It was so refreshing to read a sensible article on religious affairs in Malaysia by a Malaysian political scientist and historian by the name of Farish A. Noor. What can be more poignant then when a fellow-Muslim points out the non-existent logic of a cabinet minister’s argument for not allowing the Malaysian Catholic Herald publication to publish its Malay-language edition if it continues to use the word “Allah” for the ‘Christian’ God. The scholar wrote:
Yet in Malaysia at the moment yet another non-issue has been brewed to a scandal for no reason: The Malaysian Catholic Herald, a publication by and for Catholics in the country, has been told that it can no longer publish its Malaysian language edition if it continues to use the word “Allah” to mean God. Worse still, the country’s Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum recently stated that “Only Muslims can use the word Allah” ostensibly on the grounds that “Allah” is a Muslim word. The mind boggles at the confounding logic of such a non-argument, which speaks volumes about the individual’s own ignorance of Muslim culture, history and the fundamental tenets of Islam itself.
For a start, the word ‘Allah’ predates the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad and goes way back to the pre-Islamic era. Christians had been using the word long before there were any Muslims, in fact. Furthermore the word is Arabic, and is thus common to all the peoples, cultures and societies where Arabic - in all its dialects - is spoken, and is understood by millions of Arabic speakers to mean God, and little else. One could also add that as “Allah” is an Arabic word it therefore has more to do with the development and evolution of Arabic language and culture, and less to do with Islam. It is hard to understand how any religion can have a language to call its own, for languages emerge from a societal context and not a belief system. If one were to abide by the skewered logic of the Minister concerned, then presumably the language of Christianity (if it had one) would be Aramaic, or perhaps Latin.
The Minister’s remark not only demonstrated his shallow understanding of Muslim culture and the clear distinction between Arab culture and Muslim theology, but it also demonstrated his own lack of understanding of the history of the Malays, who, like many non-Arabs, only converted to Islam much later from the 13th century onwards. Among the earliest pieces of evidence to indicate Islam’s arrival to the Malay archipelago are the stone inscriptions found in Malay states like Pahang where the idea of God is described in the sanskrit words ‘Dewata Mulia Raya’. As no Malay spoke or even understood Arabic then, it was natural for the earliest Malay-Muslims to continue using the Sanskrit-inspired language they spoke then. Surely this does not make them lesser Muslims as a result?
The ruckus that has resulted thanks to the threat not to allow the publication of the Malaysian language edition of the Christian Herald therefore forces observers to ask the simple question: Why has this issue erupted all of a sudden, when the word Allah was used for so long with narry a protest in sight? At a time when the Malaysian government is already getting flak as a result of the protests by Malaysian Hindus who insist that they remain at the bottom of the economic ladder despite fifty years of independence, now it would appear as if the Malaysian government cannot get enough bad publicity.
This article was first written in www.othermalaysia.org and later published in the Straits Times on Friday 28 December 06.
My generation grew up with the provision shop- that disorganized and overpacked grocery that sells the common things a family needed but with less choices. Service was personalized and there’s even first name familiarity. You can even get credit and items purchased delivered to your home. But there are limitations: it does not sell everything a family member may need. You can’t get a haircut, or buy fresh food, or a pair of shoes or clothing. They don’t do banking and you can’t get a meal or be entertained with a movie. Sometimes what you want is there but you can’t find it in the mess. However, this is what we grew up with and are comfortable with, even tolerant of.
There is however another generation, now in their twenties and below, who have grown up in a different world. It is the world of the shopping mall. And in this world, in this one place they can obtain nearly everything they needed. The mall is stocked with all kinds of products from all over the world, whether fresh or packaged. It offers services of all kinds for all the needs and desires of all age groups. Air-conditioned and alluring, it is the consumer’s paradise. It offers choices. It offers lifestyle. It even confers identity. If I regularly go to a particular shopping mall, I am young and trendy; if another, I am an aunty; if still another, I am a sophisticate’ or yuppie or sporty person or bargain-hunter. This particular generation is comfortable in a shopping mall; but it feels disoriented, disjointed, and lost in the good old small provision shop and find it a hassle, so what if the manager calls them by name and knows their parents!
That’s why I believe the megachurch is here to stay and is likely to grow stronger. It’s more than just a spiritual thing; it is also sociological and psychological. The younger generation has been culturally conditioned to feel welcome and comfortable in a megachurch structure because it is so much like the shopping mall they have pleasant experiences of. There they get all their needs met under one roof. More resources means more choices, “products”, even branded ones from USA or Australia; and it means varied and better servicing of the attendees’ needs.
The small church: well, to be candid, young people are there not always by deliberate choice but because their parents are there; or close friends are there, or they find meaning and purpose in some role or responsibility. But they do feel the pull when their friends talk excitedly about their “shopping mall experiences”. Anyway when was the last time you stepped into a small provision shop? Is this a death knell for small churches of under a hundred? No not really. Haven’t you heard of 7 Eleven? But that is another story: the story of the small church.
Does size matter in the light of this? Can a megachurch more effectively reach unchurched people who are more used to and comfortable with the shopping mall than with the HDB mom’s and pop’s store? Probably so.
Megachurches do have their weaknesses too. Consumerism, the cultural trait of generation next is one of several things that the megachurch appeals to, and this is the very Achillees’ heel that gives rise to megachurch weaknesses. More on that another time, God willing.
I was having Christmas lunch with the Yip family. This is my “grandson” Ezra Yip. He is blessed to have a real caring grandmother to look after him. He is handsome and cute and like most boys, he is full of energy and loves to have fun. He has a unique way of opening presents: he shuts his eyes, unwraps the present and then open his eyes to give himself a surprise! Try it yourself one day, ya? He is four years old and will be in kindergarten next year. Time flies. It seemed like just a year ago when he was born.
My blogosphere friends Lynn and Daniel, Daryl, Mag, Dr and Mrs Allan Wu visited the service yesterday. Apparently their church, the Church of our Savior, had no service on Sunday, and they were able to visit churches, as their three nights of Christmas concerts were quite a stretch on the people. Daniel and Mag gave words from the Lord to the gathering: pictorial words of hope for the church and I could sense the witness of God’s Spirit on their sharing. The church was encouraged. We were blessed: the Lord had sent his Christmas gift early.
This week the Lord has been using people to talk to me. It’s similar to how you sense the Lord is speaking to you as you read the Bible, a book, or see a film or hear a sermon. What is said sort of gets your attention or strikes you. Or it may quietly, gently fall on the soil of your desire. Or it may simply generate insight or expectancy. Or it may unobtrusively return again and again like a shadow waiting to be noticed.
I was having lunch with my bible college friends when Benedict mentioned that he loved the New King James Version of the Bible. I have been using the New International Version most of the time for the last 12 years or so and last year dallied with English Standard Version and found it to be accurate and good for study but without ‘chemistry’. I loved the old King James Version for its cadence, and masterful and captivating use of language but disliked it for its opaque, archaic expressions. So when Benedict said he used the New KJV, the idea of trying out the version allured me. Its as though he planted a desire in my soul that I could not delete and this week I bought a new Bible, a giant print NKJV. I’ll be using it henceforth. Cross frontiers.
I just read my sister Beryl’s letter last night. It was a “red letter” edition. A paragraph spoke to me and affirmed what I have felt this week. It hit me all the more because you expect a “sister” to be more liturgical, eucharistic and monastic. You do not expect to read this:
“Well, dear Brother please continue to move with the Holy Spirit! listen to Him! You want ‘explosions’ in the hearts of your church- its only through the Holy Spirit. We have been encouraged to pray in tongues while working. Sometime words aren’t enough, expressions limited. I know you did that in your sleep. I heard you once at ‘old’ house. I told some of my sisters.”
Interesting, isn’t it, the evangelical pentecostals like me are attracted to the traditions; while the traditionals are more pentecostal than we have thought. The lines have been blurred. The Holy Spirit is telling me that he wants the old and new treasure to be rightly appreciated and appropriated, neither to be lowered in our estimation of their contributions. Thanks for that great reminder sis!
I’ll bring these two words on the Word and the Spirit into 2008 and my consecrationto do them will be my Christmas present for Jesus at tomorrow’s service.
O Lord Jesus Christ, make me worthy to understand the profound mystery of your holy incarnation, which you have worked for our sake and for our salvation. Truly there is nothing so great and wonderful as this, that you, my God, who are the creator of all things, should become a creature, so that we should become like God. You have humbled yourself and made yourself small that we might be made mighty. You have taken the form of a servant, so that you might confer upon us a royal and divine beauty.
You who are beyond our understanding, have made yourself understandable to us in Jesus Christ. You, who are the uncreated God, have made yourself a creature for us. You, who are the untouchable One, have made yourself touchable to us. You, who are most high, make us capable of understanding your amazing love and the wonderful things you have done for us. Make us able to understand the mystery of your incarnation, the mystery of your life, example and doctrine, the mystery of your cross and Passion, the mystery of your resurrection and ascension.
Blessed are you, O Lord, for coming to earth as a man. You were born that you might die, and in dying that you might procure our salvation. O marvellous and indescribable love! In you is all sweetness and joy! To contemplate your love is to exalt the soul above the world and to enable it to abide alone in joy and rest and tranquillity.
Angela of Foligno, 1248-1390
Here are several bloggers who have linked me: two from Malaysia- Hoc Mun a student from Kuala Lumpur, THE CROSS-JUNCTION; and the other, Elizabeth Chen from Kota Kinabalu, THE HINGE.
It was so refreshing to read a sensible article on religious affairs in Malaysia by a Malaysian political scientist and historian by the name of Farish A. Noor. What can be more poignant then when a fellow-Muslim points out the non-existent logic of a cabinet minister’s argument for not allowing the Malaysian Catholic Herald publication to publish its Malay-language edition if it continues to use the word “Allah” for the ‘Christian’ God. The scholar wrote:
My generation grew up with the provision shop- that disorganized and overpacked grocery that sells the common things a family needed but with less choices. Service was personalized and there’s even first name familiarity. You can even get credit and items purchased delivered to your home. But there are limitations: it does not sell everything a family member may need. You can’t get a haircut, or buy fresh food, or a pair of shoes or clothing. They don’t do banking and you can’t get a meal or be entertained with a movie. Sometimes what you want is there but you can’t find it in the mess. However, this is what we grew up with and are comfortable with, even tolerant of.
stocked with all kinds of products from all over the world, whether fresh or packaged. It offers services of all kinds for all the needs and desires of all age groups. Air-conditioned and alluring, it is the consumer’s paradise. It offers choices. It offers lifestyle. It even confers identity. If I regularly go to a particular shopping mall, I am 
young and trendy; if another, I am an aunty; if still another, I am a sophisticate’ or yuppie or sporty person or bargain-hunter. This particular generation is comfortable in a shopping mall; but it feels disoriented, disjointed, and lost in the good old small provision shop and find it a hassle, so what if the manager calls them by name and knows their parents!
