BLOGGER



Youngest kid of six with an inferiority and black sheep complex, but determined that God saves not just his soul to heaven but the remainder of his manic-depressive life, so others won't say he became a Christian and remained a jerk.


MAIN THEMES

On identity
i won't be transparent before i'm opaque. and you'll get to know me starting from the small things: who my favourite bands are. what kind of movies i like. who are my heroes.

On Christianity
I’m convinced that when confronted with sincere, real love, the Jesus factor will become obvious. But let’s not plant the cross before we carry it. I’m not trying to con you.

On dreams
Some dreams are meant to be achieved. I know that. But maybe other dreams are meant to drive us, privately. Never known to anyone but ourselves.


OTHER THEMES

On melancholy
It is a sadness that, when choosing between crying and sighing, will choose sighing. I'd almost say that melancholy is being sad about sadness itself.

On memory and nostalgia
It saddens me when life moves forward and people decide that certain things are worth forgetting.

On language
I've learnt that the word irregardless is filed as a non-standard word in the English language. That's a lexicographer's way of saying it's not a real word.

On politics
Crowds are fickle things. So when we stand in the thousands and cry against the present government, do we know who we're actually crying for?

On society
People always want the best for themselves. But I want to sometimes take second or third or fourth best, just so that the loser down the road doesn't always have to come in last. It must feel like shit to always come in last.

On growing old
Leasehold property make me feel sad. It doesn't matter how old the family photos are that you put on your wall. It's your family but it's not really your wall.

On philosophy
I ask you, if God loves everyone, and if God is also incapable of loving evil, how can there be such a thing as an evil man?

On a daily basis
One line quips, like this.


CHAT





Monday, March 03, 2008
ON PRAYER AND THE ELECTION

There are plenty of people who pray for peace, but if praying were enough it would have come to be.
- Jewel, Life uncommon

There's an election rhetoric going around super-spiritual pentecostal type christians that i'm not entirely excited about. i'm gonna tread this one carefully but tread nonetheless i will.

if you're the churchgoing type, can i ask you, have you been hearing a lot of calls to pray for the nation? i have. nothing wrong with that.

they usually go along the lines of "Pray until something happens".

i've also heard those that go on and on and on about "God, expose the wicked", "God, install a righteous government", "God, remove the unrighteous".

i've even heard one that went "Voting is important, but praying is even more important".

now i don't know about you, but too much of this prayer drive thing makes me a bit concerned. why should it? lemme see.

i believe that there's a reality in malaysia about a certain kind of voter. that kind of voter, i believe, is everywhere, and they look something like this: they want to do good. they want to uphold good values. and they dislike white collar immorality as much as the next malaysian. like all malaysians, they also want stability, security, a healthy economy, booming business, and enough peace and racial tolerance just so that life can look normal on any given monday morning. but when someone reduces the voting choice down to voting for righteousness versus voting for stability, this malaysian is more likely going to err on the side of caution and vote for stability. and i repeat, this malaysian is everywhere.

nothing wrong with that.

except that when the church is the one driving the call for righteousness and godly values, when the church believes it's been called to provide the nation's benchmark for morality, the over-emphasis on praying simply allows the aforedescribed malaysians to stay within their comfort zones and just pray. i know you don't mean it that way. but it's easy to hear it that way. it gives people a passport to just pray and do little else.

but to those who say "pray until something happens", i have this to say. pray and make something happen.

to those who say "God, expose the wicked", i have this to say. someone had to flip their camera on before lingam got caught on video. if you really want the wicked exposed, do the exposing.

and to those who say that voting is important but praying is more important, i think i know what you're getting at, but be careful that your priorities don't stumble already apathetic and fearful people into further inaction.

pastors. when you talk about evangelism, you always tell us to do something about it. you never just tell us to pray. how different is it now that we're talking about social justice?

Labels: ,



Genusfrog [ 12:45 pm ]

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home