clipped from www.dailynk.com
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4/06/2011
1/19/2011
Keeping the Peace: America in Korea, 1950-2010
As many of you know, Kara and I are deeply interested in North Korea, especially Christians in North Korea. Political policy is important because it effects people. This is a very informed perspective on U.S. foreign policy concerning North Korea. It's a short read. Please read it.
To those who fought for the freedom of my lovely... wife's homeland, thank you is not enough.
To those who fought for the freedom of my lovely... wife's homeland, thank you is not enough.
clipped from www.hillsdale.edu
December 2010
Sung-Yoon Lee
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Keeping the Peace: America in Korea, 1950-2010
SUNG-YOON LEE is adjunct assistant professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an associate in research at the Korea Institute at Harvard University. He earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School, and is a frequent commentator on the BBC and NPR. He has lectured widely, including at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Dr. Lee has written for the Los Angeles Times, Asia Times, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal Asia, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Asian Outlook.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on October 5, 2010, during a conference on the Korean War sponsored by the College's Center for Constructive Alternatives.
WE ARE OFTEN REMINDED that the Korean War ended not with a formal peace treaty, but rather with an armistice. And indeed, that is an irrefutable fact. But it is not true that the absence of a formal peace treaty is an impediment to peace in Korea. The signing of such a treaty between the United States and North Korea today would not facilitate, let alone guarantee, genuine peace or denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. To believe that it would can only be the result of a fundamental misreading of the North Korean regime, both in terms of its nature and of its strategic intent.
It was on July 27, 1953, that the armistice bringing the Korean War to an end was signed. The war ended without a clear victor and with the Korean peninsula divided more or less along the same lines as at the beginning of the war on June 25, 1950. Despite the lack of a final resolution, the armistice made possible a long peace in Northeast Asia and planted the seeds of South Korea's freedom and prosperity.
In North Korea, on the other hand, July 27 has a different meaning. The date is referred to as the day of "Victory in Fatherland Liberation War," and Pyongyang commemorates each year "the anniversary of the great victory of the Korean people in the Fatherland Liberation War." North Korea considers it a reminder of the unfinished business of communizing the entire Korean peninsula—or, in the words of North Korea's Communist Party Charter, "the accomplishment of the revolutionary goals of national liberation and the people's democracy on the entire area of the country." The war may have ended in 1953, but the North Korean revolution rages on. This fact helps explain the fundamental geopolitical dynamic on the peninsula.
In this light, consider North Korea's repeated demand for a peace treaty with the United States. What explains its insistence on signing such a treaty with its "vanquished" foe? The answer is self-evident: to realize its goal of evicting U.S. forces from South Korea. Ever since North Korea joined the World Health Organization in 1973 and opened a diplomatic mission in New York the following year, it has been proposing bilateral peace negotiations with Washington. Of course, this didn't stop it from sending assassins to kill South Korean President Park Chung Hee or kidnapping South Korean fishermen. Why would a nation that claims to seek peace engage in such war-like activities? The answer is that North Korea is not seeking peace, but rather a change in the military balance of power on the Korean peninsula. In addition, North Korea regularly makes threats against the U.S., its ostensible future partner in peace. Why? Because Pyongyang sees itself as the party wielding the carrots and sticks in order to cajole and coerce its adversaries, Washington and Seoul. In other words, North Korea acts upon its own strategy. It does not merely react to signals coming out of Washington or Seoul, no matter how "diplomatic" they may be.
I grant that it is possible a peace treaty might be conducive to reconciliation between the two Koreas and stability in the region; but this will be the case only if it does not lead to calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea. What is more likely is that such a treaty would cause all sides—not only North Koreans, but South Koreans and Americans, too—to question the need for a continued U.S. presence in Korea. And this would in turn advance a top priority of the North Korean state: the complete and irreversible removal of U.S. troops from South Korea. Considering the size of North Korea's military and its stocks of both conventional and nuclear weapons, the results would likely be disastrous.
The presence of U.S. troops in South Korea has been and remains the greatest deterrent to North Korean adventurism and a disruption of the current and longstanding peace on the Korean peninsula. And to repeat an important point: the absence of a formal peace treaty no more threatens this peace than the absence of a post-World War Two peace treaty between Moscow and Tokyo threatens the peace between Russia and Japan.
But does Korea even matter, from America's strategic point of view? Consider the lessons of four other wars in and around Korea in the 60-year period leading up to 1950: the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), the First Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), and the Pacific War (1941-45). In each of these, Japan was the principal actor, driven by a desire to change the geopolitical setting in its favor. And taken together, these earlier conflicts powerfully reinforce the lesson of the Korean War itself: a power vacuum in Korea is an invitation to aggression.
By defeating China in 1895, Japan won Taiwan as its first colony and effectively ended the centuries-old Chinese world order. By defeating Russia in 1905, Japan won international recognition of its "paramount political, military and economic interests in Korea," as enshrined in the Treaty of Portsmouth. By 1937, Japan was in full control of its Korean colony and prepared to utilize the Korean peninsula as a supply base and military platform for invading China. Lacking strategic interests in Northeast Asia, the U.S. stood by as Japan gobbled up Korea and advanced into Manchuria. But Japan's military successes peaked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and it was defeated in August 1945. By then, the geopolitical importance of Korea was not lost on the victorious allies, who partitioned the peninsula at the 38th Parallel.
The United States, in control of defeated Japan and the southern half of liberated Korea, now emerged as the key shaper of geopolitics in Northeast Asia. But after governing South Korea from 1945 to 1948, and despite lingering misgivings about North Korea's intentions, the U.S. began to withdraw troops from the South. By the summer of 1949, it had returned to a policy of benign neglect. At this point Kim Il Sung—father of the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il—took advantage of the power vacuum and launched an invasion of the South. This attempt to unify the Korean peninsula under communist control was thwarted by a multinational coalition led by the United States, and South Korea was saved.
In the 57 years since the armistice, North Korea has time and again shown its willingness to take considerable risks to turn the strategic environment in its favor. The sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean naval ship, in March of this year, and the bombing of a South Korean island on November 23, are but the latest in a long history of deadly attacks. But today the North Korean regime faces its most serious internal political challenges in nearly 20 years: severe economic stresses, the increasing infiltration of information, higher numbers of its citizens attempting to defect to the South, and the challenge of handing over dynastic power from a long-ruling father to an unproven son in his twenties.
This uncertain situation presents a rare opportunity for policymakers in Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo to bring about changes in the North Korean regime and ensure peace and stability in the region. Engaging the North Korean people—rather than the regime—by means of information operations and facilitating defections, while simultaneously constricting Pyongyang's cash flow, is the best means to that end. It's also important for Washington to hold quiet consultations with Beijing to prepare jointly for a unified Korea under Seoul's direction, a new polity that will be free, peaceful, capitalist, pro-U.S. and pro-China.
In an Orwellian world, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength." In the North Korean world, the past 57 years of de facto peace is war, a life of servitude to the state is freedom, and national strength is rooted in ignorance of the outside world. Today, as trouble is once again brewing on the Korean peninsula, we would do well to remember the noble resolve of those who fought back the North Korean invasion in 1950-53 and the precious gift they left behind: an extended period of peace and a free and prosperous South Korea. Those courageous soldiers taught us that deterrence is peace, freedom is not free, and that to remember the past is a mark of national character and strength.
The great and noble efforts of Americans in the Korean War, the legacy of a 60-year friendship between the U.S. and South Korea, and U.S. strategic interests should not now be sacrificed on the altar of diplomatic peace. Now is rather the time for prudent and pragmatic policymakers to pave the way for a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula, and, in doing so, to pay the greatest honor possible to all those who served in a war—often referred to by historians as "The Forgotten War"—that is decidedly forgotten no more.
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8/15/2010
Dogs are not humans.
clipped from www.informz.netDogs and Dung Beetles
Why Do I Have to Explain This?
August 13, 2010
How do I respond to something that happened inside a church that was so blasphemous, so obviously—I can't believe I'm using this word—idiotic?
Especially since the people involved seem so nice, and their attitude towards "God's creatures" is so warm and cuddly! Well, I will have to run the risk of upsetting nice people by simply telling the truth.
Here's what happened. At St. Peter's Anglican Church in Toronto, Donald Keith came forward for communion with his dog, Trapper, in tow. The priest, Marguerite Ray, gave communion to Keith. And then, in what she called a welcoming gesture, offered a communion wafer to Trapper. Trapper gladly accepted. The Toronto Star newspaper reports that the dog only sniffed at the communion wine, however.
Some of the parishioners were rightly outraged. Others don't know what the fuss is about.
Neither, it seems, does the priest. Although she apologized for upsetting people, she defends what she did as an "act of reaching out" to Mr. Keith, who was a newcomer. After all, she said, "Jesus is a positive person. And Christianity is a positive religion."
The dog's owner was touched. Everywhere he goes, Trapper goes with him. Why? The dog, the paper reports, suffers from "separation anxiety." Keith affirms that the dog took communion reverently—that the dog even bowed its head and prayed before receiving communion.
One congregant, Suzette Mafuna, said, "We're all God's creatures. . . If a dog goes into a church, he's entitled to every service that's offered, including spiritual nourishment."
Well, Suzette, you are wrong. And I can't believe that I have to explain why.
Folks, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He made all the creatures that live on earth, including mosquitoes, dogs, and dung beetles. He also made man, but he made man—alone among all creatures—in His image.
And the Son, the second person of the Trinity, in order to save those made in God's image, took on human flesh, became one of us, went to the cross in our place for our sins, making us children of God.
So while all things that live and breathe are indeed God's creatures, the dung beetle is not your brother.
Nor is Trapper. Dogs are wonderful creatures. They deserve our care. They bring joy and companionship to many people. But, as even Cesar Millan, the famous Dog Whisperer, reminds his viewers, dogs are not humans.
And while Christians disagree on communion—whether it is the actual body and blood of Christ, a bearer of Christ's real presence, or a symbol of his ultimate sacrifice—we all agree that it is holy. And we ought not take what is holy and give it to the dogs.
That I even have to say this tells me that some Christians no longer understand the concept of the holy, the basic precept of our faith, nor do they understand man's unique position in the cosmos as the bearer of God's image and the object of His sacrificial love.
In other words, we no longer understand—or even believe—that humans are special. That's scary.
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6/14/2010
Legalize Adoption of North Korean Children
clipped from linkglobal.orgLegalize Adoption Campaign
The Issue
Orphaned North Koreans: For well over a decade, hundreds of thousands have fled North Korea seeking basic necessities such as food and medicine or even freedom. Often left behind or lost along the way are children whose parents cannot return home or have separated or abandoned them. These children end up in China homeless, vulnerable and desperate to seek a way to survive.
Stateless Children: Of the North Korean refugees who are hiding or have come through China, the majority are women and over 80 percent are trafficked or voluntarily marry Chinese men. Some of these women, however, leave their families for fear of being caught and sent back to North Korea or to escape abuse. Once the mothers leave, the fathers often find themselves struggling or unable to provide for their children, leaving them to be cared for by relatives or altogether abandoned.
Both orphaned North Korean and stateless (half Chinese) children in the underground in China lack documentation that prove their citizenship and allow them to receive education, work legally or have basic rights, also leaving them at risk of high risk of exploitation or abuse. For North Korean children, seeking asylum in South Korea or the US is an option. However, without appropriate documentation, they cannot be eligible for adoption in the US – only foster care. US law requires documentation that their parents have in fact abandoned them or have passed away. Providing such evidence is impossible for these children. They cannot simply request official documents from the nearest North Korean consulate or contact family in North Korea for assistance. For stateless (half Chinese, half North Korean) children who have no citizenship, no rights and no future - they are forgotten in China.
Two Ways You Can Help:
1) Support the Children
Working closely with our partners on the ground, we support dozens of children with food, shelter, access to education, transportation to school, scholarships, funds for extracurricular activities, and documentation. We also protect and shelter some of these children who have been abandoned, abused or are at risk of being sold or exploited.
With your help we can assist many more children in need.
2) Speak for the Children
New legislation was recently introduced in both the Senate and the House seeking to develop a strategy for assisting stateless and orphaned North Korean children by facilitating the adoption of eligible children by wanting families in the United States.
Read The House Bill
Read The Senate Bill
- Write a letter to your Representative, asking for their vote on HR 4986, "The North Korean Refugee Adoption Act of 2010."
- Write to your Senators, asking for their vote on S. 3156, "A bill to develop a strategy for assisting stateless children from North Korea, and for other purposes."
- Ask your friends, family and neighbors to also write a letter to their Representatives and Senators.
Download the Legalize Adoption Letterhead here and instructions here for what to write in your letter.
Once you write your letter, send it to OUR office so that we can deliver all of the letters together in one package.
LiNK
c/o Legalize Adoption
1751 Torrance Blvd, STE L
Torrance, CA 90501
Find Your Senators. Find Your Congressmen.
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3/06/2010
2/11/2010
Why are we so unhappy?
clipped from www.breakpoint.org| Why Are We So Unhappy? |
Examining a ParadoxBy Regis Nicoll|Published Date: February 27, 2009 "Psychotherapy is such a growing vogue today because people want to know why they are unhappy . . . " (Psychologist Ernest Becker) A PARADOX In an impressively researched book, The Progress Paradox, New Republic senior editor Gregg Easterbrook observes that, by every measure of well-being, our generation is better off than any of our forebears. We enjoy more leisure time with better health, less air pollution, higher levels of education, higher per-capita income, and greater personal and civil liberties than at any other time in history. Even compared to the halcyon 1950s, our generation has it better in terms of real income and home and car ownership, not to mention morbidity, mortality, education, environmental quality, and the fair treatment of minorities. Whereas, in the past, these benefits were limited to the rich and privileged, today they are realized by a wide spectrum of society. For example, in 1960, 22 percent of Americans lived under the poverty line, compared to 11.7 percent in 2001. All these material measures should add up to an increased sense of well-being. But they don't. Theologian David Wells notes that by 1990 there were two psychotherapists for every dentist and more counselors than librarians. And today, the incidence of depression is over 10 times that of the Halcyon Decade. Gloominess in an age of unprecedented progress is a paradox in need of an explanation. A TRADE SECRET There is no doubt that some types of mental disorders have biochemical origins. The success of medication in treating certain depressions strongly suggests the importance of chemistry in mental health. But "treating" is a clue to a trade secret in psychotherapy. As Given the epidemic rate of melancholy, Dr. Seligman's admission suggests that much of what ails us has a cause beyond bad chemistry and bad genes. While negative past experiences account for some of our gloom, ideas popularized over the last several decades lurk behind much of it. Gregg Easterbrook observes, "In Western nations . . . people have become no happier, in the very period that thinkers and educators have proclaimed life meaningless." That is an important observation. For there is nary a nook of culture left untouched by the nihilism that percolated out of coffee bistros of the last century. MESSAGE OF MEANINGLESSNESS With a lump of Freudian theory, a dash of Kinseyan research, and liberal amounts of Maslow's hierarchy, pop therapy promises meaning and self-discovery through the satisfaction of felt needs, starting with the sensual. To be sure, the prospect of finding meaning through sensual experiences is exciting, even liberating—until the inflationary promises of no-fault hedonism go bust. In his book Psychology as Religion, psychology professor Paul Vitz explains that the pursuit of sensual fulfillment creates inflated expectations that cannot keep up with the demand of rising adaptation levels. The "ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure," as C.S. Lewis phrases it, leads people into more and more extreme (and destructive) behaviors which, in the end, devour, rather than fulfill, them. Those who graduate from sensual fulfillment to "self-actualization," pop psychology's summa bonum of life, fare no better. Dr. Vitz notes that popular selfist theories have "led to large-scale disappointment." Not only has the search for self often resulted in divorce and broken relationships, life experiences brought job frustrations, financial problems, and health challenges that created a yawning gap between expectation and reality. Disappointment and disillusionment, in the crucible of real life, has been the theme of some of the most critically acclaimed movies of the past decade. American Beauty (1999), The Hours (2002), and, most recently, Revolutionary Road (2008) depict, some jarringly so, our existential angst. In each film, we enter a world, our world, devoid of ultimate meaning, populated by characters whose highest aspiration is to be true to self (whatever that means) through unfettered self-expression. Casualties accumulated along the way—be they infidelity, divorce, or even suicide—are neither wrong nor tragic but, rather, the consequences of choices made by the courageous hero or heroine to avoid the real tragedy: the "counterfeit" life. It is an old storyline that goes back to a man who anguished over the meaning of human existence. TRANSCENDENT SIGNPOSTS Like Solomon, there are many people who feel bad amid prosperity. For them, life is bearing down, trying harder, and braving the outfall as best they can. In ignorance, or avoidance, they pass, without notice, the transcendental signposts along their existential journey. They are like the man who tries to run from his own shadow, only to keep tripping over road hazards and coming to dead ends. Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, understood the importance of those signposts. In Modern Man in Search of a Soul, he wrote, "Among all my patients in the second half of life… [it] is safe to say that every one of them feel ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers and not one of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook." Jung did not espouse any orthodox religion, but he was among those who recognized the spiritual dimension of our pathology—like the late clinical psychiatrist, Karl Menninger. Menninger once said that if he could convince his institutionalized patients that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent would walk out of the ward the next day. The irrepressible sense that we stand guilty before Someone, somehow, is symptomatic of a condition that, left unresolved, sooner or later externalizes in unhealthy behaviors or internalizes in mental maladies. As it happens, Christianity is the only belief system, religious or otherwise, that promises resolution with the assurance that resolution has been attained ("If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins"). What a challenging thought to consider the potential of the Gospel for transforming mental health care and emptying psychiatric sanatoria! BEYOND SELF
Solomon learned, contrary to the psychobabble of pop therapists, that life's meaning is not in discovering self, but in submission to Other. The school of life taught Solomon that sensual fulfillment, material accomplishments, and "actualizing" experiences can be sources of temporal satisfaction and enjoyment, but they are not sources of meaning and purpose. That source is God. As a creation, man has intrinsic worth whose life is imbued with lasting significance discoverable through the revealed Word of the Creator. A millennium later, the apostle Paul summed up the lesson to a group of Athenian philosophers: "For in him we live and move and have our being." Regis Nicoll is a freelance writer and a BreakPoint Centurion. His "All Things Examined" column appears on BreakPoint every other Friday. Serving as a men's ministry leader and worldview teacher in his community, Regis publishes a free weekly commentary to stimulate thought on current issues from a Christian perspective. To be placed on this free e-mail distribution list, e-mail him at: centurion51@aol.com. |
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2/01/2010
An article by A N Wilson in the NewStatesman
clipped from www.newstatesman.comA N Wilson writes on how his conversion to atheism may have been similar to a road to Damascus experience but his return to faith has been slow and doubting
Unlike his conversion to Atheism, Wilson's path back to faith has been a slow one
By nature a doubting Thomas, I should have distrusted the symptoms when I underwent a "conversion experience" 20 years ago. Something was happening which was out of character - the inner glow of complete certainty, the heady sense of being at one with the great tide of fellow non-believers. For my conversion experience was to atheism. There were several moments of epiphany, actually, but one of the most dramatic occurred in the pulpit of a church.
At St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London, there are two pulpits, and for some decades they have been used for lunchtime dialogues. I had just published a biography of C S Lewis, and the rector of St Mary-le-Bow, Victor Stock, asked me to participate in one such exchange of views.
Memory edits, and perhaps distorts, the highlights of the discussion. Memory says that while Father Stock was asking me about Lewis, I began to "testify", denouncing Lewis's muscular defence of religious belief. Much more to my taste, I said, had been the approach of the late Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey, whose biography I had just read.
A young priest had been to see him in great distress, saying that he had lost his faith in God. Ramsey's reply was a long silence followed by a repetition of the mantra "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter". He told the priest to continue to worship Jesus in the Sacraments and that faith would return. "But!" exclaimed Father Stock. "That priest was me!"
Like many things said by this amusing man, it brought the house down. But something had taken a grip of me, and I was thinking (did I say it out loud?): "It bloody well does matter. Just struggling on like Lord Tennyson ('and faintly trust the larger hope') is no good at all . . ."
I can remember almost yelling that reading C S Lewis's Mere Christianity made me a non-believer - not just in Lewis's version of Christianity, but in Christianity itself. On that occasion, I realised that after a lifetime of churchgoing, the whole house of cards had collapsed for me - the sense of God's presence in life, and the notion that there was any kind of God, let alone a merciful God, in this brutal, nasty world. As for Jesus having been the founder of Christianity, this idea seemed perfectly preposterous. In so far as we can discern anything about Jesus from the existing documents, he believed that the world was about to end, as did all the first Christians. So, how could he possibly have intended to start a new religion for Gentiles, let alone established a Church or instituted the Sacraments? It was a nonsense, together with the idea of a personal God, or a loving God in a suffering universe. Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.
It was such a relief to discard it all that, for months, I walked on air. At about this time, the Independent on Sunday sent me to interview Dr Billy Graham, who was conducting a mission in Syracuse, New York State, prior to making one of his journeys to England. The pattern of these meetings was always the same. The old matinee idol spoke. The gospel choir sang some suitably affecting ditty, and then the converted made their way down the aisles to commit themselves to the new faith. Part of the glow was, surely, the knowledge that they were now part of a great fellowship of believers.
As a hesitant, doubting, religious man I'd never known how they felt. But, as a born-again atheist, I now knew exactly what satisfactions were on offer. For the first time in my 38 years I was at one with my own generation. I had become like one of the Billy Grahamites, only in reverse. If I bumped into Richard Dawkins (an old colleague from Oxford days) or had dinner in Washington with Christopher Hitchens (as I did either on that trip to interview Billy Graham or another), I did not have to feel out on a limb. Hitchens was excited to greet a new convert to his non-creed and put me through a catechism before uncorking some stupendous claret. "So - absolutely no God?" "Nope," I was able to say with Moonie-zeal. "No future life, nothing 'out there'?" "No," I obediently replied. At last! I could join in the creed shared by so many (most?) of my intelligent contemporaries in the western world - that men and women are purely material beings (whatever that is supposed to mean), that "this is all there is" (ditto), that God, Jesus and religion are a load of baloney: and worse than that, the cause of much (no, come on, let yourself go), most (why stint yourself - go for it, man), all the trouble in the world, from Jerusalem to Belfast, from Washington to Islamabad.
My doubting temperament, however, made me a very unconvincing atheist. And unconvinced. My hilarious Camden Town neighbour Colin Haycraft, the boss of Duckworth and husband of Alice Thomas Ellis, used to say, "I do wish Freddie [Ayer] wouldn't go round calling himself an atheist. It implies he takes religion seriously."
This creed that religion can be despatched in a few brisk arguments (outlined in David Hume's masterly Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion) and then laughed off kept me going for some years. When I found myself wavering, I would return to Hume in order to pull myself together, rather as a Catholic having doubts might return to the shrine of a particular saint to sustain them while the springs of faith ran dry.
But religion, once the glow of conversion had worn off, was not a matter of argument alone. It involves the whole person. Therefore I was drawn, over and over again, to the disconcerting recognition that so very many of the people I had most admired and loved, either in life or in books, had been believers. Reading Louis Fischer's Life of Mahatma Gandhi, and following it up with Gandhi's own autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, I found it impossible not to realise that all life, all being, derives from God, as Gandhi gave his life to demonstrate. Of course, there are arguments that might make you doubt the love of God. But a life like Gandhi's, which was focused on God so deeply, reminded me of all the human qualities that have to be denied if you embrace the bleak, muddled creed of a materialist atheist. It is a bit like trying to assert that music is an aberration, and that although Bach and Beethoven are very impressive, one is better off without a musical sense. Attractive and amusing as David Hume was, did he confront the complexities of human existence as deeply as his contemporary Samuel Johnson, and did I really find him as interesting?
Watching a whole cluster of friends, and my own mother, die over quite a short space of time convinced me that purely materialist "explanations" for our mysterious human existence simply won't do - on an intellectual level. The phenomenon of language alone should give us pause. A materialist Darwinian was having dinner with me a few years ago and we laughingly alluded to how, as years go by, one forgets names. Eager, as committed Darwinians often are, to testify on any occasion, my friend asserted: "It is because when we were simply anthropoid apes, there was no need to distinguish between one another by giving names."
This credal confession struck me as just as superstitious as believing in the historicity of Noah's Ark. More so, really.
Do materialists really think that language just "evolved", like finches' beaks, or have they simply never thought about the matter rationally? Where's the evidence? How could it come about that human beings all agreed that particular grunts carried particular connotations? How could it have come about that groups of anthropoid apes developed the amazing morphological complexity of a single sentence, let alone the whole grammatical mystery which has engaged Chomsky and others in our lifetime and linguists for time out of mind? No, the existence of language is one of the many phenomena - of which love and music are the two strongest - which suggest that human beings are very much more than collections of meat. They convince me that we are spiritual beings, and that the religion of the incarnation, asserting that God made humanity in His image, and continually restores humanity in His image, is simply true. As a working blueprint for life, as a template against which to measure experience, it fits.
For a few years, I resisted the admission that my atheist-conversion experience had been a bit of middle-aged madness. I do not find it easy to articulate thoughts about religion. I remain the sort of person who turns off Thought for the Day when it comes on the radio. I am shy to admit that I have followed the advice given all those years ago by a wise archbishop to a bewildered young man: that moments of unbelief "don't matter", that if you return to a practice of the faith, faith will return.
When I think about atheist friends, including my father, they seem to me like people who have no ear for music, or who have never been in love. It is not that (as they believe) they have rumbled the tremendous fraud of religion - prophets do that in every generation. Rather, these unbelievers are simply missing out on something that is not difficult to grasp. Perhaps it is too obvious to understand; obvious, as lovers feel it was obvious that they should have come together, or obvious as the final resolution of a fugue.
I haven't mentioned morality, but one thing that finally put the tin hat on any aspirations to be an unbeliever was writing a book about the Wagner family and Nazi Germany, and realising how utterly incoherent were Hitler's neo-Darwinian ravings, and how potent was the opposition, much of it from Christians; paid for, not with clear intellectual victory, but in blood. Read Pastor Bonhoeffer's book Ethics, and ask yourself what sort of mad world is created by those who think that ethics are a purely human construct. Think of Bonhoeffer's serenity before he was hanged, even though he was in love and had everything to look forward to.
My departure from the Faith was like a conversion on the road to Damascus. My return was slow, hesitant, doubting. So it will always be; but I know I shall never make the same mistake again. Gilbert Ryle, with donnish absurdity, called God "a category mistake". Yet the real category mistake made by atheists is not about God, but about human beings. Turn to the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - "Read the first chapter of Genesis without prejudice and you will be convinced at once . . . 'The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life'." And then Coleridge adds: "'And man became a living soul.' Materialism will never explain those last words."
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1/19/2010
Heritage of Christian Activism
clipped from www.informz.netBut above all, like Dr. King, the activist must possess courage and an unyielding faith in the God of justice. Injustice does not loosen its grasp easily. We must be prepared for a long haul, drawing on the rich resources of community and that abiding hope and passion for truth. And we must avoid violence: in our rhetoric and our actions. As Martin Luther King reminded those who gathered at his home after it had been bombed, "Don't get panicky. . . . I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love."
So if the life of an activist holds so much discouragement and risk, why get involved at all? Because a Christian understanding of the world compels us to combat injustice and promote truth. That is a thought worth reflecting on, especially on Martin Luther King Day—a man who exhibited those qualities.
1/12/2010
Mind and heart not mind vs. heart
 clipped from www.rzim.orgWhat your mind rejects, your life will eventually reject also, however close it may be to your heart. |
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Travis Coleman
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1/07/2010
Hatred for speaking kindly of Christianity
clipped from www.informz.netHow Dare He?
Brit Hume's Advice for Tiger
January 7, 2010
On Fox News this week, Brit Hume, respected journalist and one-time Fox anchor, was asked whether Tiger Woods would recover from the scandal that has cost him several lucrative endorsements. Brit Hume replied, "Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer."
But he didn't stop there—and in the process ignited a controversy that says more about his critics than it does about Hume or what he had to say.
Hume said the "open question" is "whether [Woods] can recover as a person." Hume pointed out that Woods had "lost his family" and that his future relationship with his children is unclear.
At this point, as golfers might put it, Hume was already in the rough. Americans don't like to be reminded that sex outside of marriage has consequences. But what set the commentariat's teeth on edge was Hume's suggestion that Woods' best chance for recovery lies with faith—and specifically, the Christian faith.
Noting Woods' Buddhist background, Hume said that Buddhism doesn't offer "the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith," and he urged Woods to consider Christianity.
Hume's words were followed by "a moment of awkward silence." But that didn't last long. As Rabbi Brad Hirschfield put it, response to Hume's comments ranged from "outrage to disgust."
One example was television critic Tom Shales of the Washington Post. Shales, who once called convicted rapist Roman Polanski a "celebrity hounded by the state," was less-charitably inclined toward Brit Hume. He wrote that "darts of derision" should be aimed at him.
Mind you, this was kind compared to most of the other things written about Hume.
The obvious question is, "Why the outrage?" Was Hume wrong about the differences between Christianity and Buddhism? Not really. Barbara Hoetsu O'Brien, a Buddhist journalist, told USA Today that "Buddhism doesn't offer redemption and forgiveness in the same way Christianity does" since "Buddhism has no concept of sin."
Was Hume's offense presuming to offer Woods unsolicited advice in public? If so, the outrage is selective. At ESPN, writer Malcolm Gladwell "advised" Woods to make it clear that "he is not someone who is ready, as yet, to settle down" and then take lessons on how to "live a tasteful bachelor lifestyle" from Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter. I don't recall any outrage over Gladwell's "presumption" to advise Tiger Woods.
The outrage, as Rabbi Hirschfield writes, stems from the fact that "many people fear faith and even more genuinely resent it being discussed in public." I would add they especially resent Christianity being discussed. If Hume had advised Woods to spend time in a Buddhist monastery, there wouldn't be a controversy. If he had urged Woods to enter rehab, Hume would have been applauded.
But what Hirschfield calls the "shrill objections" to Hume's comments are, as he tell us, rooted in the "contempt which many others have for Christians and their willingness to speak their faith."
Here's a prediction for 2010. I know Brit Hume; he will be fine. He is a strong, good man who can take the heat. But let's hope his conviction to speak the truth plainly and winsomely will spur other Christians to do the same—even in the face of the "shrill objections" that are sure to follow.
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11/18/2009
Our most basic freedom
clipped from www.informz.netStand Up for Religious Freedom
Now Is the Hour
November 18, 2009
Allow me to make a very direct statement. I believe it is time for the Church in this country to stand up for religious freedom.
Especially over the course of the last few years, we have seen repeated efforts—in the courts, in state legislatures, in Congress, and on Pennsylvania Avenue—to erode what has been called the first freedom: religious liberty.
It isn't hard to cite numerous cases where Christian organizations and individuals have been singled out and punished for adhering to their faith.
In New Jersey, a Methodist camp lost its tax exempt status for refusing to hold a same-sex civil union ceremony. In California, Christian doctors were successfully sued for refusing to offer in-vitro fertilization procedures for a lesbian couple. Catholic Charities in Boston had to shut down its adoption services because it was being forced by the state to place children with same-sex couples.
The current health care bill has no protections for religious medical personnel or health care providers who, by reason of conscience, refuse to participate in abortions. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is gathering momentum in Congress. The bill would require even Christian-owned enterprises with more than 15 employees to hire those who do not share their faith.
The list could go on and on.
So why is religious freedom such a concern to us as Christians? Freedom of religion is called the first freedom for a reason. Our founding fathers recognized that without freedom of conscience, no other freedom can be guaranteed.
Christians, in fact, are the greatest defenders of religious freedom and human liberty—not just for Christians, but for all people. Compare religious freedom in those countries with a Christian heritage to the state of religious freedom in Islamic nations, communist countries, and Buddhist and Hindu nations, and you will see my point.
The reason that Christians place such a high value on human freedom is that freedom itself is part of the creation account in the Bible. God made humans in His image. He gave us a free will to choose to love, follow, and obey Him, or to follow our own way.
That free will, given us before the Fall, is part of human nature itself.
Perhaps more than anything else, it was this understanding of individual freedom that turned me into the kind of patriot who would willingly give his life for his country. It was the words of the Declaration of Independence that inspired me to join the Marines: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
So this question of human freedom goes to the very heart of who we are as Christians and as Americans.
So this Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, a statement signed 125 evangelical, Orthodox, and Catholic leaders will be released—an historic declaration on life, the family, and religious freedom.
And please, today, go to ColsonCenter.org to view my Two-Minute Warning video on religious freedom. We will have some great resources for you. Then Friday at noon, we will have for you the declaration itself—probably the most important document I've ever signed.
The Church needs to understand the urgency of the hour and do its duty.
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9/27/2009
9/25/2009
Help them.
clipped from www.msnbc.msn.comA survivor: Soon Ok Lee
7 years of torture in N. Korean prison camp
updated 5:01 p.m. MT, Tues., Oct . 28, 2003
Jan. 15, 2003 - Soon Ok Lee is a former prisoner at Kaechon Prison in North Korea. She recently published her memoirs and testified about her experiences before the U.S. Congress. She also spoke with NBC News about her time at Kaechon. Below is an edited account of that discussion, in her own words. (Editor's note: Soon's descriptions are graphic and may not be suitable reading for all.)
I was imprisoned for seven years at the political brainwashing camp Kaechon in Pyungbuk province.… I was in prison from 1987 till January 1993. I was imprisoned at the age of 39.
I worked at the chief product supply office, I was the general manager of the product supply office, in North Korea we were supplying food and materials to people. And I was imprisoned because the North Korean economy was in recession and the supply of materials was not in good condition, that's why I was imprisoned.
In Kaechon Prison, there were more than 6,000 prisoners. All of them were political prisoners, and they were treated just like beasts.
And the guards of the prison told the prisoners, "You are not human beings. You must think that you are beasts; otherwise you will not survive."
Not all the prisoners were ideologically against the government — they were just miserable because of the lack of food, and when they uttered one word of complaint, they were considered to have a problem ideologically.
Among 7,000 prisoners there were about 2,000 housewives who had children at home, and after one month of my life in prison, I saw them publicly executed.
I was crying out, calling my children's name. And I saw one young housewife who had children age 5 and 7. I saw she was forced to come to the prison, and she shouted "I have children but I've been imprisoned, and my husband was imprisoned, and now the children will starve at home." And I saw her executed, in public, in front of 6,000 prisoners.
When I was in prison I was treated with no regard to my motherhood. Under the regime of Kim Jong Il's dictatorship. I was fastened to an iron pole, fastened at my bosom and stomach and legs.
There were six executioners with three bullets each. They would shoot a total of 18 shots to the heart. That is inhuman. I was so sad, and I was so stunned to see that young woman executed although we are not war prisoners and we are not enemies, but they executed a mother of children, just like that.
In the prison there were many Christians. And since the Korean War — in Korea they call it June 25 War — the No. 1 enemy is God. Kim II Sung hated God most.
Between 1956 and '63 many Christians were imprisoned, and the rest of their families were imprisoned in another separate prison for families.
In the Kaechon Prison, I believed in God, and I was kicked by the guards, and I had to work in the ironworks factory.
That type of work is done under a high temperature, and my spine started to shrink. And my height became 120-130 centimeters. And I was treated just like an animal. My back became curved like a soccer ball, and the distance between my heart and stomach narrowed, and my shoulders, the bones stuck out. And I looked like a strange animal.
I felt like I had two heads because my shoulder bone protruded so much. I felt I had become an alien, not a human being in this world. I was just like a beast. I was treated just like an animal, just like a slave.
I was beaten with a leather strap 10 centimeters wide and 1.5 meters long. And I was kicked with boots. And I became just like a strange animal in shape.
I experienced this atrocity during my prisoner's life, for seven years I got only 100 grams of corn for every meal. I had no other food. Not even once. The corn cake, 100 grams, that is the size of one choco-pie. And they gave me one small cup of saltwater. If someone does not fulfill his daily duty, then the portion will be only half — 50 grams.
I was merely a prisoner under the dictatorship. Under this dictatorship we cannot say anything and we cannot smile, and we cannot show tears, we cannot walk freely, and we were forced to go to the toilet only three times a day.
I cannot believe I could survive under such tight control, even controlling my physical functions and under the pressure of rifles and knives.
During my stay in Kaechon Prison most of the 6,000 prisoners were struggling to survive, and they were not political prisoners. They uttered a word, like this: "Why do we have to starve? If Kim Jong Il, the leader, is there, why do we have to starve?" Such a complaining word made us get put in prison.
I witnessed public executions. I felt that this is not a country to live in; it is a human being's hell on earth.
And I was really shocked when Kim II Sung was alive, he tried to manufacture biochemical weapons and testing not on animals but with human beings because our enemy is not an animal, but a human being.
This was Kim Jong Il's instruction. And they tested them on the prisoners instead of animals. I saw so many poor victims. Hundreds of people became victims of biochemical testing.
I was imprisoned in 1987, and during the years of 1988 through '93, when I was released, I saw the research supervisors — they were enjoying the effect of biochemical weapons, effective beyond their expectations — they were saying they were successful.
Recalling that scene, I still cannot rid myself of nightmares. You can see my face shrank like this, and I'm really so sad. My face shrank, and I was tortured on account of what I have not done. And the left side of my face is like this.… The left side of my face is deformed like this and cannot recover.
In this prison there were 6,000 prisoners, and there are a total of 200,000 political prisoners in North Korea (starts to cry). How can there can be so many political prisoners under a regime where we cannot express our own thoughts? So it is nonsense. It is nonsense to have so many political prisoners. So I would appreciate it if you understand that there are so many political prisoners in North Korea. Living on this side, I see many people are happy and free and free to take care of their children as they like, give them clothes and food
In the meantime when I recall my prisoner's life in the north, there were over 2,000 housewives and pregnant women. And there is a law for the political prisoners not to continue generations, for three generations. To stop the generations. So they were forced to abort their children. They put salty water into the pregnant women's womb with a large syringe, in order to kill the baby, even when the woman was eight months or nine months pregnant (crying). And then, from time to time there a living infant is delivered, and then if someone delivers a live infant, then the guards kick the bloody baby and kill it (crying). And I saw an infant who was crying with pain (crying).
I have to express this in words that I witnessed such an inhumane hell (crying). I was captured in October '86, and I was imprisoned in '87 and in May 1988. I cannot forget about this. The guards kicked me with their boots, and I was forced to do work that I never had done before.
Once they picked out 50 persons from our group, and they put them in the auditorium and gave them a piece of boiled Korean cabbage, and then as soon as they ate it, blood came out from their mouth and anus. And they died. I saw that in 20 or 30 minutes they died like this in that place.
Looking at that scene, I lost my mind. Was this reality or a nightmare? And then I screamed and was sent out of the auditorium. It was biochemical testing, using just a bit, the substance just 1/10,000. I cannot forget that image. I wonder how a human being can kill another healthy human being like that.
During 1990, '91, '92, they treated the Christians more strictly. They were moved to a separate working place. At that time, 30 prisoners were kicked to death by the guards' boots. Two guards did it. And when they cried to the Lord, "My Lord, my Lord," then those people had boiling water poured on them. And they became carbons. There is no other hell like North Korea.
We experienced malnutrition, and when we reached the third degree of malnutrition, the worst condition, when we drank water or ate bread, it came out through the anus immediately.
In the prison there were rats, they are manufacturing leather goods and leatherwear, so there are many rats. When we could catch rats, we thought it was a fortunate day.
If we were found catching rats, we were put in a separate solitary cell. When we caught a rat, we didn't cook it. We just ate it.
When we eat one piece of bread and cup of salty water and pass one year like this, the human loses the sense of taste, whether it is salty or fishy or whatever. So we can … could eat live rats. Without having any taste.
I have headaches from time to time because I was kicked in the head. And my eyesight still hasn't recovered. And my shoulder is curved. Both sides of shoulders are not even.
And I was tortured with water. And I was in water, and I had to drink water. I had to lie down and drink water, then when my stomach was full of water they stamped down on my stomach making the water level and my body level even and then the water came out of my mouth and anus. And they tramped until the water level and my body level was even.
And my breastbone, backbone and my legs are not in normal condition. Physical side effects after the torture in North Korea was too much until now. In the south I could get a stomach operation but still I am suffering from pains, because of the water torture.
When they do the water torture, they use a specially designed 10-liter kettle. They put the mouth of the kettle into the prisoner's mouth, then automatically the throat is opened. At that time I had a scar here on my face, by that tenure. Still you can see a bit here. And they hung me from the ceiling, two hands together and then beat me. Because of the heavy weight of my body, when I was hung, I have a wound on my wrists and the flesh removed, because of the handcuffs
The left side of my shoulder protrudes in a lump, the bone protrudes upward. And this side is hollowed because they tramped on me here.
He most painful moment for me at the time was the torture. I was captured by them in my office, without knowing the reason. They told me I was responsible for the non-supply of food to the people, although it was not my responsibility but the responsibility of the leader.
And they tortured me in order to get a "yes" from me, that it is my responsibility. While they were torturing me, sometimes for a couple of days, I lost consciousness, and when I came to, I saw I had a wound on my back and the large flies defecated on the bloody part and then sometimes maggots.
My heart was breaking because my only son and my beloved husband, they have no relationship to my imprisonment, but they had to go to a forced labor camp. And this type of system exists only in North Korea, nowhere else in the world.
At the time my only child was a university student, at Kim Il Sung University. And my husband was a school principal. And they had to work in the forced labor camp, and still I feel very bad because I was born in North Korea, and my husband passed away under such circumstances.
My father was in a high-ranking position in North Korea, and myself I was graduate of the university, and I was a member of the labor party, and I didn't suffer from anything before. That's why I was not strong enough to have patience to experience severe pain. So in the prison I had to experience such pain, and it is just a miracle that I was freed from such circumstances.
Now it has changed, totally changed 180 degrees. Right now I feel that I don't have to worry. I feel like I died and was reborn.
Right now I hope the day comes sooner when the 23 million North Koreans can be set free. I feel a physical threat from North Korea.
Kim Jong Il is an inhuman person. And I experience such atrocities, and I make it public, so Kim Jong Il may wish to kill me hundreds of times. Therefore I feel threatened. At the cost of my life I don't worry. That's why I have such courage.
I think the rest of the world's people should know about such atrocities in North Korea. Where there are no human rights — this exists only in North Korea.
So far almost no one has survived of those who were imprisoned there. There were a couple of them who survived from the family prison. But in the prison like mine, I'm the only person who survived. It is a secret.
And the facts should be known by the United States Congress and the government, and the United Nations, they should make Kim Jong Il set the prisoners free. By all the people's voice as one, I sincerely request this.
When I was there, there were 24 prison camps. After that, myself, my son and Kang Chol Van and Ahn Hyol and Ahn Nyung Chol and some other people made the facts known to the public, including the U.N., and I think Kim Jong Il took it seriously, and now the number is reduced to half. However, the number of prisoners are 200,000-plus, and other types of prisons 200,000 — total 400,000 prisoners are in the prisons.
Now I don't know how many persons are put into the prisons and how many prisoners are killed at this moment. But North Korea, they have a plan to put people into prison, the schedule the number of prisoners every year. That is not because they are guilty but because they need the manufacture of products by the prisoners.
All the North Koreans know there are prisons, and even 3-year-old kids know there are prisons, and when they cry, if they are told, "You will be sent to a prison camp," then they stop crying.
They are always very cautious to express their opinion, even one word because they don't know when they will be captured and imprisoned if they say the wrong thing.
I have a scar on the left corner of my eye because of the torture, and my teeth were broken. This left side of my face is paralyzed.
They tramped on me so strongly that my teeth were broken and my eyeball came out. And I put it back in the socket again and massaged it by hand for a couple of days. And it was swollen. And see this dent — I find it after recovering consciousness so I don't know what happened, but I must have been poked or stabbed with something.
© 2009 MSNBC Interactive
MORE FROM CRISIS IN THE KOREAS |
 Child prisoner: Kang Chol Hwan |
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