Post 72—Refugees: Compassion plus or versus Security

Dr. Jim Denison on his blog "The Denision Forum on Truth and Culture" wrote the following under the above heading:

“We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples as well as a different societal and legal understand.” So warns the German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag (World on Sunday).

This is not a fictitious alarm headlined by a National Enquirer-like scandal sheet. Welt am Sonntag has consistently been named European Newspaper of the Year.  Its report comes from a security document obtained by the paper and read by top-level German security personnel.  The report warns that “the integration of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into Germany is no longer possible in light of the number and already existing parallel societies.”  In Germany, “parallel societies”  typically refers to insulated Muslim communities.

Could ISIS terrorists be among those immigrating to Germany and the West?

According to one ISIS operative in Syria, the Islamic State has already smuggled 4,000 covert gunmen into Western nations.  Such an initiative is part of the group’s global strategy: “It’s our dream that there should be a Caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world, and we will have it soon, God willing.”

Nicholas Rasmussen, Director of the  (US) National Counterterrorism Center,  warns that potential terrorists could indeed hide among Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Homeland Security officials are alert to this danger, promising "the most rigorous screening” of any potential refugees from Syria.

However, authorities question whether the U.S. intelligence community, with few assets on the ground in Syria, can provide authorities with information needed to determine whether a refugee could pose a threat. “You have to have information to vet,” according to the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.”

Does this mean that we should fear Muslims coming into the West?  Yes and no.

Obviously, we need a different approach to immigrant screening than in the past. There was a time when our chief concerns related to employability, language skills, and cultural integration. Now we must be aware of jihadists seeking entry to nations they intend to attack. A new day calls for a new strategy. 

The above is not the entire article, but it is enough for our purpose. Throughout the Western world, there is this debate or, rather, stormy shouting going on between adherents of basically two different opinions—those who out of compassion want to allow all these thousands upon thousands of pitiful refugees into their country and those who urge caution and careful screening as per Denison’s article. It was an issue in the recent Canadian election. Incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper was berated by some of his opponents who advocated lowering the threshold, while Harper insisted on proper screening, which, of course, would mean a slower process. 

I identified myself as a born-again Christian in the previous post. As such, I share the compassion of Harper’s opponents. I would love nothing better than for Canada to open the borders for many more of these unfortunate refugees, mothers with children and all.  And I would love it if we could speed up the process so as to get them settled and move on with their lives of contributing to Canadian society. However, my guess is that Harper shares this same compassion and would like nothing better. I suspect that his external composure hides a heart of compassion and mercy no less than the rest of us.

However, Christian compassion is not careless or unrealistic. When you carry the burden of national leadership, you have the duty of protecting the security of the nation. Anyone who disregards this issue in the name of compassion is derailed. Trudeau the First may be considered a philosopher-king, but he displayed little savvy when it comes to human nature. While strongly opposed to racism, he imported thousands of Asian racists and thus brought the degree of racism in the country to a higher level than ever before.  Like Caucasians, many Asians are racist against both Canadians and against each other. How contradictory can you get? 

The issues before us today are the two poles of compassion and security. We need to consider both issues in dealing with refugees.  Welt am Sunntag  has it right.  Their caution holds equally for Canada. No responsible Prime Minister can or may ignore either one of these two poles. Simply allowing them in without proper screening irresponsible. By flooding our nation indiscriminately we will simply smother the compassion for which Canada is known by importing people who share neither our compassion nor our respect for law, people who abuse our compassion and undermine our security.

 

In my ignorance and innocence, I advocate that Canada help support nations like Turkey that currently handle thousands of refugees within their borders with generous financial and other support so as to carry the burden with that country and others like them. As we do so, we try to speed up the process of approving refugees to enter our country without compromising our security. And we must definitely not forget about those refugees who have already been waiting for some years in our lineup. They need to be given the priority they deserve. If things need to be sped up, they need to be sped up for them as well. They should retain their position in the lineup and not be bypassed for the current crop.

May Trudeau the Second keep his eyes, heart and mind on both sides of the equation. That’s our prayer for him, for our nation and for the refugees. Whether philosopher or not, may he have a firm and realistic understanding of human nature, better than his father. May he/we devise a secure way of inviting thousands of them to our country. God bless him. God bless Canada as a nation of secure and strong compassion.

Post 71--Born Again—What Is It?

It’s theology time! The term “born again”  has a long history, something to be expected, since Jesus introduced it two millennia ago. It has undergone a long process of definition and redefinition, also something to be expected, since Jesus himself associates it with the Spirit and His unpredictable directions. 

The more “professional” theological term is “regeneration,” which may be defined as “that divine act by which the sinner is endowed with new spiritual life and by which that new life is first called into action.” Or, more simply, “implanting of the new life in the soul.”  It brings about “a radical change of the governing disposition of the soul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit”  (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pp. 467-469). 

My favourite American theologian and late friend, Gordon Spykman, wrote that  regeneration “refers to a profound change in our condition, its fundamental redirection, the starting point of a renewed life. It is born of the overpowering initiative of the sovereign grace of God.”  It is a “decisive turnaround” that “is a result of the unfathomable work of the Holy Spirit.”   That Spirit “makes us new creatures—our old nature has been buried with Christ and we are now raised with Him to newness of life. The life-renewing Spirit enlightens our blinded minds. He liberates our enslaved wills.”  Once this has happened, “we can never be the same again.”  “Regeneration may be an undateable event. Its time and place may escape us. Yet it marks the dawn of a new day. With it comes a new lease on life. Like a seed sown in the ground, it may remain hidden for a while, but eventually it germinates and bears fruit. Rebirth (Boer: a “delatinized” version of the word) therefore is a total…renewal of the whole person,… the decisive change of the direction….”   (Reformational Theology: A New Paradigm for Doing Dogmatics, pp. 488-489).

The question is: Why born again? What’s the reason? The answer is already embedded in the previous paragraph.  Did you notice “our blinded minds” and “our enslaved wills?”  Over against these stand “newness of life” and enlightenment.

The New Testament (NT) says:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world … gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3).

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins (Colossians 2:13).

The above are only a few of the many verses in the Bible that describe our desperate situation. We are dead in our “transgressions and sins.” That’s a pretty ugly situation. That’s the short and long of it. It’s something we don’t like to hear or consider. 

But that’s not where it stops. That’s not the last word and not even the most important word. Being born again means that, according to the above verse, “God made us alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.”  It doesn’t get better than that. There’s no better news than this.  That’s why we need to be reborn, regenerated. It enables us to live the new life, the life that is guided by the standards of the Kingdom of God.

I am bold and grateful to say that I am born again.  God has reworked me. Put a new life and mind in me. The posts of this blog are kind of an illustration of such a person, along with the mistaken thoughts that still occur, for we are still surrounded by worldly standards that sometimes creep back into our minds.

I am very conscious of continued shortcomings, but that does not depress me or make me sad. My main emotion or attitude is one of joy and gratitude for forgiveness and the new life given me. Those are the final words: forgiveness, and therefore joy and gratitude. 

This is all very short about a profound reality. If you wish to pursue it further, scour the internet for books on the subject. There should be plenty. But let me tell you: Being born again is a great experience that’s with you for ever.  And it has nothing to do with the scornful caricatures we come across in the media. It has everything to do with seeing the world and your neighbor with new eyes and new values.

In closing for the day, here’s a joyful and grateful sound in the NT from one who experienced this rebirth—I Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

That’s how the more formal New International Version puts it. A more informal translation is that of Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

What a God we have!  And how fortunate we are to have Him…! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts right now.

And then he goes on:

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.

I’m tempted to keyboard the rest of that joyful passage for you, but you can find it in any Bible. Go, read it, and you’ll notice the joy and laughter this born again thing produces in its happy recipients, the citizens of the Kingdom of God with its new ambitions, new values, new hopes and new visions—a completely new and upbeat life for which people throughout the centuries literally give up their lives. Taste and see that the Lord is good!

Post 70--Born Again

You’ve come to expect a mix of religious and so-called “secular” topics from me. I’ve explained the reasons for that more than once. It is simply that they are not two separate areas or regions so much as that religion underlies all subjects; it serves as their substratum.  They do not exist as separate entities so much as the religious infusing and shaping everything else. 

And so, today we jump from the topic of water consumption to that of being born again. The reason for my concern for the economics and ecology of water consumption is precisely because I am born again. Of course, reason, observation, experience, etc., all play a part as well, but the direction in which they lead you is ultimately decided by your value system, your worldview, your beliefs and, finally, your religion, i.e., your ultimates. If you are truly born again, then water issues must concern you, for they are so basic to the life of your neighbor throughout the world.

Born again. In the minds of the average writer in the Vancouver Sun (VS) this is about the most vicious pejorative you can use to describe Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, especially their American versions.  Once you have described Evangelical or Fundamentalist action as the result of being born again, you no longer have to take it seriously; it is guaranteed to be wrong, damaging, anti-social, ridiculous even. Nothing further needs to be said.

But what is this thing called “born again?”   Let’s go back to the original reference to it in the Bible:

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^[a]”

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c]must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3).

It must be admitted that Jesus’ explanation is not too clear to our modern way of thinking, but one thing is clear: It is necessary if we wish to see the Kingdom of God.  It is not just something nice, not just icing on the cake of salvation; It is a necessary condition.  Without it you cannot see the Kingdom of God; without it, you cannot be a Christian. That’s pretty drastic. 

Since the early history of Christian theology, scholars have widely discussed the meaning of being born again. I hope to take you through some of that in the next post.  However, it is no wonder that it is unpopular with the secular crowd. The need for it is the human condition, which, according to both the Bible and Christian theology, is totally distorted.  May I say the word?  Sinful!  Stronger still, dead in sin!  There, I’ve said it. Phew! Now that ain’t pretty and it’s not going to raise my popularity with my favourite VS writers, most of whom I appreciate and read regularly. 

No wonder that proud mankind is offended by this evaluation of human nature. And no wonder most folk try to evade its truth by poking fun of it and castigating it for its association in our minds with extreme fundies in the southern USA. In terms of the West, it has been rejected in principle ever since the Renaissance centuries ago and by the subsequent philosophical developments through rationalism, secularism and post-modernism.  It is offensive, humiliating, demeaning. It is one of the reasons the dominant worldview in the West rejects it outright and pokes fun of it. 

Post 69—Once more—Water

                    

Yes, once more: Water, that precious stuff we don’t think enough about.  

In previous posts I have indicated that too many people, that is, too many consumers of our piped water systems, are irresponsible in their use of water and fail to take measures to curtail its use.  While most of the time this may not be a threatening problem in our rain-forest province of British Columbia, in our current year of 2015, it did become a problem for all its residents because of a serious drought.   Fortunately, by early September, the crisis was over. In just a few days we had so much rain that it exceeded the normal average. Well, that’s our BC for you, a province we simply love to live in—and sometimes almost drown in!

However, before going any further, I do want to help spread the good news that, though there are plenty of irresponsible consumers—“rogue” users, as some call them—the Chairman of Metro Vancouver Utilities Committee, Darrell Mussato, announced “that this past decade, per capita water consumption has been falling.” During our 2015 crisis, Metro residents and businesses cut their consumption down to a level that the reservoirs had enough water to bring us to the fall even if there is no significant rainfall during that time. The subheading to his “Letter of the Day” was, “If the trend continues, supply will be ample for years to come” (VS, Aug 12, 2015).  That is good news, great news, in fact. It speaks well of consumers that, when pressed, many respond enough to change the direction of things. I am grateful that so many consumers are responsible and I want to publicly acknowledge it here. 

Mussato then writes a paragraph about the measures authorities are taking or planning to take in the near future to ensure adequate supply for a growing population. They will take into “account population growth, climate change, ecological health and the ongoing prosperity of the region.”  They plan to spend 1.5 billion dollars to expand our capacity for the future.  As a layman on the topic, this all sounds very encouraging to me and I wish the Committee every success in their careful planning.  So, both  responsible consumers and and a responsible public Committee. I sometimes shudder at what often appears to be inept and careless government authorities at various fronts, but I seem to have no reason for shuddering at the water front. That sounds hopeful for our future Metro.

One conservation measure that is under vigorous debate on both the positive and negative sides on the part of Metro members is that of water meters.  Some are already using them; others feel it to be too expensive—“incredibly costly,” as the Mayor of Coquitlam describes it. According to a regional engineer, it would “cost in excess of $10 million to install meters in 70,000 …homes in Burnaby and more to read the meters, bill residents and maintain the infrastructure” (Kelly Sinosky, VS, July 13, 2015).  That would be around $142 per unit installed. That’s cheaper than I had expected. Doesn’t seem that bad to me. Quite doable as far as I can see. I have always thought that each Metro community might borrow funds and charge each customer a couple of dollars a month to repay the loan. 

But it looks like that is not an acceptable arrangement to some. However, Metro does charge each member community a fixed amount per cubic metre, an expense passed on to consumers. So, even if not metred at the consumer level, the precious commodity does not come free.  The problem I see is that if your bill is the same regardless of the amount you use, there’s no financial incentive for consumers to restrain their use of water, a restraint most people will need to motivate them. Not many can be motivated by considerations of ethics and stewardship over the long haul, even though that should be the natural thing for Christians and adherents of most other religions.

All these discussions and issues are developing under the shadow of “Water scarcity crisis looms in BC,” according to Stephen Hume (VS, April 6, 2015). He points to the California drought as a warning about what is likely going to be the direction of things in BC.  We need to take the bull by the horns now, he argues. “Over the past 50 years, BC’s snow cover dwindled by 18% on average.”  The glaciers feeding the Columbia River have shrunk by almost 15%. He quotes some experts who predict “an impending water crisis” in Western Canada. “This means rethinking both how we live in BC and how we pay for it,” he urges.

In closing for the day, I add my “urge” to his and ask you to do the same. The bottom line is: We can’t go on this way. We need to change; tomorrow is just around the corner. Perhaps not my corner—I am 77--, but around yours and that of our children.  You have been brought up in care-free luxury, more than any generation in all of history. That’s not going to continue. Watch my word! But more than watching: Do something about it, both personally and together as a community—NOW!

Post 68--A Change of Scenery--From Vancouver to Lagos

I believe most of you know this blog originates in Vancouver, Canada. Well, I am currently in Lagos, the former political capital of Nigeria and now the commercial capital.  The political capital has been shifted to Abuja,  a city built from scratch in the  middle of the country, said to be the biggest construction project in all human history!  Well, that’s Nigeria. Like the USA, the bigger the better. I’m here together with my wife, visiting our youngest son and his family—for a whole month! 

I’m not sure when I can actually post this post, what with less than a stellar quality computer and a fickle electrical supply. Every time the main electrical net decides to take a break, and that happens several times a day, we get switched to a huge generator within twenty seconds. However, every switch one way or the other, turns off the computer.  It being a decrepit machine, it sometimes takes close to an hour for it to recover from the shock-- pun intended. In addition, so far, we have not been able to access the internet, which is a sine qua non for getting this post to your screen. So, while I hope to keep writing while here, I’m not sure when you’ll get to read it. Perhaps not till we return to Vancouver in mid-October.  Hopefully, before then.  At least, when you do finally read it, you’ll realize we did not forget about you, our readers.

I regret I did not warn you of this trip. I simply did not foresee these problems. I had been assured we would have access to a working computer. Well, we do, but the two factors described in the last paragraph have thrown a rod into our plans to keep in touch with you. Hopefully, it won’t be as bad or as long as I now fear could become the case.  I just have to trust that you’ll have the patience to sit it out and stick with me.

I had a different topic in mind for this installment, but having started with Nigeria, I have just decided to stick with it. After all, Nigeria is a fascinating country, in spite of its reputation for corruption. Perhaps you have at one time or another been the beneficiary of Nigeria’s famous scam letters. Well, yes, more than one of its Presidents has declared corruption one of the country’s two major problems, the other being religious conflict. Those are the two topics for which the country is the most “famous.” However, my son works at the highest echelon of the Lagos business world and insists that today’s Nigeria has started a new trajectory, a new story of vigorous business that, he is sure, will invigorate the country’s business culture to heights it has never before experienced. In fact, he is playing a major role in making this happen. I write this with great pride in him, especially because he has frequently told me that his ministry is really a natural extension of my 30-year ministry in the country.

Yes, I use the word “ministry” in describing his work of invigorating business.  For one thing, his is a not-for-profit enterprise in the context of a large Nigerian foundation. But even if it were a for-profit outfit, that in itself would not disqualify it from being a ministry. Secondly, his personal motivation comes from his Christian faith.  During my missionary career, I was getting paid by the church; he, by this big foundation.  However, our motivations are similar.  As both a professional missionary and an academic missiologist, I warmly consider him a colleague of mine in the service of the Kingdom of God. 

Of course, if you remember some of my past posts, you may recollect that I insist that religion is part of and underlies all of life, including business. That’s the reason I often and easily switch from religious topics to “other” topics.  In fact, every post of mine has this religious base, mentioned or not. I may b e writing about water topics, but underneath it you will always find Christian concepts of conservation, responsibility, stewardship, justice, etc.  Same with topics like business or, for that matter, even  politics.  So, yes, my son is engaged in a ministry.

Oh, yes, Nigeria. Well, not much space left for this particular post. So, just a few interesting facts, some of them for your trivial pursuit games. Nigeria is the only country where you have around 80 million Christians and 80 million Muslims—two large equal sized blocks. In no other country is there such a constellation of these two religions. In most cases it is a matter of a large majority and a small minority of either. China may have more Christians and perhaps even more Muslims—I have not seen Chinese Muslim statistics—but they would both be overshadowed by the influence of Confucianism and the power of Chinese Communism.  Nigeria is the country where it will be decided whether these two religions can co-exist as equals.  That, by the way, is the major issue in my eight volumes Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations. See the Islamica page on my website  <www.SocialTheology.com>.

If the above is not exactly a trivial pursuit issue, the next one is. What is the largest country that has English as its official  language? From the context you will guess it is Nigeria. Correct.  But can you explain this trivial fact?  Another: What country sees the most Anglicans in church on any given Sunday?  Yes, ….!

This does it for the day. See you when I can get this into cyberland. Hope you're still with me. I will try to make up for this extended delay by churning out new posts more frequently, at least for a while. Hey, am I back in the promise mode? Not intended, really.