Group of Zero

It is a very hot day. I checked the weather network. It posted the temperature is 35C but it felt like 47C. The Hong Kong Observatory issued the Tropical Typhoon Signal No. 1 and the thunderstorm warming. It is so hot that a typhoon is brewing.

Mom and I went to have lunch with my cousins’ family. I have not seen these cousins for a few years. It was a great time we can catch up. I discovered there are a few hot topics.

What’s HOT?

Real estate – house prices have been rising with no sign of slowing down. Most people still believe one can never lose money on real estate. It is the talk of the town on TV and newspaper. I just wonder what happens when the bubble burst.

Samsung Galaxy S III – everyone seems to either have a iPhone 4S or switching to the newest model of Samsung Galaxy S III. A lot of people are using the Samsung Note. They like the big phone screen because they love to watch movies when they are traveling on the subway.

What’s NOT?

The Chief Executive – Leung Chun-ying is the person in charge of Hong Kong. A committee of 1,200 pro-Beijing individuals elected him. One of his appointed ministers resigned after twelve days in office because he was accused of misleading the government of his rent subsidy. Leung admitted to have an illegal structure built in his condo. He is questioned about his integrity daily.

The National Education Curriculum – The Education department is forcing all the schools to implement a curriculum to teach national pride and the great achievements of the Chinese Communist Party. The curriculum dictates the teachers to teachers to teach students that the Chinese Communist Party is the only legitimate political party to rule China.  “Love your country” means “love the Party”.  Some teachers call it “brainwashing”. The Catholic and Protestant schools oppose the curriculum. The Buddhist and Taoist schools they will implement the teachings set up by the Chinese Communist Party.

This is my first full day in Hong Kong. It rained last night but the relative humidity is high. Heat, humidity and crowds are the three factors that I do not enjoy.

Hong Kong is very different from Mainland China. It used to be a British colony. The Imperial China lost the Opium Wars against Britain in 1841. Subsequently, after the Convention of Chuenpee, Treaty of Nanjing, Convention of Beijing and the Second Convention of Beijing, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories became a Colony under the British rule. It sovereignty reverted back to China on July 1, 1997. It retains a high degree of freedom of the press, religion, and expression. At least, I can use Facebook here. It also has an independent judicial system. The head of government is called the Chief Executive (CE) elected by a pro-Beijing committee of 800 and approved by the Beijing government. Free speech is tolerated.

The newly minted CE is fighting off scandals from his appointed cabinet. I do not want to go into the details of those scandals. The CE and his government do not seem to be popular among the press or the locals.

Food is THE culture here. Not only that it is a necessity of life, it is also a lifestyle. There are all kinds of food related TV shows (not just cooking), restaurants of all various cuisines, and people just pack into restaurants.

The economy seems booming as long as the Mainland Chinese tourists continue to come to Hong Kong buying luxury brand name items like LV, Christian Dior, Bulgari, Prada, and Burberry, not to mention they also buy up luxury condos and driving up real estate prices. The party is still going strong. I am just afraid what will happen when someone takes away the punch bowl.

I have not been posting on my blog for a long time. I spent two weeks in Hong Kong. I visited a mega-church by their standard there. It is also the strangest church I have ever been in my life. First, everyone had to go through a body temperature test. I was then given a sticker to certify that I did not have a fever. It depends on which term one would like to describe this policy. They are either paranoid about the H1N1 swine flu, or they are vigilant about it.

I then tried to go to the sanctuary. I introduced myself as a first time visitor. However, no usher told me which floor to go. The church building is a multi-storey building. I had to go to read the floor directory and followed the crowd to the 6th floor. I was given a bulletin that had nothing to do with the morning service. I did not know at the time that there were two bulletins, one for the morning service and one for the weekly scripture reading. I was given the scripture reading one. There was no welcome, no handshake. I felt that I was totally transparent or invisible. Right at 9 am, all the doors were closed. No one was allowed in anymore. The woman on the pulpit announced that if anyone needed to leave at any time, he has to take all his belongings and not be allowed to come back. I was glad that I went to the washroom before the service started.

The music was great. The worship band was very good. The worship team could really lead the congregation sing. The guest speaker spoke. He delivered the most wonderful sermon I have ever heard. I had to leave because of a personal commitment. I wrote an email through their church’s website and thanked them. I still have not heard anything back.
I went there again the second Sunday. I shook hand with a person and he introduced himself as one of their elders. He seemed friendly but he might need some training in his welcoming skills. It was a communion service. There was no sermon. The whole service was based on scripted scripture reading, prayer, hymns, meditation, etc. It was good.

I do not think that church care much about any visitors. They may be glad that if there are visitors but it has growth so big that they do not know who they are. They also do not seem to care if there are no visitors at all. I supposed they have enough of their own to care for anyway.

The message and the worshipping spirit were definitely apparent at both services. I felt the spirit was moving there. However, I did not find the people friendly at all. Overall, I did learn something. Best of all, the sermon was the highlight of my visit this time.

In the mind of some Christians, their beliefs and understandings of God are the only correct ones. If anyone has a different image of God, they will all end up in hell.

I was searching in youtube on the opinions of the book “The Shack”. I cannot believe those negative comments. “How can God be portrayed as an African woman?” “How can Jesus be seen as a Middle Eastern man?” “How can god be so friendly with us?” Folks, it is a novel! William P. Young never claims it is theology! No wonder why the media portrays Christians as a close minded bigots. God is bigger than anyone of us can quantify. For those critics, give it a break, relax and have non-combative day!

The church I am attending is moving. The new church building is far from completion. The former building was sold. In the mean time, we are meeting at the mall.

We have to set up all the chairs, AV equipment, lighting, etc. and tear down everything every week. It was interesting to see close to or over 1000 people met at the aisle of a local shopping mall for just over an hour, put everything back, and saw all the shops open for business. Those who worked and shopped at the mail must have seen something strange about this congregation. If this is a church, where are the strain glass windows, the organ, the wooden pews, the cross?

I am glad we can demonstrate to the public we can worship God without a building. God is in the marketplace and in our lives.

I watched the HBO documentary “The trials of Ted Haggard”. It was an very personal look at the days after this pastor fallen from grace. I have a few observations.

First, I can understand the reaction from the church elders. The church board of overseers fired him. I am not surprised by their action. Haggard preached on the the sin of homosexuality in all these years. He became a laughing stock of the community. Haggard reinforced the image of hypocrisy in the fundamentalist movement. He preached one thing and he practised the opposite. He was a liar and a deceiver. Haggard admitted to that. It was obvious that Haggard had to leave the church he founded.

Second, this is the point I did not understand from the documentary. It stated that Haggard signed an agreement that he would leave the State of Colorado. I can understand the elders of the New Life Church want Haggard get of out of town. American is a free country, Homosexuality is not a crime. Haggard and his family should be free to choose where they reside. How can a church dictate a person who has not committed any crime not to step foot in a State? What can legally prevent Haggard to live in the State of Colorado?

Third, I do not understand the hatred of some of the members of the New Life Church. The members were deceived by Haggard. They were angry and shocked. In comparison, Haggard’s sin is not telling the people that he had homosexual thoughts and tendency. Haggard admitted that his struggle of homosexuality and his belief in the Bible. It then manifested into voyeur acts of hiring a male prostitute, buying drugs and inducing another male member of the church. Those were all morally corrupt behaviour. I do believe that Haggard has to truly repent from his acts. He apparently repented from his action. He put the blame squarely on himself. He was trying to say nice things about all his accusers.

Fourth, we have to admit that human sexuality is complex. No one can explain how or why a person is a homosexual. Why does the fundamentalists highlight homosexuality as the number one sin? I know churches that open up to prison ministries. They accept convicted criminals into their congregation as the lives of the ex-convicts turn around. Homosexuality is not a crime (at least not in this country). It is not even classified as an illness. If Christians can accept repented ex-convicts into their congregation (as they should), why they cannot accept a person who struggle with their sexual identity (it is not even a crime)? If the concern is hypocrisy, we have to look deep inside. Jesus told the teachers of the law who bought in a woman caught in adultery, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” The crowd left. Jesus never condemned the woman. He just gently said, “Go and leave your life of sin.”

What would Jesus do with Ted Haggard? I believe he would said the same thing.

There is a right wing conservative anti-gay Christian group in Hong Kong that causes some controversy. Here is my response to my friend.

Most of the bad publicity is a result of their anti-gay position. I can understand the gay community oppose to such a group. I did go to their web site and read their material. It seems that they model their strategy of the religious Right Wing Conservatives in the US. They mix religion and politics. Bad news!

It is just my opinion. However, the experience I have with such groups is mostly bad. They may have the best intentions, but it is not the best way to transform society. Their stand of “human rights” seems problematic. They stressed on piety and society responsibility before one can gain “human right”. We do not need to bow down to our parents before they let us eat. We do not need to give money to the police before they protect our property. As I understand, we are born with inherited rights – right to free speech, freedom of expression, free from harassment from government… People may abuse their freedom, but it is still better to have those rights then have them taken away.

Christians may not agree with homosexual lifestyle, we cannot deny their right to co-exist in the mainstream society. If those rights are taken away, the government then have the right to take away our freedom to choose being a Christian as a lifestyle. You may think that it is extreme. It happened under Nazism. Also, those fundamentalist groups in the US have influence government to make unreasonable laws. In the US, one such group have themselves elected on the school board in Dover, Co. This happened as recently as 2007. They forced all the science teachers to teach God created the universe in 6 exact days. The universe is only six thousand years old. The case went to the Supreme Court and the decision of the school board was ruled unconstitutional.

Now that long ago, those Christian groups deemed mixed race marriages immoral. They used the Bible as the root of their argument. Mixed race marriages were outlawed in the US because of these Christian fundamentalist groups until late 1960’s. In some fundamentalist churches today, mixed race marriages are still frowned upon.

In Nova Scotia where I live, some fundamentalist churches, including Baptists, the Catholic Church, etc., tried to force the government to pass a law to stop all retail shops from opening on Sundays. It was then called “The Lord’s Day Act”. They claimed Sunday is the Lord’s Day. We should all rest and do nothing. Therefore Sunday shopping should be banned. Actually, the government bowed to these groups and tried to gain votes from church goers and small food stores that can take advantage of the loopholes of that Act. The law did passed. However, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that law unconstitutional. This just happened a few years ago. It is dangerous if we let government to dictate our practice and behaviour.

Despite our Christian beliefs, we should be careful on forcing our own morals to the whole society. This type of “Social Engineering” on morality is extremely dangerous. Just look at Islamic countries, couples cannot even hold hands in public. “Holding hands” is deemed immoral behaviour, never mind kissing. If we let our government to take away our basic right to choose, they will have no problem doing that. They will definitely take away more then we let them.

“Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it!”

The Economists had a good insight of the Chinese Olympics this week. Protesting against human rights in China (or anywhere) just does not work. Actions like yelling, blocking roads, burning cars and houses, waving banners yield anger and suppression. “Constructive engagement” and building a “harmonious society” gain the notice of all the political leaders of the world.

It is just strange to me that religious groups talk about peace. They seldom put their talk into practice.

Islam claims to be a peaceful religion. I see not peace in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Sudan…

Buddhism and Dali Lam talked about peace. The Tibetan monks started the world wide protest against China. Some even tried to grab the torch from Jin Jing, a wheelchair-bound athlete. It seems that the pro-Tibet protesters also picked on those who literally cannot stand up. The hatred of the Dali Lama followers against the Chinese are so intense that they see violence is their path to enlightenment and peace.

The Bible says “the love of money is the root is all evil” (1Timothy 6:10). If Paul were to rewrite the letter to Timothy today, he probably would add religion to his reasoning.

The West denounces the Chinese suppress its media to report it news. CNN’s Jack Cafferty called the Chinese government “goons and thugs”. The West may have its freedom of speech to openly express its views, fair enough. However, Cafferty did not mention it was the Tibetan monks who burnt buildings and beat people up. Who were the thugs? According to Cafferty, the Chinese cannot do anything right. I doubt the US government will do anything less in stopping a riot in its own soil.

The US claimed Iraq had WMD but it turned out to be a lie. The US troops marched into Iraq without cause. Bush sent its young men and women to die based on a lie he and his goons fabricated. If you point your finger to another person, there are at least three of your own fingers pointing back at you. CNN should call Bush and his gang the number one goons and thugs before it named China. As far as I know, China has no troops outside its borders. The US is flexing it military muscle to secure its oil supply. Cafferty should talk more about the US troops out of Iraq before he called anyone “goons and thugs”.

While the Pope apologized numerous times on the sex abused cases of the Catholic Church, I never heard Dalai Lama apologize for the serfdom and the abuse of the Lama monks towards its own people. The Pope has the courage to admit the mistakes the church had done. Dalai Lama never admits the practice of serfdom and slavery of Lamaism is a violation of human rights. Neither do CNN and other media even talk about that. The western media calls the slave owners victims because they cannot practice their religion of enslavement.

“Why do I have to learn this? I’ll never use this again!” This is the common complain students give me. My answer, “You may never use this exact topic, but you will use the skill of problem solving and logical thinking.”

The area of statistics and probability is sometimes not easy to grasp. I can find at least one application. When I show the students the chance of winning in a 649 is one in 14 million, it demonstrates we might as well throw the money away. Of course, people still play the lottery because the cost is minimal and the return is huge. Losing a dollar is not a big deal to most people. However, there are other things in life not worth gambling for. People still take the chance even they know the odds are against them.

For example, statistics shows the chance having lung cancer for smokers is much higher than non-smokers. Numerous independent researches verified that smoking causes lung cancer. I am not going to name individual papers. One can type “smoking, lung cancer, statistics” in Google or any search engines and read the research papers from various cancer societies to ones heart content. People still place their lives as bets against the odds. In this case, one can quit smoking and hope that the damage will be reversed.

Another example is more serious and the damage is more far reaching. It is marriage. I know choosing a spouse is mostly an emotional matter. It is impossible to keep rational when hormones are pumping. It is difficult to take into account of faith, family background, habits, interest…

Faith is a determining factor in marriage. The Bible is correct in saying,

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” 2Corinthians 6:14.

If the two do not have the same belief system, it will bring friction in raising children, finance, family… Conclusion: Do not consider anyone who do not share your faith. However, most people do not investigate deeper before they enter this life blinding “contract” before they say “I do”. It is too late to say “I don’t” when it is too late.

Love is only one of the many factors in a happy marriage. There are plenty other variables to make a marriage work. All the factors have to be considered logically before marriage. Otherwise, pain and suffering will follow. It would be too late for all parties including the children. Marriage is the most important decision in ones lifetime. In making such decision, we need solid problem solving skills. Who says analytical skills in mathematics and statistics are useless?