Preparing for Asian Baptist Congress 2007

I'm leaving for 7th Asian Baptist Congress 2007 in few hours. I'm cramming packing my stuff and writing our church bulletin for tomorrow's worship. I will also attend the two-day pre-congress conference, Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Living Water Conference. This is a conference for Baptist leaders and people who are interested becoming more effective leaders. The truth is I don't have any idea what is this pre-congress all about. I'll find out tomorrow.

Somebody paid for my hotel, food and registration in exchange for my services. The offer is too good to be true that I find it impossible to refuse. I just hope I could be useful and be of service. I know that there will be internet connection but I don't know if I have the time to post during the congress.

The pre-congress is on April 29-30 and the Congress proper will be on May 2-6.

What is Tribal/Indigenous Theology?

My wife and I went looking for a house. We consider our present house to be too big and expensive for missionaries like us. Our friend recommended a house near their neighborhood and offered to go with us and talk to the house owner for us. When we came to the house, our friend talked to the owner, and I noticed that the owner was looking at us in a weird way. After a short talk, the owner refused to give us the house, which was all right because we also didn't like the house. Our friend told us the reason for a quick refusal, the owner thought we were from a particular tribe. I asked my friend what made her think that we are from that tribe. He said because of the bag that wrapped around your body. 

The obvious tribal looking bag was the owner's criteria for refusal. It identified us with a particular tribe that crossed the border either legally or illegally. The bag is a gift from our pastor. I could almost feel the discrimination that these tribal people are experiencing from the general population. But who are the tribal people? The United Nation Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities gives us a working definition of who they are.

Indigenous communities, people and nations, are those which having an historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generation their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institution and legal system.

Tribal people are the most exploited and divided people in the world. Theirs is a history of defeat, suffering and oppression. Throughout generations they suffered discrimination, genocide, exploitation, and alienation. They lost their self-esteem because of conquest and slavery. And in recent years, globalization has made the situation worse, it causes further marginalization to their continuity as people. Longchar cites two examples of the causes of the tribal people suffering. First is displacement. In various parts of the world the tribal people have become victims of development. They are evicted from their ancestral land because of mega projects--dam, wildlife sanctuaries, mines, reservoirs, among others. And these are being done without due compensation. They are simply ignored, silenced, and despised. Second, indigenous people suffer from suppression. Dominant societies do not listen to their cries and do not acknowledge their human rights and dignity cause them to resort to armed struggle. The dominant government, instead of recognizing the movements as a struggle for justice, attempts to silence the movements by hostility. Soldiers killed innocent people, raped their women, and burned their villages to ashes. One may think that these atrocities are not happening today, but such human right violations have been going on and on. Tribal theology came out of these experiences of various forms of injustice and exploitation. Their theology is an attempt to express Christian faith in socio-cultural, traditional, and liturgical thought patterns of people. Tribal theology can be considered as resistance theology. It is a resistance to the destruction of the dignity of life, dances, songs, and tribal people's spirituality. Tribal theology is a contextual theology. Like liberation theology it is a theology from "below" and "underside of history." Longchar says that it seeks to reflect on the faith experience of the tribe and aims to liberate people from their inferiority complex, from oppression and discrimination. To achieve this, it attempts to rediscover the liberative motifs in the tribal culture and reinterpret the Bible and Christian traditions. Hence, the focus and goal of tribal theology is liberation. It embraces the social, economic, cultural, political, and ecological dimensions. In the process of working their own liberation, the tribal people pursue the liberation of both the oppressors and the oppressed. It is, therefore, a theology that includes liberation of the whole humanity and of God's creation." 

 A. Wati Longchar, An Emerging Tribal/Indigenous Theology: Prospect for Doing Asian Theology. 

Photo by Norbert Braun on Unsplash

Indigenous Tribal Theology

Northern Thailand is the home of numerous hill tribes. Since we move here we have been a part of a multi-ethnic church and welcome all people from different ethnic origin. Ministering with them made me ask some theological questions on how they do indigenous theology. Although tribal people share some religions and worldviews, it is amazing to know how diverse their cultures are.

I know I need to learn more about the recent issues in tribal theology. But there is a scarcity of materials and my resources are limited. Yesterday, while I was looking at our collection of books in my pastor's cabinet, I happened to find The Journal of Theologies and Cultures in Asia (JTCIA). Obviously, an inaugural issue and I don't have any idea if there is succeeding issues. I hope there are because the journal is delightful to read and rather enlightening. If you, my readers, happen to know if there are succeeding issues please let me know. I would really appreciate it.

Nevertheless, I would try to post some of my reactions and reflection to the articles I will be reading and hoping to share with you the emerging theologies here in Asia. I will look at the emerging indigenous tribal theology. A paper entitled An Emerging Tribal/Indigenous Theology: Prospect for Doing Asian Theology written by Dr. A. Wati Longchar, a Baptist Theologian from Nagaland in Northeast India.

The paper is very useful in understanding the presuppositions of the tribal people in doing their theology. This understanding is very helpful for missionaries and Christian workers who are ministering in Asia. Here Dr. Longchar traces the origin of the indigenous tribal theology. This theology emerges as a response to different forms of barbaric atrocities, human right violations, ethnic conflicts, poverty, injustice, ecological destructions, philosophical and anthropocentric traditions of Christian theology. Several movements helped in emergence of this relevant theology like Program for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA) and programs organized by World Council of Churches (WCC) around the theme of indigenous tribal people. These movements strongly influenced the formation of the indigenous tribal theology.

From the very beginning, the PTCA has been engaing in doing theology within the rich traditions found in Asia. One of the significant contributions of it lies in its effort in making apparent that it is impossible to achieve an authentic and meaningful theology without taking into account the unacknowledged richness of God's movements in the living traditions in Asia. This endeavor helps us to recognize that God has been working through and in all religions and cultures of Asia and thereby widened our understanding of the mystery of God. More specifically, by pointing out that God has entered into a dialogical relationship with humaity, religions and cultures, the PTCA has made many people hesitant to say that indigenous people's relgions are "devilish," "satanic," "pagan," "irrational," "immoral," and "untrue."

As I said, I will post on my reactions and reflections on the papers I will be reading. I hope this will give us another perspective on how theology is being done in the different people groups in Asia. Theology that is radically different from the traditional Western formulations.

Discipleship

It's Saturday. All of us in the house thought that today is Friday. The five-day summer Bible camp has somehow disoriented us. It had been a busy week for us.

Meanwhile here is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about discipleship. I'm delighted to find a copy of book in a Resource Center in Chiang Mai about a month ago.

Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and , because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ.

With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps even to put it into practice; but it can never be followed in personal obedience. Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. And a Christianity of that kind is nothing more or less than the end of discipleship.

In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ. Because the Son of God became Man, because he is the Mediator, for that reason alone the only true relation we can have with him is to follow him. Discipleship is bound to Christ as the Mediator, and where it is properly understood, it necessarily implies faith in the Son of God as the Mediator. Only the Mediator, the God-Man, can call men to follow him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, pp. 63-64

Faith or Fatalism?

Some sociologists consider fatalism as one positive Filipino cultural values. However, I think too much fatalism contributes to the increasing poverty in my beloved country. I have been living and working with the poor almost all of my lives. I ministered in a church located in a squatter area east of Manila. They called themselves "Urban Poor." They are living in the city but do not have their own home and construct their shanties in abandoned land they can find.

We moved to the province before coming here to Thailand. I pastored a church whose membership is composed of, again, the poorest of the poor. But even these people are poor they are not squatter. They inherited the land and house they are living from their great grandparents. But they are poor nonetheless. They till a farmland they do not own, sell their crops and the income they get is just enough for them to last until the next planting season. They are poor but I can tell you they are happy.

Why are they happy? The answer? Fatalism that people mistakenly called faith. Teodoro Benigno commented about this. And I believe he points out the real issue for the continuous increase in poverty in the Philippines and nobody can stop it.

...I couldn't consider suffering people, a deeply deprived and oppressed people happy. I mentioned our poverty, the fact majority of our people lived in slums or squatter areas. I added our people were getting hungry, only able to eat one or two meals a day. Then I poured it on. How could the Filipinos be happy when many were getting sick, when babies were dying because they had no milk to suckle, when children were literally dying in their parents' arms?

I do not see how anybody can be happy in the midst of all this poverty, when the poor get buried much more often than the rich, when the curse of sickness deforms the human being, when a baby, who has all the right to live, shivers greatly and sinks into permanent darkness. Isn't life the gift of God? Isn't life to be nourished and preserved at all costs?

I couldn't stand the assertion that Filipinos were the happiest people on earth..., life on earth mattered little. What mattered was getting into heaven and if poverty hastened this, then so much the better. The more impoverished he is, the happier the Filipino becomes. Heaven swings into view.

Elsewhere in Asia and other regions and continents, millions worked very hard, sought jobs, sought education, struggled from morning to sometimes almost midnight not just to keep alive, but extricate themselves from poverty. They had a vision. They looked at tomorrow, well into the future. They had leaders that prodded them to struggle more fiercely at the oars. That way, progress would materialize, eventual access to better jobs, health, education, a decent, caring society, a leadership conscious of the common weal, love of self, love of God and love of country.

Against poverty and wretchedness, the Filipino had a coping mechanism. If everything was God's will, then his unhappiness was illusory. He was meant to suffer on earth, because this prepared him for the rewards of paradise, eternal happiness. And yet, even if I try to go along, it is crap, unadulterated crap. It somehow excuses the sins, the sordid shortcomings of the rich. It flattens out all reason, leaves one to the mercy of a medieval theology. Might is right. And when might is the sole arbiter of earthly things, so be it. The succor of heaven will come anyway. Whence this culture of ours? Are we Filipinos fated just to sing and pray, fall on our knees, accept every misery because this is the will of the Almighty?

Praise the Lord for the motorcycle!

We have been poor and although we still are poor, we are blessed to become God's servant. As I look back at our life I considered it a miracle that most of my siblings five of us were able to finish college and most of us have post graduate degrees.

It is only through God's grace that we are now in the mission field considering the expenses of coming here. And it is through God's provision that we are surviving here as we are not earning any income at all. God continues to touch people's heart in answer to our prayers. He uses people to provide for our motorcycle, people we don't know personally. The motorcycle is the only vehicle we have and there are five of us in the family. I believe that this is all we need to go around places to teach and share about God's saving grace through his son Jesus Christ.