March 4, 2006

Vietnam thoi xua

Hom qua, HA gap mot nguoi sinh vien dang hoc o trong CDSP. Nguoi nay la mot Giao Su cua Community College, sap sua ra truong vao thang 05 voi bang M.Div. Ba ta noi rang hoi xua, cha me la Giao Si o Viet Nam, theo hoi Seventh Day Adventist. Ho sinh song o VN 10 nam. Nghe noi vay, long cam thay hoi ghen ghen, vi lam sao ma mot nguoi My da trang, mot nguoi My goc Chau Au lai sinh song o nuoc cua minh lau hon minh? HA thi duoc sinh ra tai Saigon, nhung da lia VN khi 6 tuoi. Le ra, do la nuoc cua minh, la dan minh. Nhung day la mot gia dinh euro-American sang qua VN, de "cuu vot" nhung con nguoi VN... sao thay that la imperialist... giong nhu la mot cultural domination alongside mot religious domination which is labeled as "salvation."

Ba ta noi, khi song o VN (khoang late 1940s to early 1950s) gia dinh ho chi co tiep suc voi nguoi My thoi, voi nhung nguoi My o LXQ, va su tiep suc voi "dan Viet" chi qua su truyen giao, de "giai cuu" nhung tam hon cua nguoi Viet. Nghi den, thi tuc lam, va buon lam... vi rat nhieu nhieu van con cach suy nghi do... ho nghi ho phai convert and save the locals. White missionaries, they have shaped so much of our world, but to what end??

March 2, 2006

Richter, Isaiah, & Absolution of Sins

Yesterday, there was an earthquake in the East Bay area which measured 3.4 on the Richter scale (this I didn't know until an hour later when someone emailed to the faculty a section of an online news article from the San Francisco Chronicle). We felt the tremor while sitting in chapel for Ash Wednesday, during the reading of Isaiah, waiting for the absolution of all our sins. The meaning would be lost on many people, but some will realize the irony and significance of such a "coincidence."

At lunch in the refectory today, I sat next to a few CDSP seminarians debating the question of whether or not it is possible for an individual to be bound to hell by another individual(s) and/or a community. One bearded fellow remarked that yes, but not entirely, and no, but not entirely. A certain pale-skinned, blond-haired woman offered the hypothetical situation: what if a man were so hard-pressed that he is eventually "led" to stealing bread for his children; she posed the question, isn't that a condition of being "forced" into sinning by a certain individual or community or circumstance? Another short-haired woman--a cheerful, robust one with a very positive outlook on life--countered that one would have to (re)define "sinning" and "sin" in order to examine that particular context fully; because, how could such a situation be considered sinning, she asked? Would we not have to look at the rules for necessity of survival, she wondered. The cheerful one, she believes that it is entirely internal and that one's decision to turn to God depends entirely on one's self.

Relational beings. Aren't we formed by the communities (or lack thereof) that surround us? No one self could be formed sans the influence of some structure that in one way or another effects our understanding of God. We aren't so independent as we'd like to think. Our human frailty inhabits us and those weaknesses allow us to be tempted, swayed, persuaded by our surroundings. It's about our continuous efforts to turn towards God, to meet God, even though we are weak.