and then choose to let go and refuse to not to be offended. After all being offended or not boils down to a personal choice. Instead, let us bond over the many other areas we find similarites in- football, food, movies, Korean dramas (hehe), concerns about our children and the well-being of the elderly and disabled, YOG, etc etc.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch.
--------
Jun 18, 2010
On evangelists and religious convictions
I REFER to Wednesday's editorial, "Points to ponder when sermons chafe".
I believe there are a number of issues here. First, is the call to speakers of all religions, and indeed secularists, not to ridicule and run down other religions and belief systems in their sermons and talks. This is right and timely. In an increasingly global and interconnected world, we must be vigilant to protect the religious harmony we enjoy.
However, the same editorial also calls on evangelists to study anthropology and comparative religions so that they would not "fail to notice a difference between an ethnic cultural practice with no religious overtones and an overtly religious ritual".
The truth is many Christian seminaries have had anthropology and comparative religions on their curriculum for a long time now. It is possible that after having the benefit of studying them, I will still arrive at convictions about my religious practices, and the practices of others, and still believe that what might be considered cultural by others is still religious to me.
Dr Tan Soo Inn
----- end quote
Honestly, I agree with the writer. I grew up experiencing myriad religions from Taoism, Buddhism to Roman Catholicism and each are so distinctively different. I also had Muslim housemates from Syria & Nigeria when I studied abroad. My Syrian housemate and I would also sit down after dinner to discuss our beliefs and our family, our countries of origin and our perception of God and the middle eastern situation. We shared our differences with open minds and hearts. He would sit there with his Koran and I with my Bible. We knew our beliefs differed greatly but we shared about it and about hope and about our lives back home. He shared about his wife not being allowed out of Syria along with him for fear that they would escape from Syria, how he couldn't study medicine and be a doc as the govt quota had been acheived, so he had to study something else and he ran a factory making clothes. My eyes were opened to a whole new world. Those were the days. Muneeb was like an elder brother to me and I wish we were still in touch. I wonder often about his family and hope they are doing fine.
I digress.
I would call myself a pretty open-minded person but I draw a line with regards to agreeing to agree that I think that all cultural practices draw parallels and similarities to my faith. It just isn't this way.
Wearing red for luck is a Chinese superstition that I cannot agree with for example. I don't agree with superstitions basically and many of these are perceived to be cultural. But a lot of them have religious roots. Even Qing Ming Jie where the Chinese pay homage to ancestors through ancestral worship is part cultural and part religious. We practice visiting the graves with the older generation as part of our culture, but we do not make offerings to them aka ancestral worship. I guess as more of my older generation become Christian, I would rather spend Qing Ming as a day to remember them fondly over a meal and to keep memories alive. Talk about all those times together with them and all the fond or funny instances durin our interactions with them. The grave to me is not where they are at. That's an empty shell left behind. I celebrate their life and not their death. I don't believe in afterlife; I believe in more life. :) I believe we are truly alive with God the Father when we wake up from our sleep (Christians don't die. They sleep.)
It's unreasonable and narrow minded to say that Christians have the freedom to worship God but must compromise by agreeing to agree. Again, I say, I draw the line at agreeing to disagree with other religions. I don't go around telling people that their religion is wrong regardless of what I believe in, so I don't expect people to tell me my faith is wrong, or that it is wrong for me to disagree with other religious theology simply because I live in Singapore. It is unreasonable and we are naive if we claim that all of us can be on the same page with regards to religion. It's just so personal at the end of the day.
If I really wanted to pick bones, I would question MOE- why do our local Chinese textbooks feature Chinese mythologies in them that talk about Taoist deities? I would ask them why kids of differing religions have to study these mythologies as part of their curriculum. Can't we have more neutral stories in the textbooks? And why must kids learn the name Fo (Buddha) when they learn the "or" sound in Chinese? Why not use the more neutral Bo (uncle) or Po (grandmother) instead?
This is a subject that has no end if we want to pick at it. Sometimes it is best to acknowledge that we can never be the same in one area, and then choose to let go and refuse to not to be offended. After all being offended or not boils down to a personal choice. Instead, let us bond over the many other areas we find similarites in- football, food, movies, Korean dramas (hehe), concerns about our children and the well-being of the elderly and disabled, YOG, etc etc.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch.
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