Comments on: Yes, God has provided a quiet day at the office

By: mom2twoboys

mom2twoboys — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:00:13 +0000

As an American Christian, this sounds eerily like the “Religious Right” in the US, who are so concerned with being “right” but not much concerned about how to treat their neighbor (let alone their enemy). I wonder how many have honestly tried to emulate Jesus’ teachings. As one who humbly tries my best (though failing daily), I am more often than not appalled by behaviors and statements of Christians. As you accurately point out, it is too often much more of a club than a real, heart-felt belief. I have a dislike, if not fear, of a link between religion and government (no matter the religion or the government), and I hope that’s not the direction HK is going . . . .

By: jack

jack — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:14:36 +0000

not so sure re the characterisation of pro-democracy as middle class.

I spent an hour watching the Tiananmen protest march walk past Admiralty, and was quite struck by the numbers of determined yet ordinary looking working folk in the march.

The middle class, apart from the young, seemed largely absent.

By: gweipo

gweipo — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:06:19 +0000

I was thinking about this exact matter the other day while visiting a monastery in Cambodia and hearing about how monks were recruited there – the guide gave a pretty cynical breakdown about them joining for the education, to get away from unemployment, with broken hearts etc. etc and then posited that the best thing was you could dip in and dip out of being a monk which is why the whole movement was so strong and self-sustaining. In contrast however, despite it’s entanglement with the upper echelons of society in HK and even the UK where people also convert for – guess what – education of the their kids, it’s a dying matter – ever notice how old the clergy and nuns are?
And to be truly cynical – do you have any idea just how much property the Catholic church is sitting on in HK? Think about like just about the whole of Caine road. How devote are the followers really?

By: Historian

Historian — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:25:58 +0000

I wonder if Sir Bow Tie prays for the souls of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao?

By: boo

boo — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:04:17 +0000

“Try ‘ “Mark14:19-20” “Urban Design Guidelines for Hong Kong” ’, for example, and you will not be amazed to find that no single on-line document features both strings”

…until now: http://goo.gl/Hfc5
Congratulations on making a small piece of internet history.

By: Sir Crispin

Sir Crispin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:53:12 +0000

Jeffrey, yes I have read Calvin, or more appropriately books on Calvin. Fortuitously, the evangelical meat heads in this town were just last summer pushing for creationist nonsense to be taught in HK classrooms.

How did Calvin, the father of Methodist/Presbyterian-esque Calvinist denominations who in the US have gone off the evangelical deep end describe the creation story I ask you? He called it divine baby talk, a children’s bedtime story to help humans of limited intellectual abilities comprehend the wonders of the universe. It was not to be interpreted literally, as these closed-minded morons do. Apparently Calvin was right, humans are obviously of limited intelligence to insist this myth be taught in schools as science.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:17:09 +0000

@ Jeffery,

You are correct in your interpretation of scripture, but not of modern day evangelicals.

While the bible strongly decries the accumulation of wealth, the modern evangelical tradition (as started by televangelists, and subscribed to by the HK elite) is rooted in the belief that as long as you 100% believe in the creation story as the truth, hate homosexuals for no rational purpose, and stand ready to mock the rest of the planet when the rapture arrives – you will go to heaven. It does not matter what you do, merely what you believe.

As long as you believe in god and jesus you can rape and pillage to your hearts content – perfect for the US neocons and local tycoons.

Modern evangelicalism rots the brain – i think the old school drug PSA’s would serve as a good analogy, you remember the ones with the egg and the frying pan?

“This is your brain; this is your brain on Christ”.

By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:51:06 +0000

“some of its modern, born-again incarnations suggest that worldly riches are God’s reward for faith, making it the ideal religion for members of property cartels.”

A careful reading of Scripture would reveal that much of Scripture condemns the love of riches – rather riches are to be viewed in the light of helping your fellow man.

“Calvinist/Puritan Evangelism stresses blind belief rather than loving one’s fellow man”

I really do love this blog as it always has some quality writing, but sorry, this is just careless journalism. Have you read anything by Calvin? Or Edwards?

I hope I’m not trolling. Let me know if there’s anything more you’d like to discuss.

By: Tiu Fu Fong

Tiu Fu Fong — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:34:15 +0000

There are a cultural concepts which a culture does not develop itself but, after having them introduced from another culture, seize upon with great relish and make their own. The Hong Kong middle classes and evangelical Christianity are a good example of this. The entire world and hamburgers/pizza are another.

Strangely, another example that comes to mind is the mainland Chinese and the exclamation mark. It seems to be used for exhortation in Chinese documents. My mainland counterparts also use it liberally in English communications and consequently sound like over-excited loons.

By: Sir Crispin

Sir Crispin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:24:51 +0000

Let’s try again:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/cattle-sacrificing%20primitives/Cophet/1195179174637.jpg