just before christmas i had a great visit from an old college friend, who is jewish. both his parents are ordained rabbis, even though they make their own living. and my friend is liberal in his view of God and spiritual matters.
i’m an evangelical protestant missionary, even though i have issues with organized religion and the way my faith is represented by some evangelical groups. i felt that he had a much easier time understanding my issues with institutional faith than many of my friends who are church leaders. we also had a great time talking about our old college days, his benefit of having a phd from MIT, and his current tour of Asia.
we had lunch with our other mutual friend– closer to him (and i didn’t know he was living in bangkok), who was a devout roman catholic in college. all of us were physics majors and studied in the same small classes in our small liberal arts school, www.wesleyan.edu. our catholic friend was sick of grading stupid undergrad papers at berkeley and finally gave up his intellectual pursuit as a professor with a phd, even in book publishing, and is currently getting an mba and considering b’hai from a distance. his current passion is to provide for his wife and two children that he loves.
our catholic friend asked me point blank, “so, paul, why are you trying to convert these thai people?” i answered that i’m not here trying to proselytize anyone but to support the leaders of the thai christian church. not that different as an objective, but i wanted to counter the underlying attitude in the phrasing of his question. still, we had a good time bashing stupid people and stupid organizations. not sure how valuable these encounters are for my ministry here, but they definitely help me keep my thoughts clear, and to place my passion for ministry in the midst of the larger society beyond the walls of the church that i was born in. and i hope that my faith and ministry will be a light of true hope not only among the thais in thailand but for individuals from all kinds of backgrounds.
check out below my mobile photo of a traditional thai house that my friend’s mother lives in; timothy was playing with his daughter last wednesday.
Reun Thai (a traditional thai house)
Steven said,
January 10, 2009 at 2:47 am
I presume by “b’hai” you mean “Baha’i”.
Institutional issues are common these days – most religions have institutions and authorities that require a lot of work to define on the basis of the guidance of their Founders – Jesus is no exception. But Christianity was on community for about 1000 years before the Orthodox, and then the Protestant breaks. Now Christians spend no little time proselytizing against eachother.
Baha’is have a different approach. First the chain of authority is far more defined, and the rules include anonymous voting for leaders of Assemblies – and we can vote for anyone in the community (there is no “running for office”.)
Of course there are religious issues any Christian must investigate to grapple with changing religions – one is how Baha’is view Jesus. But the simple way to put it is every Christian I know who converted to the Baha’i Faith felt closer to Jesus afterwards than before.
May your endeavors reflect the Light of God – (and from another former physics student!)
Bhojraj said,
October 14, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Thanks! I did not know you also had such a nice site apart from xanga!