Kim Jong-Il is the "Eternal President of the Republic" of North Korea, a man who's glorified by parades, adulatory poems memorized by members of the military, and the absolute submission of his subjects. The ersatz Juche religion (est. 1955) changes its beliefs according to circumstances and has elevated him to god-like status.
Other gods need not apply. The three Christian churches in the capital city of Pyongyang are showpieces to give an impression of religious tolerance, but in the rest of the country Christianity is illegal. Up to 60,000 believers are imprisoned in concentration camps and some are publicly executed. In a singular achievement the country has occupied the #1 spot for eight years running as the world's worst persecutor of Christians.
Kim Seung-min was an army captain and allowed to travel. He found a disconnect between the wealth of the elites ("Dear Leader" sometimes gives Mercedes Benzes for birthday gifts) and the incomprehensible poverty of the population. On one trip he came upon a common sight: a pile of bodies killed by starvation. But this time he was unnerved by the people surrounding one corpse, mesmerized by lice marching away from it to find a new, live host. It was clear that North Korea's god dictated hopelessness, despair, fear and apathy.
Kim escaped to China where he met Christians but didn't accept their faith. Coming from a place where history books teach that Christian missionaries crucify children probably made him wary. He was captured by the Chinese and deported. Crossing a bridge to his homeland and realizing he was destined for execution, he wished he could sing a song of praise to the Lord but didn't know any. He vowed that if he lived he'd learn some.
He was tortured and sentenced to death. On the trip back to Pyongyang he jumped out the window of a moving train, made it back across the border, reunited with his Christian friends and came to faith in Christ.
Kim now operates Free North Korea Radio from South Korea. This isn't easy. Interviewed by Michael Gerson of The Washington Post, Kim said "Korean socialist groups held demonstrations, forcing us to move from location to location. In the mail, we got axes covered in blood. North Korea sent spies. Hackers attacked our web site. At some point, all of us started carrying Tasers for self-protection." He now has bodyguards.
His informants report happenings in the North and he transmits the stories back across the border to radios and cell phones smuggled in from China. In an ironic twist - or maybe an act of God - officially atheistic China was where Kim "first found the true meaning of the cross." And today it provides the tools that enable his mission.
Kim's journey from despair to hope is inspiring and the hand of God is evident. A life-changing conversion in an underground church awakened him to the only God who can sustain him - and his name isn't Kim Jong-Il.
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Henry
His most notable endeavor was spending 2 years, 2 months and 2 days living in a tiny cabin in the woods of Walden Pond. He separated himself from the materialistic superficiality he saw in society and spent his time observing nature in detail. According to Ira Chernus in American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea, Henry believed that "only by leaving society could he gain direct access to God's cosmic laws, simplify his life, and escape the pressures of conformity." He found that "Nature teaches, better than anything else, the interconnectedness of all reality, the spiritual unity of the cosmos."
Thoreau found confirmation and understanding of God through his intimate, personal contact with the natural world. He was astonished by what he saw, whether in the interactions of competing black and red ants, the sound of pond ice melting, the playful solo flying of a hawk, the awakening of life in springtime, or the spectaclular night sky.
We moderns, especially those who live in cities, shield ourselves from nature. We live in heated and air conditioned homes that draw us indoors. We travel in cars or trains that keep us from the bite of a winter wind, the heat of the mid-day sun or an unimpeded view of a rainbow. City lights dull the stars. If you've ever stood on a remote hilltop on a clear winter night you know exactly what I mean.
We've removed ourselves from the obvious magnificence of His work. Instead we analyze it in laboratories, fool ourselves into believing we're doing sterile scientific research and ignore God's presence in lab slides and petri dishes. We even fancy ourselves in God's role, nonchalantly believing that we are in control.
Henry didn't cripple his spirit with such nonsense. Nature was of God and as scientific inquiry unraveled its intricacies he would have been even more amazed at His creation. But even Thoreau found it necessary to remove himself from the mental clutter of day to day life in order to see these things clearly. And this was long before the information overload became so heavy you could cut it with a knife.
In the weeks before he died he was asked if he had made peace with God. His response: "I did not know we had ever quarreled." His last words were, "Now comes good sailing," as he anticipated the afterlife.
Henry David Thoreau is buried on Author's Ridge overlooking Sleepy Hollow Cemetery within a few feet of his friends Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott. Set among pine trees now grown tall, his tiny tombstone simply reads "Henry."
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Flu Fizzle
A Christian Standpoint piece titled "H1N1 Reality Check" was posted a year ago and was written amid a panicked atmosphere as the world braced for a highly contagious and deadly new influenza strain. In the following months vaccines were rushed into production and distributed with concerns about side effects because the last mass vaccinations sometimes caused paralysis.
Understaffed medical facilities struggled to administer the injections. Fairfax County, VA citizens camped outside overnight to get them, state fair officials forbid contact with pigs to protect the animals from swine flu, and the President declared the outbreak a national emergency.
All this happened after peak of the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere where the H1N1 catastrophe failed to materialize. Many Americans apparently saw through the hype and decided not to get the vaccine. According to a University of Pittsburgh study 75% didn't believe that they or their friends would be affected by the flu and the University of Michigan reported that only 40% of parents planned to vaccinate their kids.
They turned out to be right. Seasonal flus typically kill about 36,000 in the U.S. and 500,000 worldwide. The May, 2010 report of the World Health Organization confirmed "over 18,097 deaths"....globally. A year ago you couldn't turn on a TV without getting the latest statistics and advice about H1N1's deadliness. Now the story's been dropped and there isn't a bit of recognition that it was hyped beyond all reason.
The media tends to establish a paradigm and stick with it regardless of the facts. Here's a theory: Jounalists are trained in the same sort of programs by the same sort of professors regardless of where they go to school. When they get into media jobs - without a stopover in the common sense real world - they work with the same kinds of people with the same mindsets. They reinforce each other, develop blind eyes to their common biases and present stories with the same slants. Over time the slanted stories are repeated so often and so confidently that they're accepted as true. This happened with the H1N1 "crisis" even though we had enough facts a year ago to know it was less threatening than reported.
And this was an issue that didn't even have a built-in political or religious bias.
Manipulation of facts has affected Christians for decades. Protests accusing Christians of hateful intolerance, every tiny development in abusive priest cases, or situations where pseudo-Christians actually do hateful things are dutifully reported because they fit the media's bias. On the other hand, stories about missions, food pantries, clothing closets, rescue shelters, counseling and help given to the needy worldwide are seldom discussed.
When you see a story cutting down Christianity, ask yourself some questions: "Are the facts correct?" "Are they complete?" "Are the people involved really Christians?" And especially, "Does this make sense?"
You'll be surprised how often you end up shaking your head and thinking, "If the reporters and editors behaved like Christians this would have been reported a lot more honestly."
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Understaffed medical facilities struggled to administer the injections. Fairfax County, VA citizens camped outside overnight to get them, state fair officials forbid contact with pigs to protect the animals from swine flu, and the President declared the outbreak a national emergency.
All this happened after peak of the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere where the H1N1 catastrophe failed to materialize. Many Americans apparently saw through the hype and decided not to get the vaccine. According to a University of Pittsburgh study 75% didn't believe that they or their friends would be affected by the flu and the University of Michigan reported that only 40% of parents planned to vaccinate their kids.
They turned out to be right. Seasonal flus typically kill about 36,000 in the U.S. and 500,000 worldwide. The May, 2010 report of the World Health Organization confirmed "over 18,097 deaths"....globally. A year ago you couldn't turn on a TV without getting the latest statistics and advice about H1N1's deadliness. Now the story's been dropped and there isn't a bit of recognition that it was hyped beyond all reason.
The media tends to establish a paradigm and stick with it regardless of the facts. Here's a theory: Jounalists are trained in the same sort of programs by the same sort of professors regardless of where they go to school. When they get into media jobs - without a stopover in the common sense real world - they work with the same kinds of people with the same mindsets. They reinforce each other, develop blind eyes to their common biases and present stories with the same slants. Over time the slanted stories are repeated so often and so confidently that they're accepted as true. This happened with the H1N1 "crisis" even though we had enough facts a year ago to know it was less threatening than reported.
And this was an issue that didn't even have a built-in political or religious bias.
Manipulation of facts has affected Christians for decades. Protests accusing Christians of hateful intolerance, every tiny development in abusive priest cases, or situations where pseudo-Christians actually do hateful things are dutifully reported because they fit the media's bias. On the other hand, stories about missions, food pantries, clothing closets, rescue shelters, counseling and help given to the needy worldwide are seldom discussed.
When you see a story cutting down Christianity, ask yourself some questions: "Are the facts correct?" "Are they complete?" "Are the people involved really Christians?" And especially, "Does this make sense?"
You'll be surprised how often you end up shaking your head and thinking, "If the reporters and editors behaved like Christians this would have been reported a lot more honestly."
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Trifecta
It was an impressive resume. According to Jonathan Clegg in The Wall Street Journal, French soccer player Greg Akcelrod climbed "the ranks of European soccer, signing with a top-flight Paris club and training with a team in Argentina. He had an agent and a website that showed him scoring a goal for the English club Swindon Town. He'd even been chosen as an ambassador for Lance Armstrong's charity." He eventually landed a tryout invitation from an elite European professional team.
On the practice field officials of CSKA Sofia - the most successful soccer team in Bulgarian history - quickly noted his lack of ability and terminated the tryout.
It turned out his website embellished his experience. It represented amateur games as professional contests. He wore pro jerseys and posed for pictures at pro stadiums. Akcelrod scored a goal in a fourth-tier charity game and posted a video of it on the website. He issued a press release claiming to be a Lance Armstrong ambassador after purchasing a yellow wristband for $1.00.
You can claim to be anything you want, but in the end you're defined by your actions. Greg Akcelrod is not a professional athlete and his performance exposed him.
Sometimes people who call themselves Christians are betrayed by their actions. Recently the media highlighted three such episodes. One concerned the free speech rights of self-described "Baptists" whose case was accepted by the Supreme Court. They picket military funerals, claiming the deaths are God's punishment for America's acceptance of gays. The tiny group is led by Fred Phelps, Sr., who sees lots of villains including Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Princess Diana, Mister Rogers, Catholics, Jews, Swedes and the Irish. The group's unbound hatred is hardly Christian.
ABC's 20/20 broadcast the story of an assistant pastor at an independent church who burned down his house, killing his wife. He then preyed on compassionate female parishioners who were portrayed as gullible and clueless, which they probably were. It didn't help that the senior pastor felt he could restore life to the victim's charred body.
Then there's the group calling itself "Hutaree," which they say means "Christian Warrior." It's nine members are accused of planning to kill law enforcement officers and incite a war against the government. Their leader rarely attends church and lists his interests as "GOD, guns and girls."
The media hit a trifecta! Three cases in a row of "Christians" behaving badly. Rather than questioning whether their actions were inspired by Jesus - and therefore Christian - the stories left the impression they were Christians, plain and simple.
CSKA Sophia's reputation isn't tarnished because Greg Akcelrod was exposed and he was never accorded the status he sought. But Christianity gets smeared regularly by a media that reports stories without challenging the validity of perpetrator's claims to be Christian. In these cases, the imposters get the status of being genuinely Christian and nobody questions it.
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
On the practice field officials of CSKA Sofia - the most successful soccer team in Bulgarian history - quickly noted his lack of ability and terminated the tryout.
It turned out his website embellished his experience. It represented amateur games as professional contests. He wore pro jerseys and posed for pictures at pro stadiums. Akcelrod scored a goal in a fourth-tier charity game and posted a video of it on the website. He issued a press release claiming to be a Lance Armstrong ambassador after purchasing a yellow wristband for $1.00.
You can claim to be anything you want, but in the end you're defined by your actions. Greg Akcelrod is not a professional athlete and his performance exposed him.
Sometimes people who call themselves Christians are betrayed by their actions. Recently the media highlighted three such episodes. One concerned the free speech rights of self-described "Baptists" whose case was accepted by the Supreme Court. They picket military funerals, claiming the deaths are God's punishment for America's acceptance of gays. The tiny group is led by Fred Phelps, Sr., who sees lots of villains including Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Princess Diana, Mister Rogers, Catholics, Jews, Swedes and the Irish. The group's unbound hatred is hardly Christian.
ABC's 20/20 broadcast the story of an assistant pastor at an independent church who burned down his house, killing his wife. He then preyed on compassionate female parishioners who were portrayed as gullible and clueless, which they probably were. It didn't help that the senior pastor felt he could restore life to the victim's charred body.
Then there's the group calling itself "Hutaree," which they say means "Christian Warrior." It's nine members are accused of planning to kill law enforcement officers and incite a war against the government. Their leader rarely attends church and lists his interests as "GOD, guns and girls."
The media hit a trifecta! Three cases in a row of "Christians" behaving badly. Rather than questioning whether their actions were inspired by Jesus - and therefore Christian - the stories left the impression they were Christians, plain and simple.
CSKA Sophia's reputation isn't tarnished because Greg Akcelrod was exposed and he was never accorded the status he sought. But Christianity gets smeared regularly by a media that reports stories without challenging the validity of perpetrator's claims to be Christian. In these cases, the imposters get the status of being genuinely Christian and nobody questions it.
To add or remove an address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Miracle Cathedral
It took perseverance and dedication over decades to build the gothic cathedral. Set on a hill 400 feet above sea level, with the top of the tallest tower rising to 676 feet, it's the highest structure in the capital city. It literally and symbolically looks down over it.
Massive amounts of gray limestone were quarred, cut and brought to the site. Each decorative stone was carved by skilled artisans; the gargoyles were so exquisite that a documentary film about them won an Oscar. Masons set the stones in place with mortar by hand, one by one. In typical medieval fashion, heavy cut stones for the arches were supported by wood framing until the keystones were set. This was an impressive feat: the interior is 102 feet high.
It was found that one tower was 1/2" shorter than the other. In most projects of this magnitude being that close would have been cause for celebration. But this place was being built for the glory of God and workers demonstrated their reverence through their craftsmanship. Several courses of stone were removed and re-set with slightly thicker mortar joints so the towers ended up at exactly the same height.
Through turmoil, wars, shortages of funds, epidemics and everything else that besets man the project proceeded. Exactly eighty-three years after its start the final stone was set on the southwest tower, completing the sixth largest cathedral in the world. It's an impressive feat, but not miraculous.
This is the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In 1791 the U.S. Congress endorsed plans for the capital city that included "a great church for national purposes." Years passed, but finally in 1893 Congress granted a charter to build it to a Christian organization. The charter instructed them to "establish...within the District of Columbia a cathedral...for the promotion of religion." In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt helped lay the cornerstone.
The cathedral was built and is maintained with private funds to avoid government ties. But so are lots of religious places.
Ones that get sued.
In Blooomfield, CT high school graduations were being held in the privately funded First Cathedral. The ACLU sued over separation of church and state issues; most of the schools kowtowed and moved to more expensive and/or less convenient venues. The controversial cross in the Mojave Desert is also on private land and maintained with private funding, but it's been dragged into court for years.
The National Cathedral is different. It's participated in four of the last five most recent inaugurations, hosted state funerals and memorial services, and held numerous services in fulfilling its Congressional designation as the "National House of Prayer." But nobody screams about "separation" issues.
Set in what's probably the highest concentration of lawyers ever assembled in the history of man, in a teeming sea of secularism, it's amazing the National Cathedral remains unassailed. That's what makes it the "miracle cathedral."
To add or remove and address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
Massive amounts of gray limestone were quarred, cut and brought to the site. Each decorative stone was carved by skilled artisans; the gargoyles were so exquisite that a documentary film about them won an Oscar. Masons set the stones in place with mortar by hand, one by one. In typical medieval fashion, heavy cut stones for the arches were supported by wood framing until the keystones were set. This was an impressive feat: the interior is 102 feet high.
It was found that one tower was 1/2" shorter than the other. In most projects of this magnitude being that close would have been cause for celebration. But this place was being built for the glory of God and workers demonstrated their reverence through their craftsmanship. Several courses of stone were removed and re-set with slightly thicker mortar joints so the towers ended up at exactly the same height.
Through turmoil, wars, shortages of funds, epidemics and everything else that besets man the project proceeded. Exactly eighty-three years after its start the final stone was set on the southwest tower, completing the sixth largest cathedral in the world. It's an impressive feat, but not miraculous.
This is the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In 1791 the U.S. Congress endorsed plans for the capital city that included "a great church for national purposes." Years passed, but finally in 1893 Congress granted a charter to build it to a Christian organization. The charter instructed them to "establish...within the District of Columbia a cathedral...for the promotion of religion." In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt helped lay the cornerstone.
The cathedral was built and is maintained with private funds to avoid government ties. But so are lots of religious places.
Ones that get sued.
In Blooomfield, CT high school graduations were being held in the privately funded First Cathedral. The ACLU sued over separation of church and state issues; most of the schools kowtowed and moved to more expensive and/or less convenient venues. The controversial cross in the Mojave Desert is also on private land and maintained with private funding, but it's been dragged into court for years.
The National Cathedral is different. It's participated in four of the last five most recent inaugurations, hosted state funerals and memorial services, and held numerous services in fulfilling its Congressional designation as the "National House of Prayer." But nobody screams about "separation" issues.
Set in what's probably the highest concentration of lawyers ever assembled in the history of man, in a teeming sea of secularism, it's amazing the National Cathedral remains unassailed. That's what makes it the "miracle cathedral."
To add or remove and address from the Christian Standpoint mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us
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