How the US attacking Syria could plunge the region into war

So 90% of the American people want NO military action in Syria, but President Obama, it seems, is intent on doing just this. This will be very bad for the whole region, though. Here is a likely scenario:

In fact, it is being reported that cruise missile strikes could begin "as early as Thursday".  The Obama administration is pledging that the strikes will be "limited", but what happens when the Syrians fight back?  What happens if they sink a U.S. naval vessel or they have agents start hitting targets inside the United States?  Then we would have a full-blown war on our hands.  And what happens if the Syrians decide to retaliate by hitting Israel?  If Syrian missiles start raining down on Tel Aviv, Israel will be extremely tempted to absolutely flatten Damascus, and they are more than capable of doing precisely that.  And of course Hezbollah and Iran are not likely to just sit idly by as their close ally Syria is battered into oblivion. 

We are looking at a scenario where the entire Middle East could be set aflame, and that might only be just the beginning.  Russia and China are sternly warning the U.S. government not to get involved in Syria, and by starting a war with Syria we will do an extraordinary amount of damage to our relationships with those two global superpowers. (From HERE)

Grim stuff. Instability is already spilling from Syria into Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. But that can be contained. This, however, would be a game changer, and certainly not in a good way. America needs to stay out of Syria. Totally and completely. Just send tents and food for women and children refugees (not men), and don't resettle ANY of them in North America or Europe. That is my advice.

Hong Kong gets new Orthodox Bishop

So maybe you didn't know that Hong Kong is an Orthodox See, but it is, and they just got a new bishop (Metropolitan):

His Eminence Nektarios Enthroned as Metropolitan of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia

Hong Kong – On Saturday, March 1st, His Eminence Nektarios was enthroned as Metropolitan of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia at St. Luke Orthodox Cathedral in downtown Hong Kong. [...]

The rest is HERE.

Creation of the Orthodox Metropolis of Singapore

From OCMC.org:

[...] On Friday, January 11th, 2008, the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced the creation of a new ecclesiastical jurisdiction in southeast Asia, based in Singapore, to oversee Orthodox Christian parishes in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The decision was taken after an unanimous vote to detach the regions from the Metropolis of Hong Kong and to establish the Metropolis of Singapore.

Meanwhile, Archimandrite Nektarios Tsilis was unanimously elected as the new Metropolitan of Hong Kong, with a jurisdiction over Orthodox parishes in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. The ordination of the newly elected Metropolitan took place in the Phanar at the Patriarchal church of St. George in Constantinople, on Sunday, January 20th, 2008.

Archbishop Nektarios is a graduate of the Theological Academy in Athens and the Theological School of the University of Athens. He has also successfully completed courses and seminars on the structure, organization, and information technologies of the European Union.

He was ordained deacon in 1990 and priest in 1995. [...]

Christianity is traveling the silk road--again

I will be traveling quite a bit the next few days, but meanwhile please enjoy this excellent article from Intentional Disciples:

Christianity has historically reached China through the ancient "Silk Road" the 2,000 mile long silk trading route through central Asia. Nestorian missionaries reached central Asia in the 8th century and Catholic friars in the 13th century. The Keirats, a Mongol tribe, numbered 200,000 believers in AD 1007 before they were decimated bwhile there were about 30,000 Mongol Catholics recorded in China by 1368. Kublai Kahn asked Marco Polo for 100 missionaries but only two friars ever set out.

Over and over again, the fledging Christian communities were always wiped out by new invasions and the decisions of their leaders to embrace another faith.

In the 20th century, Christianity is establishing a foothold in Mongolia again. As John Allen writes today "The church arrived in Mongolia only in 1992, and to date claims just 415 Catholics. They’re served by 65 foreign missionaries, including 20 priests and one bishop. The Mongolian church, described by its bishop as a “baby church,” is just now on the cusp of producing its very first seminarian.

Since Allen is writing for a English speaking Catholic audience, I supposed it is inevitable that he looks at this development through the eyes of our western debates: Catholic identity and liturgy. Allen heard Mongolia's Bishop, Wenceslao Selga Padilla, 58, a Filipino who has been in charge of the mission in Mongolia since its birth, speak in Rome Tuesday night.

Padilla said that when he conducts interviews with Mongolian converts to understand what attracted them and made them decide to join the church, most will say they first came into contact with Catholicism through one of its social programs – a school, soup kitchen, or relief center. What “hooked” them, however, was the liturgy.

“They say it’s the singing, the liturgy,” Padilla told an audience at the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier del Caravita in Rome. “They say it’s more worthwhile than what they experience in the Buddhist temple. They’re active in the prayers and in the singing, It’s not just the monks doing all the singing.”

Padilla said that even though the four parishes in Mongolia (and four parochial sub-stations) use largely Western liturgical music, it’s translated into the vernacular, and most of the liturgy now is also said using the Mongol language. That, too, he said, is a major point of entry for new converts, most of whom are young and from the middle class or below.

“We cater mostly to the young and to the very poor,” Padilla said.

I don't mean to be dismissive of Allen, whose reporting I admire, but to anyone with a background in missions, this is so not a surprise. Of course, peoples with no Christian background or history respond very differently than we do to different aspects of the faith.

In global terms, the debates that dominate St. Blog's are extremely parochial. They rise up out of European history, European cultural issues and questions - of the trauma of the Reformation and a century of religious wars(at a time when 90% of Christians in the world were European), the enlightenment and revolution, and of Vatican II.

The upheavals of Vatican II that long established Christian peoples (which would include centuries old communities like China) experienced (and not all - for instance, Poland has had a vernacular liturgy since the 1940's) don't resonant at all in other cultures where Catholicism is new. When we asked members of our Indonesian teaching team, what their memories of the changes after Vatican II were, they just looked at us. Many were converts - including from Islam - and most had no memories of the Church before Vatican II. For a variety of reasons, it was a non-issue.

As Allen noted:

"Even the fact of serving coffee, tea and cookies after Mass, Padilla said, is a departure from the normal Mongolian religious experience, and it’s an important point of initial contact for many Mongolians who attend Catholic liturgies or events for the first time."

Recently, Padilla was able to open a cathedral for the fledging Catholic community in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. Called Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, it’s built in the shape of a “ger,” which is a traditional Mongolian residence. It’s the first time such a structure has been put up in the country for religious purposes, Padilla said. The stained glass windows inside the cathedral were crafted by a brother from the ecumenical community of Taizé.

The good Bishop is very much aware of the need to deepen his fledging Catholic's new faith. In brief comments after his presentation, Padilla conceded that the attractiveness of the music and other forms of active participation in the liturgy may be what brings people in the church’s door, but it won’t suffice over the long term.

“We have to give them a deeper catechism and formation,” he said. For example, Padilla said, it’s important to press Mongolians towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of the personal nature of the Christian God, as opposed to the rather impersonal and abstract deity of Buddhist spirituality.

Check out this Asia News article about a new Catholic parish outside Ulaanbaatar (also known as Ulan Bator) established by the Salesians. In January of 2007, they had 22 members and 23 catechumens who would be received at Easter.

Of course, the evangelicals are there in force. (The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates a total of 39,000 Christians in Mongolia, 13,500 Independents, 16,500 Protestants, 800 Orthodox, and 500 Catholics, and 7,300 "marginals" - that is Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.)

If you are interested in the complex and fascinating history of Catholicism (non-Catholic Christianity in China is hardly dealt with) in China, Ignatius Press has published an excellent translation of Jean-Pierre Charbonnier's Christians in China. I picked it up at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception bookstore and it has made for a great and inspiring read.

Chinese Christians and the Mission of the Church

From Breakpoint, (nod to Shawblog):

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 10,000 Chinese become Christians every day. That’s 70,000 a week!

At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were 4 million Christians in China. Today, there are an estimated 111 million, which makes China the third-largest Christian country in the world, behind the United States and Brazil. By 2050, the Center estimates that the number of Christians will have doubled.

The explosive growth of Christianity in China is only part of a larger story. The ordeal of Korean missionaries at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan reminds us of Christianity’s growth in Korea.

A happier story is the one Chuck told “BreakPoint” readers about the people called the Nagas. Little more than a century ago, these people living in the area where India and Burma meet were headhunters. Today, an estimated 90 percent of the population attends church on Sunday, and Christian leaders there have set the goal of sending 10,000 missionaries to the rest of Asia.

The Asia Times columnist “Spengler” recently wrote that China may soon occupy the role that the United States has occupied for the past 200 years: “the natural ground for mass evangelization.” He adds that “if this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.”

He foresees Chinese Christians, like their Korean counterparts, “[turning] their attention outward.” Only, with a Christian population fifteen times the size of Korea’s, and a Chinese Diaspora all over the world, the impact will be far greater. “Spengler” uses the word “earthquake” to describe it.

According to John Allen of the National Catholic Report, the most “audacious” Chinese Christians dream of taking the Gospel along the historic “Silk Road” into Muslim lands. As David Aikman has written, they believe it is their task to complete the mission of preaching the Gospel in every land. To that end, Chinese Christians are already secretly “training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.”

Greater China: Christianity Finds a Fulcrum in Asia

From Here:

By Spengler
Asia Times Online Ltd
August 7, 2007

Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter's veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history. [1] If you read a single news article about China this year, make sure it is this one.

I suspect that even the most enthusiastic accounts err on the downside, and that Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it. Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East.

China, devoured by hunger so many times in its history, now feels a spiritual hunger beneath the neon exterior of its suddenly great cities. Four hundred million Chinese on the prosperous coast have moved from poverty to affluence in a single generation, and 10 million to 15 million new migrants come from the countryside each year, the greatest movement of people in history. Despite a government stance that hovers somewhere between discouragement and persecution, more than 100 million of them have embraced a faith that regards this life as mere preparation for the next world. Given the immense effort the Chinese have devoted to achieving a tolerable life in the present world, this may seem anomalous. On the contrary: it is the great migration of peoples that prepares the ground for Christianity, just as it did during the barbarian invasions of Europe during the Middle Ages.

Last month's murder of reverend Bae Hyung-kyu, the leader of the missionaries still held hostage by Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan, drew world attention to the work of South Korean Christians, who make up nearly 30% of that nation's population and send more evangelists to the world than any country except the United States. This is only a first tremor of the earthquake to come, as Chinese Christians turn their attention outward. Years ago I speculated that if Mecca ever is razed, it will be by an African army marching north; now the greatest danger to Islam is the prospect of a Chinese army marching west.

People do not live in a spiritual vacuum; where a spiritual vacuum exists, as in western Europe and the former Soviet Empire, people simply die, or fail to breed. In the traditional world, people see themselves as part of nature, unchangeable and constant, and worship their surroundings, their ancestors and themselves. When war or economics tear people away from their roots in traditional life, what once appeared constant now is shown to be ephemeral. Christianity is the great liquidator of traditional society, calling individuals out of their tribes and nations to join the ekklesia, which transcends race and nation. In China, communism leveled traditional society, and erased the great Confucian idea of society as an extension of the loyalties and responsibility of families. Children informing on their parents during the Cultural Revolution put paid to that.

Now the great migrations throw into the urban melting pot a half-dozen language groups who once lived isolated from one another. Not for more than a thousand years have so many people in the same place had such good reason to view as ephemeral all that they long considered to be fixed, and to ask themselves: "What is the purpose of my life?"

The World Christian Database offers by far the largest estimate of the number of Chinese Christians at 111 million, of whom 90% are Protestant, mostly Pentecostals. Other estimates are considerably lower, but no matter; what counts is the growth rate. This uniquely American denomination, which claims the inspiration to speak in tongues like Jesus' own disciples and to prophesy, is the world's fastest-growing religious movement, with 500,000 adherents. In contrast to Catholicism, which has a very long historic presence in China but whose growth has been slow, charismatic Protestantism has found its natural element in an atmosphere of official suppression. Barred from churches, Chinese began worshiping in homes, and five major "house church" movements and countless smaller ones now minister to as many as 100 million Christians. [2] This quasi-underground movement may now exceed in adherents the 75 million members of the Chinese Communist Party; in a generation it will be the most powerful force in the country.

While the Catholic Church has worked patiently for independence from the Chinese government, which sponsors a "Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association" with government-appointed bishops, the evangelicals have no infrastructure to suppress and no hierarchy to protect. In contrast to Catholic caution, John Allen observes, "Most Pentecostals would obviously welcome being arrested less frequently, but in general they are not waiting for legal or political reform before carrying out aggressive evangelization programs."

(Abu Daoud says, please read it all, the article is very long and there is a LOT of interesting information.)