An acquaintance of mine, who is a friend of a lot of my friends just because we were in the ‘smart’ ‘AP’ type clique. Somehow he ended up being a friend of mine on Facebook.  We have almost never spoken to each other, but I know for a fact that he is a devoted, almost fanatic Christian. His Facebook page is, to put it mildly, devoted to God. Well, this guy, whom I’ve never spoken to since high school, sent me a ‘recommendation.’ The email header read: XXXX suggested you like “Know when facebook friends delete you.” I just thought this was just so brilliantly funny on so many levels.

Anyways, a couple months ago, we had a little welcome ceremony for new people at the church. At the end we got a bouquet of flowers and then were asked what we wanted to pray for. And then a more senior member would come up, hold my shoulders in front of me and pray for me. At least ten people were lined up, and ten members were in front mumbling incessantly. It was very bizarre for me. When the person in front of me asked me what she wanted me to pray for, I responded by saying I don’t have anything to pray for (don’t have anything I want from Santa per se). I’ve noticed a slight annoyance from the person as her expression conveyed frustration. She then told me that I should pray for faith! Maybe this made sense to her, but I really wished I could have told her then and there it was like asking me to write to Santa so that he will exist. Do people not see the hilarity of that prayer? Oh, and FYI that prayer pretty much went unanswered to this day.

Another prayer I’ve received through my intercessory hot line, i.e. email, was to pray for someone so that he can wake up early for the twilight prayer sessions. Pray so that he can say more prayers? I think I should write Santa so that I can have the will to wake up early so that I can be on the top of his inbox. Brilliant!

Other prayers included more generic topics such as health, well being, and happiness – things that usually becomes ‘answered’ naturally. But other more funny things did sneak in such as asking for money. I’m sure nobody has thought of that one before, and I have no doubt very few have seen this come true. Even if the person won the lottery, of course they would credit God rather than attributing the event as pure luck as a more reasonable person might do. If it actually was God, then I don’t see why he would have ignored all the other prayers of winning the lottery. Does God just randomly pick a person? Surely there are many many people who deserve it more than that wanna be cowboy hick who bought lottery tickets for the first time to have some fun. Good thing he’s going to blow all his money on a new Bimmer and a house he will foreclose on in a few years when his money runs out. God truly works in mysterious ways. If he does randomly pick a prayer to answer, I fail to see why this isn’t also random chance which entirely negates the purpose of God. He is not omniscient, he is not omnipresent, and he is not ambivalent any more than nature itself. What an irresponsible thing to say that the person wants us to pray for money.

[The Texas State Board of Education approved of the new social studies curriculum] stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

Apparently the current school curriculum is too “biased” to the left. That’s right folks, they think textbooks are too liberal so they feel the need to balance it out with subjects like “weaknesses of evolution,” or the idea that Germans and Italians were also interned during World War II to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese people were not inspired by racism. Umm.. so if you include 2 other races, its not racism? This isn’t just fantasy and Republicans out number Democrats on the board 2 to 1 and it won support.

But why be so stressed about it? Why not just stop going? It sounded easy at first, but I found out that I had put in a lot of emotional investment in this endeavor. I actually made some friends, and a lot of times I do enjoy taking advantage of the socializing mechanism the church provides. There is actually a person that I really like, albeit the fact she only dates other Christians (or other Baptists preferably). If I stop going, it will be very difficult for me to meet these people as I work 6 days a week, and the only free day I have will be the day these people will be unavailable. It’s like a dream where I meet people and become friends, but as soon as I wake up they disappear and will never see them again. It’s so weird to me that these people are almost living in a different world.

What I shall do instead on Sundays is also a good question for me. While I do have tons of things to do like shopping, doing housework, studying etc, there really isn’t anything that can substitute church. Socializing and having fun is one of the things that will be pretty much absent when I do decide to stop going. It really is one of the things that do motivate me to go – I simply don’t have anything much else to do at this point.

Would it be spineless of me to keep going to church because I like hanging out with people despite the fact that the church has wildly opposing values to mine? Am I compromising my philosophy by “volunteering” to attend and support events that I find, in some cases, repulsive in its motive and goals? I certainly think about it a lot, but of course they will never see a dime of monetary, or material support from me.

Another reason I sometimes dread seeing people at this particular church is that all members are Korean. Not all are fresh off the boat types, but they are very in touch with the Korea Town community and they don’t hang out with “other” people that often. This means my “Twinkie-ness” doesn’t go well in this group. We have polar opposite views on religion and politics, views on dating and other social behaviors, different opinions on ethics and morals, current issues, interest, and humor. While many people here are nice to hang out with, we are missing one of the fundamental pillars of a lasting friendship, which is common ground. Whenever I reference something I saw in American TV they will never get what I’m saying, and my humor falls flat on the ground because they simply do not understand my jokes. Similarly, I have trouble following their conversations on Korean celebrities and music. It’s really frustrating when I realize our amicable conversations are mostly empty small talk.

Personal rants aside, I do think I understand now how people get sort of sucked up by this. When all your friends are Christians, attends church, and look down upon those who don’t believe in God or have different values, what are you going to do if you want to opt out? No wonder ex-communication is such a harsh punishment for the religious. It sucks in your life, and it punishes you by taking it away when you leave. Lucky for me, I still have many friends outside of California, and am spared of losing a lot, but I cannot say I envy anyone who has been religious all their life, and have been in a circle of religious people for many years. Furthermore, something tells me that being an ethnic minority that values social cohesiveness is making churches like this one look like religion on steroids.

Stay tuned.

After reading this, we all discussed what ‘walls’ we have encountered in our lives that prevented us from healthy relationships with others. Of course, implying that the same logic applies to why some of us don’t have as good of a relationship with God. I personally told a story about how I am sometimes uncomfortable meeting people who aren’t in my age group. When I was about 10 or 11, back when I first moved to Korea I had encountered some guys about 3-5 years older than me. If you don’t know Korean customs, if you are talking to someone older than you, you must address them in the more formal and respectful way. However, just moving to Korea I did not know this, and was a little shocked how they responded with scorn and ridicule when I did not do this. To this day I am a little uncomfortable when meeting people who are more than a couple years older or younger than me. I’m just not entirely sure on how I need to react around them. Anyways, I’m sure the folks at my bible group reckoned that this is one of the reasons why I’m still not responding to Jesus and God.

The discussion itself wasn’t all that bad. Sharing stories like these with strangers wasn’t all that comfortable, but it was nice to feel being part of the group and was a nice bonding experience. I feel like it kind of brought us together a little more. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but think that stories like these were just more justifications on why they need God, instead of say, counseling and therapy.

I immediately had a problem with this because it required that everyone attending bible study participate in either the missionary, the fundraiser, or related events. Well, they actually won’t force you, but they will beat you down with guilt. Let’s be clear, I don’t agree with missionary work. Even though there may be some actual good missionary work going on, most of them are harmful to their target culture, raising social conflicts and so on. I am particularly afraid of the Turkey destination as they are one of the most religious, and the most Islamic countries in the world. I find that if they think they are doing good by sending a few people to tell them that their religion is wrong,  they are being extremely naive and potentially creating a dangerous situation.

Personally, I agree with sending people China. Not because I support missionary work, but I absolutely disagree with China’s policy of banning certain religions. I look forward to the day when everybody is an atheist, but bans as a solution is a plain incorrect approach.

Next up, the Indian Reservation. I found this even more disturbing because in Korean translation, it read “Indian Protection Area.” I just wasn’t sure to make of people who looked at this and didn’t even blink. It’s one thing to proselytize regular people at the McDonald’s (this actually happened to me before), but to go to an Indian Reservation to convert the heathens? I really couldn’t understand why others couldn’t think that this is almost racist. I really wanted to kick the cultural supremest who thought of this place to send missions. I almost literally shouted WTF in the church.

Anyways, putting my anger aside, I did find it funny that they had a team that does intercession prayer. We were divided up into groups that were in charge of food, ticket sales etc, but I found it so funny when the intercession prayer team thought they didn’t have enough people and started pulling other people from other teams to their group. They really do believe in prayers to actually pull people from practical groups to have them instead mumble to themselves, don’t they?

I’m still doing the ethnographer approach to church so I’m actually going to participate. So far, going to church every week has been pretty interesting. I’ve learned quite a bit, albeit a lot of them being pretty disturbing and depressing. But I’ve also met some nice people and had fun socializing for a change. So I’m not coming out empty handed either. I think this constitute an adventure. Stay tuned for next week!

The suspect was heard yelling that all Nigerians were sinners and must repent or perish, a reporter who was at the airport said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262758/Crash-landing-Man-rams-car-parked-passenger-plane.html#ixzz0jsrlLRhJ

Today we covered Moses, specifically, from Acts 7:23 – 34. In those versus Moses kills an Egyptian because he sees an Egyptian and a fellow Jew fighting, then goes into exile. During his 40 years of exile he speaks with the burning bush and becomes the de facto leader of the Jews. I guess the moral of the story the priest wanted to tell is that during everyone’s life we will encounter a “life changing event,” or some kind of grand opportunity. During our group bible study, we went over a few questions to discuss. Some of the questions were actually thoughtful, such as, “Do you have a blue print of a meaningful life?” and “what has been your personal life changing experience?” However, others were confusing and at least to me meaningless, such as, “Have you experienced the spark of God?”

So we started discussing some of these questions and while this was happening I looked over at the sheepherder’s* notes and saw that there actually “correct answers.” I was really discouraged by this because we had to discuss the topic until the right answer was presented by the flock.* And that answer usually involved God. So on the question, “Like there are joints on a bamboo stem, life has many stages. What do we need in order to proceed to our next stage of life?” the correct answer would have involved prayer or God. This was particularly disturbing to me as open discussion became limited and discouraged. While we were encouraged to discuss our personal experience, we were only encouraged to do so when the answer was agreeable to the group (and they tell me to be open minded because I don’t believe in prayers!).

Anyways I’d like to share some of comments and discussions we had regarding these questions. While we were discussing what some of our life changing events were, I’ve noticed that most of the responses involved finding God, or immigrating to the United States, or both. I myself have provided this answer as I did not think about this topic very often and that was the thing that I could come up with when being asked. The person next to me answered in a similar fashion as well, but in his case, he had convert from Buddhism to Christianity when doing so. He told us a story about how he had been a Buddhist in Korea and that he had done the thousand bows and passed out twice while doing so, but that he didn’t really have any faith in the religion. The person next to him was surprised when he told us that he did it because his family was Buddhist and he had to do it regardless of his own beliefs. But she was not critical enough to think about how she had become one with her religion because of her family’s beliefs, and the things she does for the church, such as the “morning prayers” where people show up to church by 5 o clock in the morning and pray until 7 for a week. Apparently that is something acceptable, cool, and somehow moral, but the thousand bows are not. Personally, I’d rather do the thousand bows instead of waking up when I usually go to bed. Long story short, the guy found Christianity and believes in the Christian God now so all is good.

Another discussion point was “what I would personally give up for the cross.” Some of the disturbing answers were “doubt,” and “sense of self.” I found these disturbing because doubt is really a basic function of critical thinking. Without doubt, we wouldn’t have scientific thinking and logic. A guy next to me told us that he needs to go to QT (quiet time) on Fridays to renew his faith, and that it takes great effort to keep his faith. I really can’t understand why these people feel guilt for doubting a God that is so seemingly non-existent. It made me think that he wasn’t completely brain dead and that his brain was actually functioning, but at the same time made me feel disappointed that he’d spend so much energy and time convincing himself that it was his fault that he didn’t have enough faith. I really wasn’t sure if they were giving honest answers or if they were giving answers that were considered correct. When I gave an honest answer that I wouldn’t give up anything because the cross is merely a symbol and that I wouldn’t give up anything for an abstract idea that is in my opinion purely imaginary, the discussion was abruptly ended and we moved on to prayers.

I could really go on and on about these discussions but I will save them for next week. I also am pretty discrete when approaching these discussions because I still respect people for what they are and because I recognize that I am a guest of this private meeting. However, if they are trying to convince me that there is a god, and that this version of god is correct, and that I should convert to it, they have yet to convince me to do so, and will answer all questions respectfully and honestly. If honesty isn’t valued here, then I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble to be welcomed here anyways. Anyways, that is my voyage for this week. After the bible discussion we went bowling practice for next week’s competition, which was actually fun. Hope you guys enjoy a great week!

* The bible study groups are divided into 5-10 people and are called “Sheep Herds.” The leader of the discussion group is called the Sheepherder and the rest are a part of the Flock.  I guess they’ve never heard of the word “Sheeple.”

Q: This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society…

Atheist: 39.6%
Muslims: 26.3%
Homosexuals: 22.6%
Hispanics: 20%
Conservative Christians: 13.5%
Recent Immigrants: 12.5%
Jews: 7.6%

I would have thought that after WTC attacks Muslims would be number one, but atheists beat them by over 13%! The question itself is actually pretty vague as it really doesn’t define the “vision of American society,” but it is still amazing that statistically, Americans are more willing to see an Islamic America more than an atheist America. Sure, FOX news thinks that somehow America was built on “Christian values” and asserts that the founding fathers were creating a Christian nation rather than, oh what was it called…. THE FIRST SECULAR GOVERNMENT IN HISTORY, but mainstream America? It was also alarming to find out that Christian fundamentalists are having their way of altering history, in particular, children text books. But that’s another post for another time. Here is another question on the survey:

Q: I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group….

Atheist: 47.6%
Muslim: 33.5%
African-American 27.2%
Asian-Americans: 18.5%
Hispanics: 18.5%
Jews: 11.8%
Conservative Christians: 6.9%
Whites: 2.3%

According to this study, almost half of Americans don’t want their children to marry atheists. Compared to that, about a quarter of Americans not wanting their children to marry someone who’s black seems like a pretty mild stat.

Why are atheists so untrusted? We don’t go on crime sprees, we don’t go door to door bothering people to convert, and we don’t go to war with opposing religions. Yet somehow atheists are the least liked group in America. Although I can somewhat guess that issues like praying in public schools and evolution has a lot to do with this. More on that on a later post.

You can read the News story here as well as the full study: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/09/19/research-finds-that-atheists-are-most-hated-and-distrusted-minority/