05 September 2008
The panic of the anointed
The bulk of Christian clergymen are apprehensive about interfaith dialogue, a newspaper report said. Nearly half feared their religious convictions would be undermined by such contact. What would these guys have thought about meeting island natives with tinkling penises? Full essay.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
>feared their religious convictions would be undermined
it is perhaps useful to understand why there is such feelings of insecurity: The European church became pre-eminent because of certain social and cultural factors; the church was integrated into the social system: the parish church was the social centre of a village, and the clergyman the mentor of the people. Every sunday the people gathered together as a community to share their faith, sitting in an impressive Gothic building and singing emotional hymns.
Today's church has lost most of this underpinning, and has to compete for people's attention against widespread products of science and all forms of modern entertainment. Having to compete with alternative faith systems would only make it worse.
I have never heard or read of any Muslims in Singapore converting to Christianity. What is the process that Singapore Muslims go through to renounce their religion? Its a great mystery. The subject is just as taboo in Malaysia.
Though its a different case in Indonesia where its less taboo to cross over to Christianity.
I do recall sometime last month in ST a feature article on native Indonesian clergy conducting a sermon for cross over converts. The Indonesian authorities wants to stop this cross over so the churches & authorities are playing a cat & mouse games by using different venues as places of worships. Shopping malls which are used as places of worship is now deemed too public for the authorities who are clamping down on it.
Anonymous, 8 Sept 08:36 -
(I have the feeling you are Malaysian). In Singapore, there is no process to go through for changing religion, because there are no official records as to who belongs to what religion. It's considered a purely private matter. Singaporeans' identity papers and passport do not state religion, so the only way one can find out about another's religion is to ask him ... and he is free to give you a different answer each year.
Post a Comment