Is Today the Day War Begins in East Asia?

Today might be the day war breaks out in East Asia, for this is the “Day of the Sun,” the most celebrated holiday of the year in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Day of the Sun commemorates the birth of “Eternal President” Kim Il-sung on April 15, 1912.

Some have speculated that on this auspicious day Kim Jong-un, the young dictator of North Korea and grandson of Kim Il-sung, will make a daring show of power, following up on recent threats hurled at South Korea, Japan and the United States.

But as it is already evening in Pyongyang, which is 14 hours ahead of where I am posting this (in CDT), perhaps Supreme Leader Kim (b. 1983/4) has decided not to carry out his threats, at least not today. And if not today, maybe not at all. Maybe it has all been bluff and bluster after all. Let’s hope so.

Kim Il-sung’s birthday marks the beginning of the first year in the current North Korean calendar, so today is New Year’s Day, Juche 102. Actually, the beginning of Juche 102 was also celebrated on January 1, as the country uses both the Gregorian and their own unique calendar. But April 15 is celebrated more elaborately.

“Juche” is the Korean name for Kim Il-sung’s political thesis, which declares that the Korean masses are the masters of the country’s development. According to Kim, the Juche idea is based on the belief that “man is the master of everything and decides everything.” That doesn’t sound very religious, at least in the usual (Western) sense of the word.

Yet, “Just one more religion?” is the title of an April 7 online posting of The Economist. That article points out that according to www.adherents.com, Juche is the 10^th most widely followed religion in the world, with 19 million adherents. (By comparison, Judaism is 12^th with 14 million adherents worldwide.) But Juche is likely the largest religion most people have never heard of.

Those who follow The Economist closely may know a little about Juche. And some few may have heard of the book “Juche: A Christian Study of North Korea’s State Religion” (1999) by Thomas J. Belke. As quoted in The Economist, Belke states that Juche is a religion because it “has a comprehensive belief system, holy places, distinctive customs” and also because “it displaces other religions.”

Juche is certainly not a religion in the same sense that the so-called “world religions” (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) are. But it can be argued that it is a religion in the same way that Marxism, Stalinism, Maoism are, or have been, religions.

As the picture shows, Kim Il-sung and his family are highly venerated in North Korea. But ancestors are widely venerated in East Asia, and deep bowing is common even before living people, especially those of high rank. But does veneration and bowing indicate the existence of a religion, or religious worship?

If Juche is a religion at all, it is what might be called a secular religion, for it seems to lack any sense of the transcendent. It is much more like an ongoing personality cult, one that demands loyalty and subservience to Kim Il-sung and his descendants by the North Korean people. As such, it is a powerful ideology that elicits legitimate concern by the nations of the world—for it might not be all bluff and bluster.

Let’s pray that today’s Day of the Sun celebration does not include the launching of missiles aimed at South Korea, Japan or U.S. territories, which would likely start a war in East Asia.

TSA and 2nd Amendment Rights

“As we’re getting ready to fly out of town on Monday, I was just thinking about how limited my Second Amendment rights are by TSA in not being allowed to take guns onto airplanes.”

This was a tongue-in-cheek email received from someone who must remain anonymous. He added following the statement quoted above, “Don’t quote me by name – I don’t need the TSA coming after me!”

But, as asserted by the NRA and the tens of millions of gun owners across the nation, if we are guaranteed the right to bear arms by the Second Amendment, how can that right be taken away by the Transportation Security Administration?

There are, no doubt, people who seriously think that their personal rights (and/or dignity) are regularly being infringed by the TSA. Some of the kinder explanations of what TSA stands for are Totally Senseless Aggravation and Taxpayer Supported Assault.

Since everyone has to buy a ticket and is admitted to the boarding lobby after showing a picture identification on which background checks are made, why should not only guns, but hunting knives, scissors, and all sorts of other things be banned from airplanes? (Not long after 9/11, I even lost fingernail clippers to the TSA.)

If every Tom, Dick, and Mary can own and has free access to even large magazine assault weapons on the ground, why can the TSA keep even small handguns off airplanes? Don’t people have any Second Amendment rights?

While there has been a lot of talk about enacting gun control legislation over the past three or four months, there has not yet been much done in that regard, except for in two or the states. And, as I wrote previously, I am still pessimistic about meaningful gun control legislation being passed nationwide (although in the last few days there have some encouraging signs).

So if, as so many argue, guns are necessary to protect ourselves on the ground, why not in the air? Arkansas recently passed the Church Protection Act which allows places of worship to decide whether to allow concealed handguns and who could carry them. The House passed the bill 85-8 with bipartisan support. The measure previously passed the Senate 28-4.

If there is that kind of support for carrying guns to church, why should the TSA be able to prohibit them from airplanes? Oh, maybe it is because if no one is allowed to have guns on airplanes, then maybe no one needs one. Maybe that’s an idea that should to be considered on the earth as well as in the sky.

Actually, I appreciate the work of the TSA. It is a bit annoying for them to be so picky. Like everyone having to take their shoes off—unless, now, you were born in 1937 or before. (June doesn’t have to take her shoes off now—but she has to be frisked anyway because her knee replacement sets off the metal detector.)

I have been disgusted when, more than once, I have forgotten to leave at home a pocket knife (with its 1.25 inch blade!) and had to surrender it to the TSA.

But airplanes in this country have flown safely for a long time now. There haven’t been any hijackings for years or any terrorist seizure of airplanes since 9/11/01.

So maybe the TSA is doing a good job, and maybe we ordinary citizens don’t need to insist on our Second Amendment right to carry a gun on an airplane—and maybe not in any other public place, either.

In Memory of Gordon Cosby, 1918-2013

Gordon Cosby, founding pastor of Church of the Savior, passed away last month and his memorial service will be held tomorrow, April 6. In contrast to Rachel Corrie (about whom I wrote last month) who was killed at the age of 23, Cosby lived to be just a few months shy of 95. His was a long and productive life.

I first heard of Gordon Cosby in the early 1960s when I was a seminary student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the school from which he had graduated in 1942.

After serving as a chaplain in World War II, in 1947 Cosby founded the Church of the Savior (CoS) in Washington, D.C., and continued in that ministry until he retired just four years ago (at age 91!).

Cosby was introduced to us seminary students as one who had attempted to “do church” and ministry different from the traditional way—and as one who emphasized the integrity of church membership, something that was quite different from the usual practice of Southern Baptist churches.

In January 1977 during our second “furlough” in the States, I met Gordon Cosby for the first time. I was visiting the Sojourners community, which had moved to Washington, D.C., partly because of Cosby. (You can read about that in Jim Wallis’s 3/21 article here.) And that evening I walked over to the Potter’s House, started in 1960 by CoS, one of the first Christian coffeehouses in the U.S.

Upon arriving, I asked if Gordon Cosby was there and was told that he was back washing dishes (as he seemed to do often). I went back to the kitchen, briefly introduced myself, and asked if he would allow me to take his place washing dishes and to talk with me as he rested. He would and he did—and I much enjoyed an hour of delightful conversation with him.

The last time I saw Cosby was at the Seekers Church, one of the “spinoff” congregations from the Church of the Savior now located in Takoma on the outskirts of D.C. Our son Keith and his wife have been core members of Seekers for more than 25 years now.

Seekers used to meet in the same renovated brick house on Massachusetts Ave. where the original CoS congregation met through the years, and I heard Cosby preach there a time or two. But after his retirement, the Cosbys were visiting Seekers one Sunday when we there with Keith and Brenda, and it was a joy to see him again.

Tomorrow’s memorial celebration will be held at Foundry United Methodist Church on 16^th Street. That historic church, which is within walking distance of the White House, is the church Bill and Hillary Clinton attended when he was President.

Cosby was never pastor of a church with a large building, such as Foundry Methodist. But he influenced pastors all across the nation, including Rev. Dean Snyder, the senior pastor at Foundry now. (Snyder’s recent comments in the Washington Post about Cosby are found here.)

And Cosby never sought the limelight, or took advantage of opportunities to receive adulation. Yet, it has been said that he and the Church of the Savior have had a greater impact on the Protestant church in America over the past 50 years than any other institution or movement.

It is impossible to measure how much influence someone has had, but it is certain that Cosby did make a huge impact on American Protestantism. Please join me and the many who gather at Foundry Church tomorrow in memorializing the long life and legacy of Gordon Cosby.

"The Bible" (2013 version)

Every Sunday evening this month, like many of you June and I have watched “The Bible,” the 10-hour mini-series on the History channel. As one who has been reading the Bible regularly for more than 65 years, it has been interesting to see how the story of the Bible is depicted in this new production by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, a husband and wife team. 

Some of you know Ms. Downey (b. 1960), who is said to be a devout Catholic, as Monica, the kind-hearted angel on the successful American TV series “Touched by an Angel.” In “The Bible” she plays the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, during the time of Jesus’ public ministry.

The first episode of the mini-series was telecast on March 3 and was seen by 13.1 million viewers, the largest cable television audience of 2013 to date. The second installment continued "to deliver blockbuster ratings" for the network, attracting 10.8 million viewers.

In spite of its large viewing audience, there has been criticism of “The Bible” both from religious conservatives and liberals. The greatest support for the mini-series has clearly come from the right.

Still, some “Bible-believing Baptists” I was with recently complained about factual errors being portrayed in the new movie. And they were right: there have been some things that were clearly biblically inaccurate, which is not good for a program on the History channel. (Several errors are given here.)

There are other parts, especially at the beginning of the first segment, that are true to the biblical narrative but also questionable as history from a broader (scientific) viewpoint. As one who is not a fundamentalist, one of my main criticisms of “The Bible” is its presentation of all the Bible stories as literally true.

Most moderate and progressive Christians understand some parts of the Bible to have symbolic or metaphorical meaning rather than being literally true. But that way of interpreting the Bible doesn’t lend itself to graphic action scenes, such as are prevalent in “The Bible.”

Part of my criticism of what I have seen so far, which is 4/5 of the whole series, is regarding the amount of violence portrayed. Certainly any close reading of the Bible reveals a lot of violence over the three and a half millennium covered by the Bible. But the amount of violence in “The Bible” is a vastly larger percentage than that which actually occurred during those 3,500 years.

To be honest, if I were not a Christian and if I had not read the Bible throughout out my lifetime, I think that perhaps I would be more repelled by the first three segments of “The Bible” than attracted to the Bible by it. I wonder what those who are not Christian believers think.

The fourth segment, which aired on Palm Sunday night, was quite well done, though, and presented what seemed to me to be a very appealing Jesus.

Of crucial importance is how the series ends tomorrow, on Easter night. That last segment will deal with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. For me, and doubtlessly for a lot of Christians, the final evaluation of “The Bible” will depend greatly on how those pivotal events are portrayed.

In spite of some misgivings about the mini-series on the Bible, I encourage you, if possible, to watch the conclusion on Sunday evening. And whether you watch it or not, let me take this means to wish you a Happy Easter!

In Memory of Rachel Corrie, 1979-2003

You may not have remembered her name, but perhaps you recall hearing about the young American woman who was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. Her life story is told in a one-woman play titled “My Name is Rachel Corrie” (2008), and more fully in the book “Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie,” also published in 2008.

This is Passion Week, and as we Christians recall the death of Jesus Christ it is also fitting to consider the sacrificial death of this young woman ten years ago, even though hers does not have the same universal significance as Jesus’ death.

Rachel Corrie was born in Olympia, Wash., in April 1979, and when she was still 23 she joined other foreign nationals working in Gaza as volunteers for the International Solidarity Movement. And there she was killed on March 16, 2003, ten years ago this month.

Rachel was interested in helping other people from the time she was a girl. For example, she gave a speech about world hunger when she was in the fifth grade. (That speech can be viewed on YouTube.)

In January 2003, Rachel arrived in Rafah, Gaza, located in the very southern part of the Gaza Strip. When she arrived there it was a city of some 140,000 people, 60% of whom were refugees. About two weeks later (on Feb. 7) she wrote how the Israeli Army was building a 14-meter-high wall between Rafah and the Gaza-Egypt border.

Soon after observing the situation in Gaza, Rachel speaks out against “perpetuating the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a balanced conflict.” “Rather,” she insists, it is “a largely unarmed people against the fourth most powerful military in the world.”

“Let Me Stand Alone” documents how (on Feb. 27) Rachel declares in an email to her mother, “The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance” (p. 273).

A little later she writes, “I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide, and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature” (p. 276).

In “Razing Rafah, Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip,” Human Rights Watch notes that in the four years after September 2000, over 2,500 Palestinian homes were demolished in Gaza. About 2/3 of those were in Rafah.

Rachel was trying to keep just one of those houses from being demolished, the home of the Nasrallah family, comprised of two brothers, their wives, and five young children. On March 16, 2003, as she was trying to keep the Nasrallahs’ house from being destroyed, Rachel was run over and killed by a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer, a vehicle specially built to demolish houses.

Her death was the first of many Westerners who were killed in Gaza in the spring of 2003. Since the war had just started in Iraq, though, few Americans were paying much attention to Gaza.

The Iraq War officially ended at the end of 2011. But the struggle of the Palestinian people to live unmolested in their own homes in their own land goes on. Unfortunately, most USAmericans seem to side with the Israelis rather than with the Palestinian people who have been treated so unjustly since 1947.

Let’s pray that the President’s visit to Israel last week will help to relieve the tension between Palestine and Israel and that it at least sowed some seed that will eventually grow to help improve the living conditions for people like those for whom Rachel Corrie died.