#1
– A Key Note
In his
key note address to the Conference on Religion & Globalization,
Dr. Don Swearer provided the conference with a brief tour of
the respective roles of Thai Buddhism and Thai Protestant Christianity
in globalization in Thailand. In noting that both have themselves
been shaped by globalizing forces as well, he concluded, "However,
while religious identities are forged within the crucible of
history and culture, they cannot be reduced to these contexts.
The normative principles of a religious faith test and challenge
each and every contextual status quo and guide us through the
maze of our moral dilemmas."
Don then
closed his remarks with what amounted to both a challenge and
a blessing. He said, "In the final analysis then, globalization
in the deepest religious sense cannot be reduced to economic
and political factors or the accidents of history. Therefore,
as we join together at this Religion and Globalization conference
let us affirm the following: the inter-becoming of all life
forms. In mindful awareness of this truth, let us embrace the
imperative to act empathetically and compassionately towards
all beings; and, within the interdependent world we all inhabit,
irregardless of our religious, ethnic, or political identities,
let us commit ourselves to be agents of justice, equality, peace,
reconciliation, and non-violence." Amen.
#2 –
Verbal Dialogue Vetoed
Who said
it and when she or he said it during the Conference on Religion
& Globalization, I don't remember. I do remember the words.
"Interfaith dialogue reflects a very Western Christian
preoccupation with words."
#3 –
Sulak's Christian Upbringing & His Charge to Christians
Acharn
Sulak Sivaraksa is one of Thailand's leading, perhaps most notorious
social critics and was a now-and-again participant in the Conference
on Religion & Globalization. Educated in Catholic schools,
he said to the conference, "I was brought up in a Christian
culture." In light of his experience with Christians, both
Catholic and Protestant, he also stated that, "Christianity
here in Thailand should be more Asian, more Thai, and it should
show more respect for Thai culture."
#4 –
How to Become a Hindu
In her
presentation on American Hinduism, Dr. Vasudha Narayanan described
one website dedicated to Hinduism in the United States. The
website includes a link that is labeled, simply, "Click
here to become a Hindu."
#5 –Declining
Church Membership in Canada
The ENI Bulletin for 28 May 2003 reports that, "Canada's
latest census report shows that the numbers of traditional Christians
have dropped and that traditionally Eastern religions, especially
Islam, have made substantial gains due to the country's low
birth rate and its immigration profile." (p. 21). The number
of Catholics, according to the 1991 and 2001 censuses dropped
by 2% from 45% of the population
51
in 1991 to 43% in 2001. All Protestants declined
from 35% to 29% of the population. Muslims, by contrast, more
than doubled in the number of adherents and now make up about
2% of the population of Canada. The numbers of Hindus, Sikhs,
and Buddhists grew by more than 80% and collectively amount
to about 1% of the population. What seems particularly surprising
is that according to the Interfaith Secretary of the United
Church of Canada (UCC), who is extensively quoted in this news
item, Pentecostal membership in Canada dropped by 15% in comparison
to the UCC's decline of 8.2%. (p. 22). The article points out
that Asian religious adherence is increasing mostly through
immigration and that, by the same token, Canadian Catholicism
has benefitted from large numbers of immigrants.
These
figures recall Andrew Walls' description of the massive global
Christian demographic shift that continues to take place by
which Christianity is declining in numbers in Western nations,
such as Canada, while rapidly growing in Asia and Africa. (see
the review of Walls' article in HeRB 1). These Canadian
figures, moreover, stand in contrast to the continued, strong
growth of the Church of Christ in Thailand (see my article in
HeRB 3), which reminds us that the CCT is a part of
(and, for the time being, a beneficiary of) this global trend.
#6 –
Turning Heathens into Outsiders
Protestant
missionaries in Siam, until the 1920s, habitually referred to
Thai Buddhists as "heathens" and believed that they
lived in moral darkness. The terms heathen, heathenism, and
their cognates are thickly scattered through the missionary
record. It is interesting thus to note, that the Thai church
has not taken the word heathen over into Thai; translating the
word into to Thai is itself awkward since there is no readily
understandable comprarable term in Thai. One has to explain
the meaning, usually at length. Thai Christianity dispensed
with those explanations and, instead, reformulated the idea
of heathenism by calling of people of other faiths khon
nok, meaning "outsiders."
This
reconfiguration of heathens as outsiders provides a glimpse of
how contextualization of the Christian religion in Thailand has
played out historically. The word "heathen" is an abstract
ethical and theological term. The concept of "outsider"
is communal, relational. As actually used by missionaries and
by converts, the two terms function in the same way. Each is a
boundary term designating who is outside the Christian pale. The
European term, however, focuses on an idea while the Thai focuses
on a relationship. According to the European way of thinking,
heathens are those who do not believe in God; according to the
Thai way of thinking, outsiders are those who do not share Christian
loyalty to God.
#7 -
West Asia
There
is nothing original in this note, which simply repeats a suggestion
that has been bandied about for many years but has never taken
hold. The suggestion is that everyone except Europeans stop
using the terms "Middle East" and "Near East"
to refer to western Asia. Habitually referring to the geographical
region that lies east of the Mediterranean Sea as "western
Asia" or "West Asia" makes sense in two ways.
First, it is geographically correct in the same way as "southeast
Asia" or "East Asia." Second, the terms "western
Asia" and West Asia," are value free and neutral,
while the older name, "Middle East" and "Near
East," are laden with a great deal of Crusader era baggage
comprising European fear of and prejudices against Arabs and
Muslims.
52
If
Europeans themselves want to call western Asia the "Middle
East" or "Near East" and can ignore the mental
baggage in the process, so be it. For them, after all, western
Asia really is the Middle East. For the rest of us, however,
it seems silly to go on talking about a region of Asia as if
it were an extension of Europe. Viewed from Thailand, after
all, western Asia is actually the "Middle West," while
from a Western Hemisphere perspective, it is the "Far East."
#8 –
Seventh Day Adventist Statistics for 2000
The Seventh
Day Adventist Church Yearbook for 2001 gives the following
membership statistics for the year 2000:
World:
Southern Asia-Pacific Division:
South East Asia Union:
Thailand Mission: |
47,543 churches
5,457 churches
286 churches
37 churches |
11,336,023 members
1,139,584 members
65,665 members
11,836 members |
53
